miffy’s birth

Did you know that Dick Bruna drew everything by hand? He never used a computer, but drew it all himself.

He’d make pencil sketches on tracing paper, place the tracing paper on watercolour paper and transfer the lines of the drawing with a hard pencil. Bruna would use the groove to then guide his brush when painting, trimming the hairs of the brush until it had the perfect thickness.

Then, he’d draw the contours using black poster paint. He never used a ruler for straight lines. If he made a mistake, he’d start all over and keep going until it was perfect.

This is how his characteristic “shaky” lines originated. They were never smoothened, thereby adding a dynamic element to the drawings.