How I work....

Sometimes I get emails from other artists and authors asking how I work.  I used to have this information on my website, but when I reduced the size of the site, I left that part out.  So here is a brief bit about how I work and where I work.

My studio is small.. only about 10 feet by 10 feet... and if that sounds like a lot... it isn't once you fit in two huge desks. There is one for the hardware and one for the drawing boards and paints.

In addition to those there are 8 bookshelves ( all filled) and two file cabinets, one rolling taboret, a large floor cabinet for storing paper and providing a place on top for the wide body printer, a CD cabinet (looks like a card catalog) another set of three oak flat file drawers...on top of a third table, and a dry mount machine.

Add to this the brushes, pens, sketchbooks, assorted small stuffed and ceramic animals, boxes of scraps for the children to use in creating their own masterpieces, and on and on.
In other words, the space gets used.  Since I only sit at the drawing board or the Cintiq I have room for me in there too.

But that is only the beginning... How I Work is a bit different.

I enjoy the option of drawing just about anywhere in the house or outdoors.  If I am upstairs with family I can carry a box of pencils and a sketchbook.  If I need something from those drawings I either scan or photograph them and move them to the computer.

Most of the time I use a very large drawing pad on the drawing board in the studio. I like to make BIG sketches. It seems to let the lines flow more freely.  Those can be painted or photographed for later. They are always way too big for the small scanner I have.

If I transfer work to the computer, I paint with Painter 2015 and / or Photoshop. The final results are always open to more traditional painting if I think it would make the work better.

When I am happy with the work I will print out a copy on the wide body printer and check the color and texture.  If the work is for a book I am illustrating the last step is to convert the final computer image to CMYK so that it can be printed by most printers.  Sometimes I can just submit in RGB..but always have to ask first.

For some of the authors I work with, I will also do the layout in InDesign and convert to a print ready PDF for their chosen printer.