An Ant-Learn to Read - The Art Process Part 1

The children's book I helped ink is now available for purchase on Amazon.  It's called An Ant - Learn to Read (Book 1 of 3).  That can be found here.  It was very neat to see the culmination of everything come together for the first time.  In a book.  Published on Amazon.  Holding it my hands for the first time was a bit of a surreal moment.  I haven't had a large number of things published and on the market, so seeing this was a big deal.  Like, huge.    

I have gotten asked a lot about this, so I thought I'd try and make things easier for people to understand.  Keep in mind, this is just the art process.  The writing portion/publishing is a completely different animal.  Let's go behind the scenes on the art.  

As you can see in the layout below, there's 3 images.  The sketches (top) in blue pencil;  The inks, (middle);  And then the color (bottom).

Example Illustration 1

I'm basically bringing the sketch artist's vision into black and white, and giving the colorist a map to follow.

Example Illustration 2

Now, you're automatically thinking, oh ok, he just grabbed an ink pen and went over it.  Nope.  The inking and colors were both done, never having touched a real pen or marker.  How?  This is where the plot thickens...

I'll show you for the first time how this is done;  Where it's taken me as artist;  What processes I'm currently using;  And what the future holds for me and Illustration.  I'll give you a hint...it doesn't involve real pens and pencils.  But it does involve iPads and iPhones and two Adobe products.  Stay tuned for Part II.