More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions Part 4: Art Supplies and Practice

More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions is a book dedicated to those who don't mind a few dandelions and for the dads who are always wishing for more time with their children.

I hope you buy the book for your family or as a gift for an enthusiastic new dad or a blossoming young reader! The book is available on AMAZON. I really appreciate your support!

I researched using pigment ink and dye ink for my illustrations. I read many blog posts recommending pigment ink for stamping because the final product is more vivid and fade-resistant. The downside of pigment ink is that it takes longer to dry than dye ink. Dye ink works on all papers and dries quickly, but it is not waterproof. Naively, I went to the craft store and purchased my first set of pigment ink pads.

Now that I had my new ink pads, I got serious about making the little girl from my story. I copied and enlarged the smaller stamps that I used for the dummy book.

Then, I cut an eraser in half.

Then, I traced the enlarged shapes on the erasers.

The first dress stamp I made was cut from a random eraser I found in my son's desk drawer.

I cut out the shapes with an x-acto knife and then had all the parts needed to stamp the little girl.

This is the first full-size illustration of the little girl from the book. I chose orange pigment ink for her skin and light blue pigment ink for her dress.

This was so much better than the illustrations from the dummy book, but I still needed MORE practice.

I practiced stamping my characters over and over and over again. I drew their faces over and over and over again. With each attempt I gained more confidence to start the final illustrations. 

If you know my other books you are aware that my Three Ghost Friends books were created entirely on a computer. The illustrations from Baby Beards! were created digitally but originated from paintings.

I was committed to using as little digital influence as possible for More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions. In the end only five of the 40 pages were created on the computer! I am very proud of this.

Do you want to learn more about the making of this book? Read Part 5

Did you miss any of the first three posts in this series? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions is available on Amazon: