©DON TATE
ILLUSTRATION
Creating the final sketches
The sketches for SURE AS SUNRISE took about 45 days to complete. This includes five full-page spreads, seventeen single-page spreads and a few spots. This is pretty good timing considering that I illustrate books as a second job. My job at the newspaper provides an ideal work schedule, allowing me to work on my books at home in the morning when I'm most creative and then work a later shift at the paper. I am blessed to have even finished these sketches considering that I developed some kind of repetitive stress injury soon after accepting the project. The injury came from overuse of my computer and mouse at the newspaper. My job at the paper requires me to spew out many daily news graphics and many over-the-night illustrations using a mouse. Up until then, I had taken the use of my hands for granted. I had heard of carpal tunnel, but that couldn't happen to me, that happens to other people. One day I noticed a slight pain and weakness in my right wrist, then over the course of a few weeks I started feeling the sensation of pins, needles, burning and paralysis. I could barely use either of my hands. Flicking a light switch, holding my son or driving my truck was a challenge. How was I going to illustrate a 48-page book? Getting feedback on my thumbnails took awhile longer than I anticipated, but this turned out to be a good thing because I would not have been able to sketch anything anyway. I took a week off from work, started physical therapy and after a painful book signing, jumped into my final sketches. My first sketch was that of Bruh Rabbit in an opening scene. When I look at that sketch today, I remember how painful that particular one was. But the pain started to subside and I proceeded on.
I think this injury made me push the boundaries of my creativity even further. Afraid this might be my last book, I spent more time sketching, resketching and perfecting my concepts. Most children's books, or any editorial work for that matter falls into that economy budget category, so I usually try not to spend alot of time rehashing my ideas unless something just plain isn't working. But with the fear that this might be my last, (and the budget wasn't bad either) I put in that extra UMPH!
Although I usually have people model for me, I find that unless I really know the person well, getting them to loosen up and "act out" can be difficult. So I end up doing my own acting to capture just the right expression. I keep a full-length mirror in my studio where I end up making all kinds of contorted facial and body expressions, then reflect those expressions into my artwork.
I usually work much larger than the actual finished size, sometimes as much as 200 percent larger. I like the way a painting falls together when reduced. But as of late, I find that art directors prefer smaller images able to fit directly on a drum, and in some cases even a smaller flatbed scanner. I create my sketches on tracing paper, and have them reduced and transferred to textured paper. I used to do this by hand using homemade carbon paper made from pastel and alcohol. But this takes forever and isn't as permanent.
After submitting my sketches to Bob I was surprised and very happy that the majority of the sketches were approved with no changes. Only two needed to be revised and submitted for reapproval. Now this is what we like!