When you illustrate with clay you need plasticine, and you usually need a lot of it. The most important step when illustrating with clay is warming up the clay. When you warm it up, you squish it in your hands until it feels soft enough. If it is not warmed up, it will be very difficult to spread. If you warm it up too much, it will become sticky and unworkable.

When you are making skies, grass, or pathways, a lot of clay is needed. To make these things, you warm up the clay and put the piece on the surface you are using for the image background. I would recommend using card- stock because it is heavy enough to support the weight of the clay. Then you can spread it out across the surface. If you want, you could use a roller, but I just used my fingers. If your fingers get sore, you can switch the technique. You can spread it out as far as the length of the paper, and then you can make it as high as you like. If you are making a sky, you can add clouds, if you wish. Just be careful not to mix other colours with the white.

In my first book I learned that if I made my characters and some objects on a separate backing I can take photos as I move them across one background scene. This is much faster than remaking scenes that are using the same background.