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This is how I start, this is point zero for one spread. This is probably the most terrifying part, because I am starting to "create" out of the nothing, wich is the whole point of being a creative person. I had a lot of fun creating the characters for Cotton Candy because there was much freedom and were not conditioned to have a certain action.
We wanted to have as many characters as possible so the spreads would be completely saturated in a way "Where is Waldo" books work. I was inspired by Marc Boutavant in the use of illustrator and by Charlie Harper (an illustrator from the 50´s) in the lack of perspective and retro, geometric looks for the whole stlye of the book.
I dicovered in recent years that drawing on note books would bother me. I would feel limitated by the dimensions of the paper and format. I discovered one day of summer on a restaurant outside that had a paper place mat, that I would feel so free! So from that point I started drawing on large pieces of paper, a thick paper that allows me to draw many many characters on one same sheet. I don´t mind either right now If it´s a large piece of paper and I am "wasting" space and money because I only draw only one thing that sucks on a "huge" paper. There are days and sometimes If I feel stucked on that particular sheet of paper I just pick another one new. as easy as that. I have to start in a new one. No regrets for the one that feels wasted!
If you are interested on having C.C. please go to my profile. ;) thanks!

This week for the upcoming anniversary of my children´s illustrated book "Cotton candy" I will be uploading some of the drawings that were part of the process of creation. Some people have been asking me to do it, and I hope If you are in the road of becoming an illustratior or artist, they can be helpfull to you.
Here you can see how the character is drawn by pencil, then traced on illustrated, and then from that point the character is added, textures, patterns, and the whole spread composition is worked. On the final edition of the book the green background of the roses spread was changed to red. Thing wich was a huge mistake because all the characters got lost. But green was not included in the over-all palette of Cotton candy so it was a no-no....sadly this things happen... I wish I could have not lost the original color! but this was one of endless color and design decistion that making a book require. Sometimes the personal liking of one illustration is left aside for the sake of the whole book because the book should work as ONE, not series of illustrations.
If you are interested on having C.C. please go to my profile. ;) thanks!

This week for the upcoming anniversary of my children´s illustrated book "Cotton candy" I will be uploading some of the drawings that were part of the process of creation. Some people have been asking me to do it, and I hope If you are in the road of becoming an illustratior or artist, they can be helpfull to you.
Here you can see how I for the first "step" because I needed something that would work on a page, I just did a quick sketch on the same illustrator just so I could show the editor what was going to be created on that certain page. Later I take the time to draw it all by pencil. And on the final trace on illustrator I make some slight changes so everything is perfect and full of textures. (If you notice there was a chocolate character jumping out of the box, on the final cut it was changed)
If you are interested on having C.C. please go to my profile. ;) thanks!

This week for the upcoming anniversary of my children´s illustrated book "Cotton candy" I will be uploading some of the drawings that were part of the process of creation. Some people have been asking me to do it, and I hope If you are in the road of becoming an illustratior or artist, they can be helpfull to you.
For this book. I used some of my drawings that were never released comercially and one of this examples is this kitchen drawing in pencil that finally was used for the kitchen themed "spread" on C.C. The original drawing was a super detailed kitchen drawing in pencil and that includes 2 figures, a chanderlier a lot of other cute details. For the style that requiered the book, wich is of a very bold, graphic nature, the detailes were just too much and were finally cutted off in the final book. Later you can see how I get to the final composition. Doing an illustration in illustrator allows you to explore many things and "play" with the figures. The dots that were originally part of the floor tiles decorations, were used instead as part of the decoration of the square that sorrounds the composition. This is one of the fun things that illustrator allows you to do. Although If you are not sure of what you want this process can be very time taking because all the endless possibilites you find with illustrator.
If you are interested on having C.C. please go to my profile. ;) thanks!

my farmer´s tan...sorry about that...