Step by Step Illustration

I had a friend ask me to share some tips on the way I create digital illustrations with Pages on the Mac.

To explain the way I illustrate on the computer, I would like to describe the steps I used to create this particular illustration from The Little Pink Whale:

I had a lot of fun with this illustration and it is one of my favorite.  I use Pages from iWork to create my illustrations, but, I believe you could use the same technique in a other programs as well.

First I will explain how I created the background.

For the sky in the background, I used a snapshot of some blue fabric from my sister’s shop.

For the water, I drew a shape that I thought resembeled water.   

Then I “masked” the image with a snapshot of another piece of fabric from my sister’s shop.  I also added a shadow to the fabric. 

I copied and pasted the water multiple times.  I varied the size and brightness of each layer to give the water some dimension.   

Next, I varied the opacity of each layer of water.  And trimmed the edges of the water for a perfect rectangle background.  Now my background is complete! 

Now for my subject, whales!  First, I asked my sister to take a few snap shots of the whale she created: 

For this particular illustration, I used the 3rd and 4th images featured above.

I used my mouse to trace and cut out the whale’s tail from one image and the whale’s face from the other image.

Then I rotated the tail and layered the images to 

make them look like one whale:

For multiple whales, I copied and pasted the same whale.  I varied the sizes (length and width) of each whale.

I also varied the colors using the Adjust image tool in my Pages program.  

Finally, I combined the whales with the background.  I placed the whales between the different layers of water and now my picture is complete!  

Thanks again for the awesome opportunity to share ideas and a love for children’s stories.  

You can see more illustrations and the complete story of The Little Pink whale here.

For more info about how I draw in Pages or any other questions,

please email me at madebybedtimetales@gmail.com