Inspiration: Giselle Potter

I have mostly, if not exclusively, posted my own work on here. And though I've shown you process work, from thumbnails to finals to characters out of my actual sketchbook, I haven't actually mentioned anything about reference or the illustrators' work that I find helpful during my work process.

Last term, most of the work I was doing was lighter washes, pen and ink, watercolor - fairly translucent ways of working - while this term, as you've seen from the recently posted work, I switched things up and started using gouache in fairly thick, opaque layers. A friend at school saw the paintings up in my little studio and suggested I take a look at an illustrator who I was entirely unfamiliar with - Giselle Potter. Her books are all very different, but my friend suggested I look at one of her older books, "Wynken, Blynken and Nod".

The book is beautiful with loads of blues and greens and super sweet, quiet night scenes. I don't know if she uses acrylic or gouache for her paintings, but because I'm much more familiar with illustrators who work with watercolors and inks, it's been really exciting to look at another artist using opaque paint.