Check out the art process for this picture book... Hall-O-Ween! by Tia Perkin (Guest Post & #Giveaway) #HallPrism

Thursday, September 26, 2019 - Leave a Comment

Welcome! I have such a fun post to share with you guys today
from this author! Check it out and the tour giveaway below...

Hall-O-Ween!

By Tia Perkin

Children's Picture Book

Paperback & ebook, 38 Pages

October 1st 2018

Summary

"Hall-O-Ween!" is a spooky little rhyming book about all the sweet bites and fun frights on Halloween day and night.

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Guest Post: The Art of "Hall-O-Ween!"

When I started writing “Hall-O-Ween!”, it quickly became clear that a book revolving around a holiday where people eat a lot of candy ALSO needed a lot of *eye* candy, too. In my other books, “Two!” and “Three!”, the majority of the illustrations were done straight on the computer. Simple shapes and vibrant colors drove those books, but I wanted a little more for “Hall-O-Ween!”. I really wanted to stretch myself.

With a rough manuscript in hand, I got to work at my little table at the Wildflower Bread Company and began drawing rough thumbnail sketches to plan each scene, sometimes doing a couple of versions.

Once the thumbnails were complete, I began to flesh out each page using just one or two colored pencils to make a final sketch. I like colored pencils because they don't smudge like graphite, but color didn't matter at this stage. Just good lines and composition.

After, I scanned in each drawing and brought them into Adobe Illustrator to hand-trace them using a Wacom Tablet and pen. The basic shapes always needed a little tweaking after they were traced, so afterward I would adjust the shapes along with the colors to make things look just right. Then I would go in and add some lighting and texture effects to give the scene some depth.

Once each page was roughly drawn out, I brought them into a page layout program (Adobe InDesign), just to make sure they coordinated well together. No odd colors (or too much of one color) on any given page. Sometimes I would have multiple versions of one page to compare in the context of the whole book. This ensured a cohesive feel.

After many page overhauls, tweaks and changes, my hard work was rewarded and “Hall-O-Ween!” went to press! For all of my readers, I hope you enjoy the illustrations as much as I enjoyed the process of making them!

Tia Perkin
Author & Illustrator of “Hall-O-Ween!”

About the Author

Tia Perkin is a three-time Emmy-Nominated Graphic Artist turned stay-at-home mom and freelancer. Her first children's book, "Two!", was written for her now seven-year-old twin sons - partially as a gift and partially as a coping mechanism for a double-helping of toddler hijinx! She is continuing on the series and has most recently released "Hall-O-Ween!".

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