Creating New Styles - Experiment, Experiment, Experiment!

Pastel - you can see a bit of background breaking through the figure which I like.

Opaque watercolor on pulp painting background

Pulp painting is the technique I have used to illustrate my picture books. I make paper and a picture at the same time. I can get wonderful color and texture with this technique but some things I cannot do in paper. Small details are difficult as the fibers are not fine enough, so I have started to use pastel pencils for whiskers or tiny bug feet. One of the books I am working on is about two brothers and a dinosaur. I love the contrast in scale, but the boys are difficult as they have skinny little arms and tiny features. So I am trying out different techniques. Right now I am trying pastel pencils to draw the boys on a pulp painting background. I also tried opaque watercolor on a pulp painting background. Coverage was great, but not too charming. I am also going to try collage, photography and a combination of techniques. Will keep you posted.

My book Shout! which will be out in march combines pulp paintings with ink, collage, and colored pencil.

One photo is of the pulp painting process. Cotton rag fiber floating in water is poured through a stencil onto a screen.The water drains through the screen and the cotton stays on top of the screen in the stencil shape. The character is Buster from Buster Goes To Cowboy Camp You can see how small details would be a problem.

Out of focus, but you can seeing the pulp painting background and light sketch of dinosaur head.

Creating a pulp painting.

Of course, all this experimenting is in breaks between pouring art for the new book.