Sometimes finding something old in a story feels more exciting than finding something new.  But how do we make that something look old in a drawing?  That is the focus of the tip.

First, we begin with a rough sketch of the setting we want to look old.

Although we have a little cobweb in the corner up above, the scene doesn’t yet look that old, so one of the writer elves suggested we add more cobwebs and just a general feeling of dustiness! I am also going to add a title to the main book in the sketch.  A detail like this can hint at the setting being of some age.

Now it is starting to look like these objects have been sitting just as they are for quite some time!  However, the scene still feels a bit too bright, and we definitely need some life in there—a character!  So, I am going to tone down the light, which will make it feel more mysterious, as well as old and abandoned.

One of our small elves feels like a perfect character to discover this book of Olde Magic.  The elf adds contrast to the setting in two ways:  young elf and old book, and small elf and big book.

Time for colors!  Colors will have a huge effect on the perception of age.  Just look at what happens to the scene if I add a lot of bright colors!  It looks almost ridiculous.

To reinforce the idea of this being an old, dusty, out of the way place, we are going to go with more muted brown colors, except for the elf…

And there you have it!  A corner full of cobwebs and a mysterious olde book!  Where the story goes now, I cannot say.