Paint Like Potter

Learn to capture Beatrix Potter’s animated painting style with Matthew Jeanes’ playful homage to the great British Illustrator

Having illustrated characters as the main part of my career for many years, I’ve recreated classic brands including Winnie the Pooh, The Muppets and Beatrix Potter images. Part of my job was to take characters and revise their look for whatever product was needed (greeting cards, games or clothing). Each poses their own challenges but once you’ve worked them out, they are a joy to do.

If we take Beatrix Potter, the style is presented as a delicate watercolour with a sepia line, drawn with a dip pen or quill. The paintings were incredibly small with meticulous attention to detail. Key to her genius were her sketchbooks and the notes of her country surroundings. When you look into her work, you see a fairly limited colour palette and a style that grows in confidence with her advancing years. The line work for the monotone illustrations is particularly lovely and that line is applied to the watercolours. Looking at her originals and the delicacy of colour, I imagine the paper was quite fine as the colour hasn’t bled out and the line work is sharp, something you won’t get from a NOT or Rough paper.

In this piece, I attempt to create an homage to Beatrix Potter. To start, I look at my surroundings and pets and try to imagine them as characters in my own story. I take my dog (Poppy) and turn her into ‘Salty Bob and his Dog Tails (from the sea)’. As this is giving the impression of an ‘adventure’ I add in an audience for the story in the form of a mouse called Mr Tamworth Teal (suitably ‘pottery!’). With the scene set, it’s time to begin.