An Illustration Project

I was recently asked by my half-sister if I'd be interested in making some quick, loose, sketchy drawings for a potty training book she was making for her oldest daughter, my niece, Lily. I'm always up for a challenge, so I said I'd give it a shot. And happily the whole thing turned out really nicely. So I thought I'd share. A word about technique: I made all the drawings on my iPad using a Wacom stylus and an app called Procreate. Working on the iPad allowed me to make the drawing very quickly and forego digitizing, as well as take all sorts of creative liberties. I can't recommend Procreate highly enough. It's easily one of my favorite apps of all time, very versatile, fun and expressive and full of all sorts of great functionality. I'll probably do a post on it at some point, but for now I just want to share the work. So here it is.

The Potty

Words: Andrea Tolchinsky Pictures: Mike Barron

Once upon a time there was a girl named Lily. She had a mommy and a daddy and a baby sister named Evie.

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Lily's mommy and daddy loved her very much. She was very smart and very funny, and very beautiful.

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Lily was going to turn three years old very soon!

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She was becoming a big girl like Mommy.

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Mommy and Daddy wanted to teach Lily how to use the potty. Mommy and Daddy use the potty too!

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They bought Lily her own special potty seat. That way, Lily could use the potty too!

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Mommy let Lily sit on her potty seat and try to go pee pee or poo poo. Mommy read Lily stories, played games with Lily, and sang songs with Lily while she sat on the potty.

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At first, Lily didn't have to go pee pee or poo poo. Mommy helped Lily get down off of the potty. Then, they went to play and watch Mickey Mouse.

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After that, Mommy kept taking Lily to the potty and letting her sit on her special potty seat. Every day they went to sit on the potty and play games and sing songs. Lily tried to go pee pee or poo poo, but nothing came out.

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Until, one day, Mommy took Lily back to the potty and let her sit on her special seat again. At first, Lily didn't think she had to go pee pee or poo poo. Then, while Mommy and Lily were playing games, Lily felt some warm wet pee pee coming out of her and going into the potty. She had gone pee pee on the potty like a big girl! Lily was very happy. Mommy was very happy!

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Mommy gave Lily a prize for going pee pee in the potty. After that, Lily loved going pee pee and poo poo on the potty. She liked being like Mommy and Daddy. She liked playing games and singing with Mommy on the potty. And, of course, she liked getting prizes!

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The End

Birth of a Comic

If you've ever wondered how comics get made, here's a really brief visual explanation of how I make mine. The panel is taken from the latest School Street comic.

Pencilling
The first step is the pencils. Actually, pencilling can be several steps. Often I'll make a quick thumbnail sketch in a sketchbook just to get a basic idea of the layout and poses. Then I'll pencil a first draft on the artboard for the final piece. Often I'll refine this draft before the next step.

pencils

Inking
My favorite part of the process is inking. This is where ink is applied over the pencilled art. This is where everything comes alive. The compositions start to sing, the figures start to pop, and the thing starts to look like a real drawing.

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Finishing
When the inks are done, the cleanup process begins. First the pencil lines are erased. Then any inking errors are corrected with Pro White correction fluid. Finally, the finished artwork is scanned. On the computer the text is added and the white and black levels are adjusted.

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And that's pretty much it! It's actually a lot of work and very time consuming. But it's one of my favorite things to do, and there's nothing cooler to me than a finished comic. I think they're truly beautiful!