Jen Betton's Blog, page 3

Illustrating a Picture Book: Part 5 - Patching Mistakes

Sometimes I make mistakes when I paint. I try to minimize this by doing studies, but it does happen. Sometimes it means I have to repaint the whole picture, but other times it's something I can fix with a patch.
Colorstudy © Jen BettonIn my first picture book,  TWILIGHT CHANT , I needed to change the cat on one of the spreads. I'd originally planned to do a black cat, thinking that the dark value would show up well in the dark. But when I painted it, I made it darker than I'd planned. It ju...

Illustrating a Picture Book: Part 4 - Color Script

I always like doing color studies for my work, because it helps me work faster. When I paint with watercolor, I like to know what colors I'm going to use ahead of time, so I don't make mistakes. If I hate how that red shirt looks, I can't paint over it! 
Final colorscript © Jen BettonWorking on my new picture book, TWILIGHT CHANT, I wanted to plan out my color carefully so I decided to create a  color script  for the whole book. This is something that Pixar does for their mov...

Illustrating a Picture Book: Part 3 - Color Palette

My upcoming picture book TWILIGHT CHANT is all about a specific time of day – twilight – and progresses from sunset to full night. This meant that when planning the art I needed a color palette that would work with very different lighting situations, and that I needed to plan out the sequence carefully, so that the time of day progresses smoothly from one image to another. 
© Jen BettonThe first step was the color palette. I worked with two different images from two parts of the book...

Illustrating a Picture Book: Part 2 - Thumbnails and Drawings

As soon as I had the manuscript for TWILIGHT CHANT, I started jotting down little thumbnail ideas of images for the book. 
Cleaned-up thumbnails. © Jen BettonAfter getting the idea down quickly, I'll start blocking in light and dark shapes to explore the composition. Composition is an important element of storytelling, as well as creating visual interest. Thumbnails allow me to explore a number of different ideas quickly. This is where I hashed out the rough compositional elements, m...

Illustrating a Picture Book: Part 1 - Getting Started

To celebrate the upcoming release of my very first picture book  TWILIGHT CHANT (written by Holly Thompson, and published by Clarion) I'm doing a series of posts on the process of creating the book, counting down to the release on March 20! I also have a giveaway, so stay tuned! 
Working on the pagenation, initial thumbnails.My lovely agent, Jen Rofé, sent me the manuscript for TWILIGHT CHANT in the spring of 2016, and as I read the soft, rhythmic language of the poem I immediate...

Friday Finds: The Sea Serpent and Me

This story I found at my library, and it totally tugged on my heartstrings. The Sea Serpent and Me written by Dashka Slater, illustrated by Catia Chien
Image © Catia ChienIn it a little girl befriends the sea serpent who plops into her bath from the faucet. They play together, planning when they will return him to the sea. When the time finally comes, they are both reluctant, but recognize that he is growing too much to stay with the girl. It's a poignant parting, but very sweet and gentle.
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How SCBWI changed my career!

SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) was key in moving my illustration career ahead – for giving me a community and a network, and an understanding of what steps to take to move forward. 

A CONFERENCEIt was 2012. Several years prior, I'd graduated with a degree in illustration. I was teaching and only painting episodically. Although I was still sending out postcards, I didn't seem to be going anywhere and I wasn't sure how to change that when I stumbled on Debbie Oh...

Friday Finds: This House, Once

This House, Once  by Deborah Freedman I'll confess, I picked this book up purely because I loved the cover, but what's inside is also, so, so lovely.  Image © Deborah FreedmanSuch a quiet, sweet book - it totally charmed me. This story goes through various elements of the house: the door, which came from an old oak tree (I love the "3 hugs around" description), the stone, which once slept underground. Each building element of the house has a lyrical description of where it came from, w...

Friday Finds: Holly Hobbie's Night Before Christmas

Ok, so here is one more Christmas book I really love. Holly Hobbie's work is always stunning, and this rendition of The Night Before Christmas  (written by Clement Clarke Moore) is just gorgeous.
© Holly Hobbie © Holly Hobbie © Holly Hobbie © Holly HobbieHolly Hobbie's watercolors are fresh and charming, and I probably own more of her books than any other illustrator. I just love looking closely at the images to figure out how she paints. 

Friday Finds: Christmas Books

A new series! Yea! I'm picking out picture books that I love and sharing them with you as #FridayFinds. I pick these up at the library or my local bookstore (Porter Square Books), or from my own collection.
Room for a Little One  written by Martin Waddell, illustrated by Jason Cockcroft © Jason CockcroftThis is probably my favorite Christmas book. In it the Ox invites various creatures in from the cold, to share the warmth of his stable. The refrain "room for a little one here" counters the...