Thursday, May 05, 2005


Here is an example of a sketch for a picture book I wrote (and my literary agent is about to peddle) "Tea with Mrs. Rosenberg." I drew the sketch freehand, directly with my Wacom and stylus. I used Corel Painter. The brown digital pencil was done on a layer floating above the tan-colored canvas. I have always lamented the loss of that loose, original pencil sketch we artists do before committing it to a final painting surface. The ability to keep and use that sketch as the base of my finished art is for me, the number one advantage of using the computer as a medium.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Maurie, I wonder if anyone has ever published a book with just the sketch form of the drawings, a story could be made from that. My sketches are pretty pitiful compared to yours due to my style but I know what you mean about how good they can look all on their own.

Mo Manning said...

Hey, Max -- I agree. My latest book went to F&Gs only half painted and the editor thought the ones still in sketch form might be especially interesting to marketing people. My work gets so STIFF and overworked once I started the transfer process.

Andrea Gabriel said...

Wow Maurie,

Your sketches are beautiful. Mine so often look like scribbles and blobs. Yours have such a life of their own. EXCELLENT!

Anonymous said...

Maurie,

Your sketches are beautiful, and working digitally probably gives you a leg up on the final--it doesn't seem like it's hard to set up your sketch using the colors you used. In the non-digital world, most of us would probably start out with plain ol' gray pencil on plain ol' white paper. The thinking that goes into color and mood would be a lot further down the line. You're already there.

There's probably a lot of potential for more spontaneous and energetic final pictures using the computer than traditional media.

The Wacom tablet is looking better and better...

Anonymous said...

Just happened upon your blog this morning and so glad I did. You helped me so much when I first began pursuing illustration. Thanks again for that. ~ www.rozzieland.blogs.com

"Maggie & Kevin" said...

Lovely illustration and on a wacom tablet at that! I have always sketched on paper and then scanned my illustration first. I will have to try using the wacom tablet as my paper and see what the results are. Your mastery of the human figure and perspective are wonderful.

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