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April Highlights 2022

9/5/2022

I Like This, You Like That is a joyful rhyming picture book celebrating difference and friendship. Eve’s bright and buoyant illustrations have brought Linda Ashman’s text to life beautifully and the pair have received starred reviews across the pond.

“This quietly beautiful celebration of childhood will appeal to a wide range of young readers and may inspire dialogue about constructive disagreement and respecting differences.” School Library Journal

Published in the US by Abrams Appleseed

Sònia 's illustrations bring to life Varsha's characters with this striking cover and interior artwork for Ajay and the Mumbai Sun by Varsha Shah, published with Chicken House.

Alexis was the perfect choice to illustrate the eye-catching cover of Wild Card in a design which mimics the format of a tarot card.

Written by tarot readers Jen Cownie and Fiona Lensvelt, Wild Card publishes this week with Macmillan Children’s Books.

Lastly, congratulations to our author Annaliese Avery whose second middle grade novel - The Doomfire Secret - published this April (Scholastic, cover art by Natalie Smilie). Continuing Paisley’s epic adventure this sequel to The Nightsilver Promise is packed with adventure, incredible world-building, fierce dragon walkers and floating boroughs.

March Highlights

4/4/2022

We had great fun celebrating the launch of Jacqueline Wilson's latest novel, Baby Love in London this month. Many thanks to the folk at Puffin for treating us to an evening at Brunswick House and to Jacqueline for regaling us with your wonderful tales over dinner. We also (gasp!) met the lovely Rachael for the very first time, so it was a fantastic and emotional night!

Baby Love is a compelling and heart-wrenching story for older readers about teen pregnancy, family trouble and unlikely friendships. It is the second title Rachael has illustrated for Jacqueline and this striking 1960’s inspired jacket is a sight to behold.

Paola's eye-catching cover for The Mapmakers, the follow up to last years The Hatmakers by Tamzin Merchant, is out now with Puffin.

Last month also saw the publication of picture book Beauty Woke by NoNieqa Ramos (Versify), a joyful celebration of culture, community and family and has been receiving some wonderful reviews:Booklist writes “Escobar… uses influences from graffiti and mural art in this book’s illustrations, a perfect nod to the story’s urban landscape. Her use of color taps into the story’s emotions, and the Puerto Rican flag is woven throughout much of the artwork. An authentic and affirming celebration of culture, community, and self-acceptance.”

From @kirkus_reviews “Ramos’ poetic ode to identity and validation winds itself through evocative imagery in both English and Spanish, connecting the strength of community with self-acceptance….Escobar’s powerful panorama of diversity is a blazing exclamation point to Beauty’s triumphant journey.”

Yuzhen has illustrated this charming novelty book with interactive sliding pull tabs. You Complete Me by Cindy Jin (S&S US) is a sweet little book about things that go together.

Laurie’s happy, vibrant artwork has breathed new life into 10 well-known nursery rhymes in this large-tabbed board book complete with illustrated actions.

Children will have great fun joining in with the steps whilst singing along. Out now with Ladybird books.

Wobbling weathervanes, Laura’s bestselling second book in the Rainbow Grey trilogy, Rainbow Grey: Eye of the Storm (Farshore) soared onto shelves this World Book Day. With the fate of the Weatherlands at risk from a hidden danger, Ray and her friends must summon their magic to find the missing cloud companions. This magical author-illustrated series continues to enchant readers, with 2,260 copies sold (TCM) in the first week in the UK alone.

2021 Publications - A Round Up

7/12/2021

What a Pickled Ink year! We are proud of all our artists and authors who have produced such a wealth of wonderful books that published in 2021. Congratulations to all! Now where’s that mince pie…

Picture Books, Board Books, Poetry and Illustrated Non-Fiction

Fiction

Authors

MSWL - Fiction submissions for Helen Boyle

7/9/2021

Good news my submission have reopened. Bad news I’m really, really, REALLY picky. I probably only take on one new author every six-nine months. I want to be able to give all my authors enough of my time and for their books to all feel distinct and different across my small list.

First things first, I’m pinning this bit up front – please read: .

Things I’m NOT looking for at present:

PICTURE BOOK TEXTS - (if you're an illustrator who writes, then you can submit to my colleagues as detailed on the Artists submissions section of this page )
POETRY
SHORT STORIES
BOOKS FOR ADULTS (I am a children’s book specialist)

What am I looking for and how would I best describe my taste?

I have a small clutch of authors, so the books I represent all have to feel different enough to sit alongside each other in our agency stable.

I represent Laura Ellen Anderson (Amelia Fang) Dominque Valente (Starfell) Angela Woolfe (Roxy & Jones) amongst others, so my taste is definitely commercial with an element of quirk.

