3/15/10

The Making of Sarajo Frieden’s Noonie’s Masterpiece

Sarajo writes us:

“Hi all,
These are photos of the sketchbooks I used when creating the artwork for Noonie. Noonies’s Masterpiece, written by Lisa Railsback, was originally going to contain about 50 drawings in black and white or possibly one color. The book is written in the first person, and the idea was I would channel my “inner” Noonie, a fourth grader, as though I were Noonie drawing in my sketchbook. Eventually the scope of the project changed when it was decided the entire book would be in full color with drawings on nearly every one of the 200+ pages!

Because of the way this project evolved, first in black and white and then color, I wanted to keep the sketchbook feel and be able to use all the drawings that had been completed by the time full color was approved. My working process involved scanning lots of drawings and collage elements into photoshop where I created the final artwork. I’ve included a few screen shots of what these files look like—lots of layers! Layering enabled me to try different approaches to the artwork, and send all of these versions to the book designer, Amelia Anderson, at Chronicle Books for feedback. Noonie was a very special project to work on and I am so happy to have had this opportunity!

(I received my sample books in the mail today—so I included a few pix of those!)

Cheers,
sarajo”

Noonie’s Masterpiece is available for purchase here.