Elizabeth Alexander is currently taking our Illustrating Children’s Books Diploma and this is her Sink City artwork. Elizabeth explains to maggy how she created the illustration and her though process behind it.We think its a fantastic idea and illustration – Congratulations Elizabeth.
For the final piece of Sebastian’s sink city I used black pen for outline and for some texture and detail and used gouache paint to colour the image in and did it on NOT watercolour paper. I have drawn straight lines in pencil near the top of the page of where the text area would go on each page. On the left side I wrote Sebastian’s sink city in pencil with lines underneath to show it is a text area and on the right I drew straight pencil lines of another place text can go.
The text would be black. I used gouache because I liked the brightness and vibrancy of the paint. The final size includes the 5mm bleed. I tried adding a cartoon edge with the characters by using body shapes, such as the cottage and potato and had a go at exaggerating features and using simple shapes. The world under the kitchen sink have magic liquid bubbles as transport that the creatures can fly in and has an entrance tower and an exit tower. The bubble transport system lets them take city tour by air and there are also bubble boats so they can sail in the lake by the city park. The pipe is the bubble transport machine.
Elizabeth Alexander
Illustrating Children’s Books Diploma
