Backgrounds

Eric likes to work on all the pictures at once so that the details will all look the same. He has some very special ways of deciding how the backgrounds should look.

At first, Eric makes lots of small sketches. Some drawings get done over and over again while he works things out. Later, he will put tracing paper over these first drawings and correct certain things. He'll draw the backgrounds from the correct angle and put in the light and shadows. The tracing paper lets him try out all kinds of different possibilities.

Eric also has to put in all the wonderful details. He thinks about what kind of flowers Maria is growing in her garden. Are they the right flowers for the season? Does her garden have a water fountain? Once he has thought about all these details, he makes notes and draws them in later.

Copyright/Source	Eric's notes remind him to add the sun, goldfish pond, lawn chair, squirrel, leaves and various flowers in the next sketches.
Somewhere along the way Eric's idea of the garden changed. Try to find all the differences between this one and the final picture.	Copyright/Source
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"It just drove me nuts [when I was a little kid] when illustrators didn't fill in the background, or when I couldn't read the lettering on the signs in the background. I like to have everything worked out, even the little details." ("Portraits: Eric Beddows, award-winning illustrator", Emergency Librarian, 20:5, May-June 1993, p. 71)

Even in the early stages of a drawing, Eric is careful to put in details like the titles on the books.

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