I don’t know who loved Elmer more, me or my Mum. What I do know is that those books were always to hand when I was growing up. I don’t remember the stories themselves, but I do remember the beautiful patchwork elephant, and still smile when I see him pop up from time to time. So, it felt like I struck gold when I saw them included in the works 10 for £10 selection.
True to old habits I flicked through and focused on the pictures, trying to figure out what it is that makes Mckee’s work so special to me. It boils down to three things, the saturated colours, the texture, and pattern. I love an animal in the “wrong” colour, and I love prints.
I began with some studies straight from the books. In drawing a library of plants I found that this was another element of Mckee’s work that I am drawn too. I struggle with backgrounds and feel like characters are often floating in space. The world that Mckee creates with plants fills the page with detail and colour without swallowing the character.
I then referred to Heegyum Kim’s step by step book How to Draw 62 Animals and Make Them Cute to help me warm up to drawing other animals in a looser, simplified way. I settled on a tapir and then brought it into procreate to play with colour and pattern. I’ve had a screenshot of this mehndi (bottom left on the blues background) on my phone for agggges and keep trying to figure out how to use this print. So I went onto @ruqaiyyahboo instagram for more inspo and fell further in love with the way she builds henna designs.
The the green, yellow, pink colour palette is my favourite.
I loved the spooked sketch the best and then turned that into a cover illustration. I may be biased but it’s definitely something I’d pick up for the little loves of my life.
In her most recent Youtube video Sha’an D’Anthes talks about the difficulty in getting the same textured feel in digital art that you get with traditional and I agree. A tip she gives is to stop taking short cuts when using digital programmes. It’s so simple but it was a little light bulb moment. I challenged myself to colour line by line rather than drop bucketing colour and hand drawing textures rather than using a pre-made brush and really enjoy the result. I also made a traditional piece to compare, and am enjoying the way it came out too. I think I prefer the colour palette a little more.
Amara Antoinette 