Home stretch!

I have almost finished the painting! I did it for a couple of weeks solid, then I had almost 2 weeks doing other things because it was print run and I'm also trying to put some ebooks together by April. This week I swung the ole brush again and only had a few to finish and a few I decided needed more done on them. For example, today I worked on some I had already done, but the people were standing on puddles of grass, with no background, and I thought they needed a bit more 'place', so I painted more grass and some garden beds too. They look heaps better now. I'm glad I overcame my laziness about backgrounds.

And so I think I only have one small picture to paint, of some toys, and I've also started outlining, because I needed the confidence boost. Outlining finishes them. I scanned in the picture I was so devastated about recently, so that you can see how it looks now. I blotted colour out of the face with water and paper towel, which rescued it. The outlining is done with some watercolour pencils, not dipped in water though. I use black and grey and peach mostly. I vary the darkness of the outline, and I do a little bit of shading and try and remember I can be a bit messy, because the more sketchy the pencil outlining looks the more dynamic the illustration is. This part of the job is easy and satisfying!