Going Digital in Whoosh!
Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions, written by Chris Barton and illustrated by Don Tate follows its titular protagonist through an illustrious career as an inventor. Rendered digitally in Manga Studio, this art style allows for vibrant contrasts in color and texture to be present simultaneously within an illustration in ways that would require multiple analog mediums.
The two page spread wherein Lonnie presents his plans to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory holds a good example of the variety of techniques digital art offers illustrators. The presentation occurs verso, while the planet Jupiter and the small form of Galileo is rendered recto. The background of both images is the deep black of space, in reality an artfully blended combination of darkly saturated blues, greens, and purples. Lonnie stands in the yellow light of his projector, which throws light onto his purple-hued peers. While many of the brushes used to create this scene are not visibly textured, the light lines are created in a chalk or pencil-like brush that stands out among them. This, plus the diagonal line in which the light is thrown onto the page encourages the eye to travel to Lonnie and his presentation, the only things truly in light in this entire spread.
Recto, Jupiter appears in soft and swirling lines of orange and blue, rendered by different sizes and opacities of pencil and airbrush effects. The planet's dreamy surface is interrupted by a very solid, deep purple Galileo framed out in black lines. While the orbiter’s lines are sketchy and naturally imprecise in places, the overall effect is one of contrasts between structure and softness.
Tate’ s illustrations include textures in these scenes that, though recognizable, might not have achieved such high opacity or clarity if rendered traditionally. The result of choosing digital media for this book is a clever image with multiple layers of colour, texture, and line creating the picture entire.
Works Cited
Tate, Don. Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions. Words by Chris Barton. Charlesbridge 2016.
Stats: CIP Fall 2022, Laramie Hearn. Installment #1: Artistry. 317 words.