“Up and Away” digital
It was so much fun to learn about kites as I prepared the illustrations for this issue of Cricket. Kites fall into seven basic groups: flat, bowed, box, compound, sled, parafoil, and delta. Chinese Centipede kites, like the one on the front cover, use several circular flat kites tied together. The Thai Serpent is another version of the flat kite, with its long tail traditionally made from silk. The Taiwan Butterfly is a type of bowed kite, while the Brazilian Bird kite on the contents page might use features of all of these.
To create the artwork, I first made several pencil sketches on tracing paper. After a final sketch was approved, I painted over the sketch in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.
While sometimes challenging,…
