This is a sample illustration for Hachette Australia for a planned children's picture book, drawn with coloured pencils and markers (the sky and mountains) on drafting film. I love drawing animals on the drafting film, but one of the things I have always struggled with is getting a nice smooth sky using pencils on film. Last week I invested in the airbrush system that goes with the Tria Markers (Copic have a similar system) and used the markers that I have had for years and it worked like a dream. First time I attempted it, it didn't go so well - the key is to work from light to dark, so as to get the smoothest transition. I did the sky on the back of the film, working right across the page and then used methylated spirits to remove the marker from behind the koala and tree trunk. The mountains were also done using markers and a base coat of pale green was applied to the grassy area. The rest of the illustration was worked from the front using coloured pencil.
