Creating interesting characters is one thing, but integrating them in any particular surrounding can be very challenging because the character needs to be in proportion with the setting. (Provided that the illustrator wants this). Thus, Potter’s approach to depict familiar settings (house, garden, etc) might make this process easier and more effective.

Water colours are a transparent paint based on Gum arabic. Painting in water colour is a technique whereby the paint, thinned with water or as it is, is applied on special water colour paper. The paint has various constituents including pure pigments and Gum arabic, which ensures the pigments adhere to the paper. In contrast to gouache, water colours are always transparent.

– Talens

Water Colors come in tubes or in pans or half pans (this is the smaller size) The quality of the pigments is so remarkable, that very little paint is needed for filling even larger surfaces. Thus, in the last twenty years I never needed to get a refill for my half pans (and yes, I do make use of my watercolors) The only downside about this particular brand, that I can think of, is that it is rather expensive.

Unfortunately, when Nicolas and I moved to the States, we had to watch the weight of our luggage, and I had to leave my wooden box of exquisite watercolors behind – for the moment. In the meantime, I ordered a moderately priced Windsor & Newton Cotman Sketchers Pocket Box Set and am now working with twelve half pans instead of fifty, and two brushes. It is a decent set, but one definitely has to know how to mix colors in order to create more variety. In my opinion, having a larger palette to work with allows the artist to be somewhat lazy (I do not mean that in a derogatory way!) than if s/he paints with a smaller range of colors, because there is less mixing involved. A major downside of the Pocket Box Set is that it contains no black half pan. Instead, there is white – a color which is rather superfluous for this technique. Fate had it that in one line of the children’s poems, which I am currently illustrating, there appear mischievous gorillas which are, obviously, up to no good… It took me a while to mix a blackish tone for their coats: I mixed blues with browns, reds and greens. The result was not to my satisfaction (the coats just did not look dark enough), so, for the first time in this series, I tried a mixed technique; shading the coats with a black, extra soft oil base PITT Pastel Pencil by Faber Castell. I then dabbed the paint brush into some water and slightly smoothed away the noticeable pencil strokes. For a makeshift, the outcome of the gorillas’ coat is agreeable. However, it is slightly visible that an additional medium was used, which is why I will not apply this method again for this project. Apart from this, I have also changed the medium with which I normally draw the outlines of my subjects. Instead of a black fineliner, I now use a simple black ballpoint pen. The difference is obvious: While the fineliner looks “wet”, compact, and above all, very dark, the ballpoint pen is less thick and less dark, and the lines look “dry”. Nevertheless I prefer this medium because I can be more expressive with the lines, and I prefer the less compact look of the outlines. I will, therefore, continue to use it for my series (even though it is slightly irritating that this change in line structure is noticeable)

In conclusion, having to work with a different brand of watercolors when being in the middle of a project, proved to be less of a problem than was expected. It is hard to make a statement when, so far, I only produced one drawing with the different brand. However, I like to think that I noticed a difference in the pigmentation. Talen’s Rembrandt watercolors look slightly brighter, and are more transparent on the same paper than Windsor &Newton Cotman’s pigments. Then again, it is probable that I did not use the exact same range of colors, and therefore it is premature to make a final verdict.
Substituting a black pastel pencil for watercolors is, in my opinion, a good interim solution when one has to work with a limited palette, i.e., if the palette does not contain black, and if the painting/illustration is not part of a series of illustrations. (If it is, it might distract from the overall picture) Otherwise, it is best to buy the color separately (I am improvising and just ordered an ivory black half pan by Schmincke watercolors)

A good question and answer section about watercolors is in the bottom page of Blick art materials

I began photographing this painting in its different stages. This I find very helpful because to retrace one’s steps can help in one’s future artistic endeavors: For instance, in the first two stages, the painting, in my opinion, looks lighter and more vivid than its final version. Keeping this in mind, when I begin a new painting, I can avoid creating something that looks “too finished” and/or “too compact”.

The Terrible Tooth Monster is a fictional B-movie character I came up with in 2003. Back then I thought extensively about the kind of flicks I saw as a teenager. I think watching television in the 80s and 90s was more fun. Tomatoes, dolls, scarecrows, or even Santa Claus turned into monsters. Thus, I came up with my own monster around which I constructed the following story: A mad scientist (I named him Dr. Wayne Bower) is working on a cure for tooth decay. While mixing chemicals he unintentionally creates a dangerous potion. Then, he tests the solution on his back tooth. The tooth starts to grow bigger and bigger and turns into The Terrible Tooth Monster! (The doctor -this shouldn’t come as a surprise- doesn’t make it).
My professor noticed my doodle and said: “Make it really big”–so I did. Needless to say that it was one of the most controversial pieces of the university’s art exhibition.

This is a series -I named it “A Tribute to the 80s” – which I did during my studies in Lucerne, Switzerland. Back then, I found that films from the 1980s were a great source of inspiration. This series depicts scenes from films such as, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Evil Dead, Back to the Future. (I also felt that the popular television series, Miami Vice, should be integrated as well). When thinking about those films, which I watched secretly with friends as an early teenager, all I could remember were flashes of scenes, or typical 80s colors (mint, brown and gold, pastel pink, etc). In Nightmare on Elm Street, I remembered that, at some point, there were children skipping rope… The idea was, basically, to bring back memory –but in a somewhat distorted way. The Internet proved to be quite helpful in finding these key scenes. The technique that I applied included painting a two-color base on chipboard (for instance black on orange) and to then carve away the image. With this particular technique it is difficult to create a detailed rendition of the subject matter- and this was exactly what I had hoped to achieve.