Here is how I make a picture, slightly edited. I'll leave out the artistic angst. People have asked me how I make my pictures and I think I do a very poor explanation in person so maybe this will help. This is my little desk in the little studio I share with Philip . When I'm first thinking about a picture, I usually avoid this area of my apartment. I'll take the dog for a walk, take myself for a walk, sit on the front porch, clean, and if I'm really stuck, I'll bake. Most of the composition process happens in my head before pencil hits paper. I'm not one of those people who has a sketchbook with them in all situations at all times (even though I am envious of those people). I tend to do a lot of mulling over.


Once I've been able to get to know a character or think out a page in a book, I do a few rough sketches. Most of the time they're not very pretty.



Once I decide on a rough sketch I draw it again a little tighter at the proper size (in this case, the size of the book cover). Sometimes I will place some type or background information digitally to make sure there is enough room for everything.



From here I start to work on the final piece of art. I start carving woodblocks at this point in order to add color. The block looks like this. It's a thin piece of wood with really nice wood grain.

The tools I use to carve the blocks look like this.

If two colors are next to each other a different block has to be cut for each color. In this picture there are yellow stripes in the background.


Then there is a blue blanket and a red balloon and the penguin is wearing tiny red socks.


Amos is the name of the old man you see in the sketch. He is wearing green striped pajamas. The penguin is a navy blue and the elephant is a grey pink.

I am a hack printmaker at best so everything you learn about printmaking from this blog post you should not carry with you as knowledge. Real printmakers would probably be horrified at my technique from here on in. But here we go. I use oil ink because its thicker and stampier and shows the wood grain nicely. I also thought I was going to be an oil painter at one point in my life so I think I like the way oil ink smells. When I am done carving I mix the ink and apply it to the block with a brayer.

The disk in the picture with the bamboo sheath on it is a barren. I place the paper on top of the ink wood block and press the barren on top of everything to make a print. At the end, the print looks like this. If you look at it up close you can see some wood grain.



So you'll notice there is some detail missing. I wait for the print to dry (it takes about a day or so) and then I draw on top of the print. There you have the finished product. More or less! Click on the images to see more detail!