Friday, October 22, 2010

SCBWI-WI Illustrator Contest - Part 2

So after the thumbnail is chosen, I enlarge it and print it out on a 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper and prepare to carefully figure out the perspective. I used a portable drafting board and basic triangle to set things up. I knew from experience that if I tried to fudge this compositions perspective I would destroy the illusion I was trying to create, so I was very careful to measure and place the elements as accurately as I could.
I drew the building first working out the various shapes including the perspective on the brick pattern and then I drew the birds separately, scanned them and laid them out in Photoshop. That gave me the freedom to resize and rotate as I needed. I chose birds to work with the manuscript call out for red, yellow and blue.

I didn't feel like this was a kind of story to make up Dr. Suess type fantasy birds. I wanted to show how beautiful real bird species you might find in a city can be if you are willing to see them. That said, I will admit that I have added two bird species that would not be attracted to seeds - they're insectivores. Can you guess which they are?

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