"You Can Dance With a Book" Poster

(c) Highlights For Children

One of the jobs I was working on during the Christmas holidays was this fun poster for Highlights. It was created to be shown at the Highlights exhibit booth at the International Reading Associations 2009 Annual Convention–West in Phoenix, AZ on February 21-25.  I was also asked if I would attend and do a poster signing, so I’m going to be out there myself over the weekend.  I’ve never been to Phoenix nor done a poster signing so I’m in looking forward to the change of pace and scenery.

As for poster details, it was created with my Cintiq in Painter X, using a pen & ink brush and the digital watercolors along with some pastel and colored pencil.  With the poster being large (17 x 22″), it tends to be too much for software to handle all at once (usually resulting in frequent crashes) so I worked in segments as well as many layers.  Once all spots and hand-drawn text were done, they were assembled on the poster in their designated places and all layers flattened. Working this way makes it easier to change things if needed, even after the final art is completed.  And it also makes it easy to tweak ad infinitum.

So for the remainder of the week, I’ll pull out the spots and showcase them individually, since it’s hard to see the details. I’ll also try to say something, whether it be to just say what’s happening  weather-wise, or…I don’t know.  Something about anything, topic-related or not.  I need to get my sluggish brain in gear. I’m not used to heat and humidity anymore.  Though it DOES beat dealing with a foot-plus of snow on the ground.