I started illustrating a new children’s book for a colleague of mine and had a little trouble finding a style that would both match the feel of the written work and make me happy aesthetically.  It took two days of sketching and looking through my inspiration folder to finally come up with a look.  I decided on a loose pen and ink style with acrylic washes.  It was nice to take a step away from the heavier textural technique I’ve been using of late and play with washes a little again.  I’m also working on opening up my compositions.  I usually have a tighter compositional arrangement but I have found that for books, you want much more open space.  That is also proving a challenge, fighting against my instinct to push in.  In any case, I feel the first page turned out well enough for me to put it in your collective faces for a look-see.