Coloring Book Design

The assignment for this project was to make a drawing with pen or sharpie that could be used in a children's coloring book. The picture could be anything from an animal to an abstract composition of designs—it just had to be reasonable for a coloring book.

To start this project I used pen to draw the outline of the fish's body. It took my a few tries, but when I felt good about its form I went ahead to fill in some of the details of the image. I tried to maintain some sort of balance by making triangle patterns in the top and bottom of the fish. I made small designs in the fins and on the tail as well. After finishing the fish, I created a background. I tried to make it look like an ocean with some bubbles and added the thick stripe looking figures that I thought could be seaweed.

I made this drawing into a fish because I like fish, and liked the ability I had to add designs to then body as well as the fins. I also thought that fish are very identifiable for kids. I wanted to keep the drawing mostly simple because I know that it can be a little frustrating when there is too much detail, so that was why I did not try to cram the background with different designs. I thought that if I did it would mess up the balance of the piece and would make it so the fish was not the focal point of the drawing.