Publication Day!

a peek into illustrating anthologies...

May 18, 2023

It’s Publication Day for ‘A Treasury of Tales for 5-year-olds’. My 2nd book is with Francis Lincoln an imprint of Quarto. And my 2nd time working with the lovely Gabby Dawnay.

I finished this book over a year ago and all the trials and tribulations of making it are long forgotten and it’s now on the shelves and more importantly, in the hands of the little people it was intended for.

I remember getting the email for the job whilst in Lockdown 2 and absolutely freezing my bits off in a park with the kiddos. It was very exciting indeed. And slightly woo-woo, as the previous night I had been reading ‘Zarafa the Giraffa’ (Written by Dianne Hofmeyr and Illustrated by Jane Ray) to my youngest also published by Francis Lincoln. I was in awe of the beauty of the book and made a note to email them the next day. But I didn’t have to, I guess that is either sheer coincidence or I manifested it. Whatever way you want to believe.

I didn’t have an agent when I got signed for these books, once again the editor had found me on Instagram.

These books are fairly large, with 95 illustrated pages and over 40 different stories. Much bigger than the standard 32-page picture book.

I also needed to consider that there were 40 different stories, and potentially lots of characters. And I only had 6 months to complete it. There was very little room to develop characters, work out colour schemes etc. But I was excited to start.

I had never worked on an Anthology before and didn’t have the foggiest about what it would entail so In the event that you get the opportunity to illustrate an Anthologie too, I thought I would share with you my process:

Initial Text l. ‘My New Bike’ From ‘A Treasury of Tales for 5-year-olds’ Written by Gabby Dawnay.

Firstly I get sent a PDF like this from the designer. For this book, the text is already fixed so it is the illustrator’s job to work around the text. There’s not much freedom in that. But because of the size of the book and time frame, the ‘fewer options’ the better for me as I would have procrastinated far too long.

As you can see, there are some suggestions for the illustrations but FL was more than welcoming for me to have my own input.

I then return the PDF with the sketches overlayed. I worked digitally using my iPad and the Procreate app. Time was of the essence and again, I was also homeschooling.

I didn’t think this layout worked and had an idea to make the pages flow better and be more dynamic so I made some suggestions to the designer.

No colour rough was needed, they trusted me to make the right choices with colour which was lovely. But there is a lesser need for colour to flow through in this type of project compared to a standard picture book.

All artwork also went to the Author for her approval. There were only ever minor changes suggested. All in all, it was a brilliant team effort.

I feel lucky to have been asked to do the job.

PROOFS! Francis Lincoln was determined to make sure I was absolutely happy with the colour before we went to print. I think we had 3 or 4 sets of proofs. Colour can look so different on a screen rather than on paper. Tiny tweaks were made, but it made a big difference to the finished look of the book.

Taaa Daaa…….

Ahh, both our babies together. ‘A Treasury of Tales for 4-year-olds’ and ‘A Treasury of Tales for 5-year-olds’ were Both written by Gabby Dawnay Illustrated by Heidi Griffiths and Published by Francis Lincoln an Imprint of Quarto.

How do I feel now they are both done and out in the world?

This is a tricky one, I am working on it. Although I am proud of the achievement, I am always far too self-critical and find it hard to look through the books without picking at things that I should have done in another way or another colour etc….

Having spoken to numerous illustrator friends, I think this is very common. I need to give it some time.

But here are some snippets of my best bits of the book.

I love love loved doing this spread. Full-bleeds-forever.

However: A note to myself- White space is also your friend.

I loved using a mixture of Digital and traditional media for this book. It’s mixing control with reckless abandon(.-This and further techniques are for another substack!)