Over the years I have done so many illustrations. As I develop new coloring books, I have been enjoying revisiting my old work and redoing them so that the illustrations—many of which are digital paintings—are converted into line art appropriate for coloring.
Some of the images I don’t just turn into line art, but I redraw, re-imagine, or redo. Often I add in more detail than what was in the original, so that they are more intricate to color. Sometimes I am not happy with the level or quality of the art.
I just finished doing such a redo with the following piece.
I have always enjoyed this piece. I especially love the colors. At the time I was experimenting wit a whimsical illustration style with highly stylized characters with odd proportions. It is still for sale on greeting cards in various locations of the internet.
But it never really sold all that well, and I believe it’s because it’s perhaps too quirky. Also, the witch is a bit of a conceptual mess… Her posture and outfit suggests pinup, but she is decidedly matronly.
This piece is perfect for a drawing redo!
And here is the result:
To appeal to more people, I embraced the pinup suggestion of the original and turned the witch from a matron to a lovely young woman. I unified the style, and went with a classic semi-realistic cartoon, and added in more details in the hat and hair and legs to color. I also changed the kitty cat to match the style of the new drawing, but kept the touches that I liked, such as the basket of spilling candy corn and the magic sparkles from the wand.
Eventually this page will make it into a Halloween coloring book that I am working on this October. It won’t be available in time for Halloween, but it will be ready for next year.
I enjoyed highlighting the differences between the original images and the redrawn coloring page versions. Stay tuned for more posts like this in the future.
—Karyn