I decided I’d try to put together a step-by-step tutorial of how it was created, from the initial sketch to the end result. It’s fairly representative of how I do these kinds of paintings and illustrations.

1. I started out with a very small color thumbnail, with just general shapes and colors to get a feel for the layout and positioning of the characters. At this point, it was just one of several ideas and I actually didn’t think I’d go ahead with this particular sketch at the time. At some point, however, I started feeling that it was the best situation to represent the story on the cover, so I went ahead and played some more with it.

For this stage I used my staple brush in Corel Painter, the Wet Gouache Round in the Gouache brush category.

2. I went on to blow up the canvas to about 150% of the print size at 300 dpi and copied it onto a new layer so that I could bring down the opacity to about 45%. As you can see in the second version, that makes the colors faded and enables me to draw over the initial sketch and see the lines clearly.

So, on another new layer, above the sketch, I used a pencil brush in Corel Painter (”the cover pencil” in the pencil category) to draw a much more detailed sketch over the color sketch. I also added some backgrounds to create a bit more depth and to show that the ledge is very high up above the ground.

3. On a new layer, under the pencil sketch but over the color sketch (getting too complicated?) I started blocking in new colors using the Simple Water brush from the Digital Watercolors brush category. I’ve found recently that this brush is very useful for this kind of work.

I block in some general lighting, but everything is still pretty rough.

4. At this stage of the process, I tried to punch up the dark areas and make the lines a little crisper (note especially the lines in the boy’s face — eyes, mouth, etc.). From this point on I used the Wet Gouache Round brush again. A lot of people like to get rid of the pencil lines to create a neater look for the illustration, but I don’t do that. In this fourth image, I’ve collapsed all the layers and started painting over the lines, incorporating the pencil drawing into the illustration. I like doing it this way because it’s a lot closer to the way I used to do paint traditionally with acrylics.

You might also be able to tell that I’ve started painting into the lighter areas, enhancing the lighting and generally tightening things up a bit. This is where the real painting starts, and if I’ve done a decent job on the basis (I guess it’s a sort of underpainting…), this is often the most enjoyable part.

5. This shows the last stage. Here, things are tightened and the last few details are added, such as the speed lines on the paw coming into the picture from the right. The shadow in the front has been blended into the snowy ground. You can also see that the background has been painted more clearly with clouds and all.

I’ve worked all the way up to the lightest areas on the characters and added the final highlights.

I made the logos in Adobe Illustrator. You can click on it for a larger view of the cover.