El Pacto del bosque. Double-Page2

Process for the second double-page of "El Pacto del Bosque". The quality of the photos is not wonderful, I work mainly at night and usually I don't have day light to take them.

I've used pencil on polyester and, for the little flower at the bottom I used blue pen. I like Faber-Castell Pitt, because it reacts oddly on polyester, you can use them like a kind of watercolor if you keep them wet with some water. Anyway, it's for a little time. It works better for small areas. After scanning I processed it a little with computer, adding warm hues.

The Rose and Death

Illustration for an article by Gustavo Martín Garzo in "El Norte de Castilla".

The original drawing is pencil on White BFK. I wanted to draw on something other than polyester just for a change. The roses are watercolor. I use a light box to place them where I wanted they were, with the first drawing below it. My father made a wonderful light box for me, with a pretty strong light. I love it. Both drawings were combined in Photoshop.

El Pacto del bosque - Cover process

This is part of the process for the cover of "El Pacto del Bosque". I'm sorry it's not as complete as it could be but I take photographs from time to time along the process and, as I'm lost in the work, sometimes I forget it. The first drawing is pencil on polyester. At first I thought I would do the cover with this technique, but when it was barely started, I noticed I didn't like it for the cover. The close up needed more texture and density than I could obtain with pencil, so I transfer the drawing to a white BFK Rives, I coated it and then I paint it with water based oils. They're a kind of mystery for me. I really can't understand how they work, but they work. I'm really happy with the outcome, so I'll surely use them again. After the oil painting is finished, I scanned it and I did some minor corrections of color and such. Since it was almost finished, the digital manipulation is very light. Fortunately, as I mentioned in the previous post, it was managed with great care in the press, so the printed cover of the book looks great.

El Pacto del Bosque

This Wednesday we launched "El Pacto del Bosque" (The Forest Pact), in Valladolid, in the book shop "Oletum". The author is Gustavo Martín Garzo, a very renowned author whose articles I've illustrated this year in "El Norte de Castilla".

The launch has been great. I've enjoyed a lot. Antonio Ventura, the publisher and good friend came from Madrid with his musketeers, Cristina and Sergio. There was a lot of media and we had a lot of little interviews and photos and there were a little microphone tangled up in my underwear. I get lucky nobody recorded my almost sreaptease trying to free myself from the little bug.

I'm very happy with the work itself. I hadn't seen the printed book yet and I was surprised with the great care it has been made. Sergio, who did the layout, told me that he had been in the printing workshop to be sure the printing was accurate and they had made color corrections, they've used a kind of smaller half-tone too, so it's one of the best printed books I've had.

I'll upload some of the illustrations to my portfolio, but in the meantime, in the publisher page there's a kind of application which allows you to see the first pages of the book. Here:

http://www.edicioneseljineteazul.com/web.php?seccion=catalogo&idioma=es&id=16

As illustrating is a kind of lonely job, I enjoy immensely these moments, the chances to talk with people who loves making beautiful books. This is the first big format picture book for a new publishing house, "El Jinete Azul" (The blue raider). The owner is Antonio. He has decided to begin this adventure out of love for books. It takes a lot of courage doing it now. I hope he has a lot of success.