Right now, I'm working on the illustrations for my next series,
“Icky Ricky” which comes out in 2013 from Random House. For these books, I need lots of backgrounds that have sprays
and drips and all kinds of messy looking bits of business. I recruited my two sons, Declan and Gavin, who
are good at making messes, to help me out with the process. We used some traditional spray-paint, watered
down acrylic, and even a bit of clean water to get things to drip. We produced a pile of papers that I can scan
and sample the best bits from.
My favorite piece was created by laying down some rope on
the paper, and my son Declan gently spray-painted over it, creating areas of
different values and contrast.
Here’s one of the drawings from the book. The background area uses parts of the rope
painted paper. The type for the word
balloon will be added later.
