My Coloring Book - on Kickstarter!

During the last 3,5 years (how time flies!) in my very limited free time I was preparing a quite fun personal project. And now it's theoretically finished (hip, hip, hooray!).

So, what's this project about? It's a coloring book with diverse hand-drawn vintage sceneries. 

I know, it sounds like a quick and easy project. You could build a house, plant a tree and raise a kid during this time. But hey, I might have put some significant effort into these drawings (have I mentioned that my spare time was very limited?). And if I only knew... making the drawings was just the beginning! 

Another time-consuming task was finding a proper printing house which would be able to print "Vintage Sceneries" according to my highly non-standard requirements. The crucial aspect was thick, high quality paper which would work for watercolors, felt pens and crayons. For some reason, only a few printing houses are able to do that! I hate to be fussy, but a lot of different paper types were tested in order to find the right one. 

Not-so-crucial, but still important issues were perforations enabling removing sheets, aesthetic binding and a cherry on a top - gold and shiny frame on a cover. 

Then I had to do some math in order to determine the campaign rewards. And check it... twice.

And finally, preparing the campaign itself. Only time will tell whether I did it correctly... 

The campaign will last for 30 days. 

Rewards will consist of pdf versions, printed books, printed books with one page colored by my humble person and original ink drawings.  

Below there is a sneak-peak of "Vintage Sceneries":

I don't want to reveal too much at the moment, but there are Victorian houses, gothic graves, mysterious forest huts, medieval fantasy buildings and even a ghost sheep.

Wish me luck! I hope that you'll check out the campaign sometime :) 

If it sounds interesting, check the campaign yourself :)

Steampunk Landscape

"How long do you suppose, sir, that an hour is to a man who is choking for want of air?” 

"Little Dorrit", Charles Dickens 

Finally I had an opportunity to make a personal drawing! What a feeling of freedom :) A wonderful concept sketch along with precisely developed technical detail - it would be a perfect beginning of a new illustration... if it was that way. Whereas the very first visualization of my idea looks the way it looks. I can only hope that from now on it'll be only better (as it rather can't be worse). 

Wreszcie miałam możliwość zrobienia własnego rysunku! Cóż za uczucie swobody :) Wspaniały szkic koncepcyjny oraz niezwykle precyzyjnie opracowany detal techniczny - to byłby doskonały początek nowej ilustracji... gdyby taki właśnie był. Tymczasem pierwsza wizualizacja idei wygląda tak, jak wygląda. Pozostaje mieć nadzieję, ze od tego momentu będzie już tylko lepiej (gorzej raczej być nie może).

That's something more specific. A delicate pen drawing over an earlier pencil sketch.

To już coś bardziej konkretnego. Delikatny rysunek cienkopisem na wcześniejszym szkicu ołówkiem.

Now it's time for details and matherials, which means further work with a waterproof pen.

Pora na detale i materiały, czyli dalsza praca wodoodpornym cienkopisem.

Short, though a very helpful stage. Masking fluid preserves from dipping the house and the tree while painting the sky and the lake.

Krótki, choć wiele ułatwiający etap - płyn maskujący zapobiegający zalaniu domku i drzewa podczas malowania nieba i jeziora.

Colors were placed with a broad brush on a wet paper sheet. Watercolor itself was also significantly diluted to enable smooth distribution without streaks (text almost like from a commercial :D ). Clouds are the result of pressing a tissue to the wet paper and absorbing some paint.

Kolory zostały nałożone  za pomocą szerokiego pędzla na mokrą kartkę. Sama akwarela też została bardzo rozwodniona, aby umożliwić płynne rozprowadzanie bez smug (tekst prawie jak z reklamy :D ). Chmury są efektem delikatnego przykładania chusteczki do mokrej kartki i wchłaniania przez nią części farby.

Now it's a high time to make a break and do something useful. In the meantime the painting should dry up. The next step is precise painting with a thin (or thin, very thin and ultra thin) brush. The idea was to make a illustration which would be multicolor though not colorful. That explains using dull brown, red, blue and green. Because of lack of a clear vision of the tree and the goblin sitting under it, I decided to left this issue for a little bit later.

Teraz należy zrobić sobie dłuższą przerwę, żeby zrobić coś pożytecznego i przy okazji dać kartce wyschnąć. Następnym krokiem jest malowanie cienkim (ew. cienkim, bardzo cienkim i ultra cienkim) pędzlem. Założeniem było zrobienie ilustracji wielobarwnej, choć niekoniecznie "kolorowej". Stąd zastosowanie przytłumionych brązów, czerwieni, zieleni i błękitu. Z powodu braku jasnej wizji odnośnie drzewa i siedzącego pod nim goblina, pozostawiłam to zagadnienie na nieco później.

A little bit later...

Colors of the house and the rock were warmed and contrasts were harmonized. Then I took care of the goblin.

Nieco później...

Trochę ociepliłam kolorystykę i ujednoliciłam kontrasty domku na skale (ze skałą włącznie). Później zajęłam się goblinem.

The original work has dimensions 30"x22", which definitely favors drawing lots of details. Below some of them:

Oryginał ma wymiary 70x54 cm, co zdecydowanie sprzyja dużemu nasyceniu detali. Kilka z nich: