Edna's Incantation Illustration

watercolor, graphite, colored pencil & Photoshop

My friend and sister-in-law Melissa Boston published her first book of poems called Edna. To prepare for its release, she asked if I could come up with a little sketch inspired by one of the poems found in the book. (See the poem below) I was more than happy to do so but after reading the poem I knew I couldn’t just do a “little” sketch. I ended up making a full digital collage in which I layered hand drawn and painted elements to create a single illustration. I’m used to tweaking and editing my work in Photoshop, but I’ve never created a full piece in this way before.

To start, I created a bunch of random paint strokes, marks and washes. Then I drew and painted the two main focal points of the piece (the portrait and branch). Once everything was scanned and cleaned up, I layered all the assets together until I was happy with the composition. The biggest challenge was making sure the piece didn’t become too busy and cluttered.I am very happy with the end result and l look forward to playing around with this method again in the future.

Click here to head over to Finishing Line Press to order your own copy of Edna and support a wonderfully creative mind.