Coloured portrait.

Eventually I had to go to colours, and although I haven't done much watercolour, it seemed the most appropriate style: a lot of control and subtlety. Actually, I had no idea if I would be able to do decent watercolour or not, I just hoped I could! So I painted this, which took half or most of a day I think. It was the big test of my illustration technique, because the books probably wouldn't go ahead unless my illustrations looked professional.

The main breakthrough was outlining. Instead of using a black artline pen, I used pencil: black and grey. It meant I got variation in line weight, more control, less overpowering outlines, and I could rub stuff out—rather than ruining a lovely bit of watercolour with an inky black line in the wrong place.

I've since discovered, doing the last Christmas cards, that it's easier with a super fine pen, like a 0.1 mm. So different to a 0.4 artline. But I still don't feel safe with ink, there is no undoing it!