Jeff Crosby

The following illustrations were done for a manuscript called Winny the Princess Playing Pony that I have written and created a dummy book for . I’ve been experimenting with different styles and media trying to create art that fits the story. It needs to be something young and playful.

The above art is done with watercolor crayons and watercolor paints.

This is the first of the images of Winny in her bedroom. The drawing is really rough. It is pastels on pink paper (as befitting a princess).

Here I am going to my old standby, acrylics. However, I am adding a more calligraphic outline to everything. And it’s purple.

This is the acrylic painting over wood panel. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

This is the acrylic painting with very thick paint application and me removing some of it with the end of my brush for pattern and texture.

Since there’s no sense in beating a dead horse, I switched from acrylics. This is watercolors with outline and  hatching done with a wide nibbed pen in purple ink.

Watercolors again, this time with a narrow nib on the pen. I like this one a lot, but I am still keen to experiment.

This is watercolors with color pencil on top. I think I may be onto something here.

Bingo! I have finally changed the drawing to be more active and I think the style feels fresh and new. Now to create a couple more of the Winny images in this style and I’ll have a dummy book ready to shop around.