As I am working on the text, I have also started the first larger-scale art of this project, and the first image that could end up in the book. It’s a fairly ambitious piece, large, with a lot of small details. I have wiped it clean and started over several times, but I have what I think is a workable rough sketch. This is the first piece I have put up here that is not a finished product, so it will give a very different look at the process.

Full Sketch

And to give a little bit of  a better idea of some of the key parts, since I know this isn’t the best image quality around, here are a couple of closer views.

Tighter Shot

Tighter Shot

The next step is to add detail to everything. The rough figures in front, the rougher figures behind, the trees, the mountainsides, the waterfall, all of it. All of those little Fisher-Price peg person – looking figures (and by the way, how creepy are the contemporary versions of those? Yikes) will be an individually rendered creature. The rough masses of trees near the foreground on either side will have branches and leaves. Once everything has been drawn and detailed, I will ink it, then lastly, paint in the color. The idea at this stage is to establish scales and perspective and the composition of the piece. It will likely change somewhat as I fill in the detail.

Clearly, there is a long way to go on this image. I thought it might be interesting to some to see a piece as it progresses, to get an idea of the whole process (or maybe that’s just my printmaker’s brain). This was a pretty large piece to take on for someone with no free time, but I’ll be working on it whenever I can and post whenever there’s a worthwhile amount of progress. Believe it or not, what is for me the hardest part is done. Once I have a composition, and the rough sketch, the image is in my head, and it’s just a matter of doing the work to put it to paper. I’ll be keeping my pencil sharpener handy through this one.