Phoebe – The Lull

It had been a while and Phoebe had been very patient but her head was hurting and Monday morning was always such a disappointment. Another week and still she hadn't seemed to have gotten anywhere. Enthusiasm, nil... energy, zilch... she sat and tried to pick herself up. Was this just a sugar burn out? Did she eat too many jelly beans yesterday? Maybe listening to The Cure really loud would help... usually it did. Or maybe this was just a lull, an unscheduled stop in her journey. Anyway, Phoebe decided to kick back, take a moment, and wait for something to happen... x

Phoebe – The Lull – as usual, this illo started with a pencil sketch which was scanned onto the Mac and redrawn in Adobe Illustrator. Phoebe and the stop sign were coloured in Illustrator as well. Then in Photoshop, I added the hand-painted background texture (which is actually a scan of one of my painted canvasses) and the Kazart swirl. The grass was painted in Photoshop, as well as the jelly beans, etc. 

This illustration took about 5 to 6 hours to create. There were so many layers involved! Also I was a bit rusty having not done a Phoebe illo in a while but it was sooo enjoyable. A challenge as usual as I started out with a rough sketch and a scribbled story and then slowly it evolved as I re-sketched and started to put it together. I'm never really sure how it is going to end up but I've learned to just trust the creative process and let Phoebe steer. Seriously, if I try and take control it just ends up in a car crash... x

PS. this Phoebe illo is dedicated to her most loyal fan, Michelle, who has never given up on her in spite of Phoebe's absence from the universe for a while... thanks for your patience & encouraging comments, Michelle. xo