Cow Tools

A look at how I made the art for The Cow in the Dark at Night!

Hi, it’s Jess!!! I’m gonna talk about how I made the art for my cow book.

Yeah thats the one! Here’s some inside art too.

But how’d we get here! Lets go back..

Oops, too far back!

I mentioned in my earlier post that this book was all construction paper. Here is the full scope of tools used in this book again in case you didnt see that (plus Photoshop for editing).

If you haven’t played with construction paper as a grown up I definitely recommend you make something with it. Maybe like, for a greeting or holiday card for somebody. Or do a whole book with it! I loved how soft this Crayola paper was, and all the little paper hairs you can see in there.

Do you see the bits!

I made these pictures pretty small compared to the final size of the book! The book is printed at 11x18 for a full spread, but these guys are just 7x12. I feel like I did this because they would fit really easily in my scanner, or so that I could fit a whole spread on one sheet of paper. Probably something like that.

Because they had to get kinda blown up in print, the nice texture in the paper is bigger too, which is fun. Plus blowing up a smaller picture makes everything cuter and chunkier, as opposed to shrinking a bigger picture, where everything gets crispier and teenier. It gives it more naivety and less control, which is something I’m chasing. I’ll probably work tiny more often now.

You’re probably also thinking “hey how come the original collage is missing a bunch of stuff and the colours are different*. You’re right! Call it laziness or extra freedom, but I did a lot more in post-production than I did with The Bear Out There. A few reasons for that.

Reason 1, these are small and my hands are also small, but like, not that small. Making a bunch of minuscule cat eyes & paw details and stuff is tricky.

Teeny weeny vampire teeth and cat details were apparently where I drew the line on this spread

Reason 2, I didn’t have the exact colours of construction paper I needed, so I did a ton of colour editing in Photoshop after I’d scanned the original collages.

This was a very purple and orange book for a while

Reason 3, I like it like that! I like how loose I can be with the collage when I know I can mess with it a bunch later. I have more fun when I can be willy nilly with it. I actually just finished art a book where I exclusively collage in Photoshop after scanning each individual cut-out shape, and change the tones of the paper all digitally too. No glue in sight (don’t miss the sticky fingers, but I’ll definitely come back to glue sometime soon).

A fun example of this are the end papers, which start as a nighttime scene and then end on the same scene in the daytime. There’s a cow-shaped crop circle in it and I didn’t want to remake this perfect collage again, so I just swapped colours and plopped in my cow!

Don’t let yourself feel stuck thinking you have to have a lovely, physical, final, singular art piece for each spread to show off after the book is finished. Tons of designers and artists hack stuff together in post and have a great time doing it. Especially if the idea of pouring over a single piece for hours fills you with dread, because it definitely does to me. Huge respect to the painters and detail maniacs out there, you are built so different to me.

I hope this was neat to see! The book is out July 21, and if you want a signed & personalized copy (via bookstores in the US!) you can pre-order from Words on Warren or Books of Wonder. Otherwise, pre-order from your local indie or wherever you like buying books!

I’ll also be doing some events in NYC and around Toronto in a few months, which I’ll post about, so come and see me at those !

ALSO some bookstores will be carrying these AMAZING glow in the dark stickers! Unsure which ones managed to grab them but I hope you find some, they’re crazy. I believe Words on Warren got some, but if your store did too, let the people know 😎

Sorry they’re not glowing here but I swear the white bits glow once charged lol

Thanks and see you soOOOOoon :)