Book Illustration

Illustrations by Becky Bayne, Becky’s Graphic Design

Recently I was asked by Angela England, UntrainedHousewife.com  to illustrate some images for her new book Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or less).

I have been drawing with pencil and pen&ink for many years, but it was the first opportunity to have my illustrations published.

Angela sent me  sketches of what she wanted and I designed them to size. I made a basic sketch with pencil and then used a fine marker to draw the final piece.

She also asked me to illustrate the plans for gardening different size back yards and some plant rotations for the common back yard vegetables. I designed three different lots. sketched to scale and then reduced them to fit the book.

The artwork was then scanned into the computer to create a high resolution digital file. Once they were scanned I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to manipulate the drawings. I used layers in Photoshop to line up the larger images – since they had to be scanned in two sections. I added numbers and text to the final artwork to prepare the illustrations for the book. The final step was to create a PDF file to send to the publisher.

I really like illustrating with paper and pencil – I know it’s old school, but there is something so special about my hands connecting with the paper. I love the way a pencil reacts to the pressure I use – I’ve just never been able to recreate that with the Wacom Tablet. I love the smell of paper, a sharp pencil and that old kneaded eraser – it just adds the right environment for productive creativity!