Having worked in house in publishing (as a commissioning editor) and then as a foreign rights scout I’m always thinking about who the reader is, how I will pitch the book to a publisher, why the story matters and how will it stand out in a crowded market.

I love epic, inventive yet seemingly effortless worldbuilding – whether in MG or YA. I’m drawn to big concept with quirk and originality – whether that’s in the voice, the world, or the way the story is told.

I already represent a fair amount of magical, middle grade fantasy so any submissions in that vein have to feel fresh, unique and surprising, to really stand out for me.

I’m always open to graphic novel proposals and author/illustrated fiction. Or ideas from illustrators who want to expand their writing – if I think there’s something original in the idea and I love the style of art, I’m happy to help illustrators find and develop that story.

I am actively looking to open doors in publishing to more authors from under-represented voices. We need more diversity and diverse voices in all books and I want to help your voices and stories be heard.

So here's my current MSWL:

A heartfelt standalone MG – one that's funny and moving.
Author/illustrated young fiction (for 7-9 or 8-10 yr olds) with a clear, original hook and series potential.
Stand-out funny books. We all need something to put a smile on our face these days and there’s always room on my list for more funny books.
Boy-led MG
A spooky, spine-tingling scary, ghost story/MG or YA.
A core friendship group clean teen series – think Jacqueline Wilson, Cathy Cassidy, Holly Smale.
Compelling animal adventure stand-alone or series and could be contemporary/real life or fantasy.
Clever kids solving crimes, heists, puzzles or outwitting dastardly adults.
Historical with a twist (MG or YA) - A twist on a historical period an alternative history or an accessible adventure featuring an unsung historical figure.
YA love stories – whether straight, bi, queer, trans or non-binary, ultimately I’m a bit of a romantic at heart!
YA fantasy with believable worldbuilding and clear series hook
Kid-friendly, accessible Non Fiction from experts in interesting fields

Please read my submissions guidelines here about how to submit your work. And I look forward to hearing from you!

Helen

'Gerald Needs a Friend' by Robin Boyden

14/6/2021

Robin talks to us about working on his début picture book, Gerald Needs A Friend, which published in April with Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

‘Gerald Needs A Friend’, is a story about Gerald the guinea pig, who lives alone tending to his garden every day. He loves his small world but feels that something is missing; something beyond the homely bubble that he’s created. When Gerald meets two mysterious mice, Marcy and Marcel, his life begins to change!

The idea for the story actually began with the mice, Marcy and Marcel, and originally I wrote it from their perspective. However Frances Lincoln really liked Gerald’s character and we realised there was potential to make it his story instead. After a redraft, the story felt richer and more fulfilling.

This is the first time you’ve authored and illustrated a picture book, were there any aspects you found challenging and can you tell us how you worked through them?

The hardest part for me was the initial process of making the story flow smoothly. The limitations of space in a picture book to tell a story is a blessing and a curse and there were two or three rounds of text edits before any artworks were made. I found it much easier to tell Gerald’s story when I associated it with my own experiences. When Gerald faced anxiety being outside of his comfort zone, I recalled how I feel in those situations.

Your art is so warm and richly detailed, how do you create it?

It’s a bit of an odd back and forth process between digital and pencil. I begin by sketching up a rough layout in photoshop. I might do a couple of passes with the rough until I have something I’m confident with pencilling over.
Next, I’ll print out the digital rough and pencil over it on the light box. Once the pencil drawing is done, I scan it at 600dpi and colour it up in photoshop. This is a fairly simple process where I only have a flat colour layer and a layer each for shadows and highlights.

My favourite spread is where Gerald rushes home after he realises his routine is compromised. I was pleased with this one as night scenes feel like a challenge to me and I was happy with how the colour turned out. I also really like drawing clouds and I got to fill the sky with them here!

When you wrote the story the pandemic wasn’t a part of our lives and yet now the themes of GERALD feel very relevant for young children as we emerge out of lockdown. What picture books resonated with you as a child? Did you have a favourite?

I can’t recall any picture books feeling particularly poignant to the time I lived in - I was reading for the escapism! I loved gentle, warm books like ‘The Jolly Postman’ and books about animals or toys. Jane Hissey’s ‘Old Bear’ or the ‘Brambly Hedge’ series by Jill Barklem were repeatedly read. I also remember spending a lot of my time reading Rupert annuals, Asterix or Peanuts!

GERALD was published during a lockdown, when bookshops were closed for browsing. Were there any marketing tools you and your publishers used to reach customers in other ways?

So far we’ve promoted Gerald with a signed giveaway featuring Gerald’s own jam jar label bookplates! I've also provided extra resources for children to download for free from my website, such as colouring sheets robinboyden.co m And I've used social media as much as possible!

Ronshin Group - Hanako Clulow

15/4/2021

On the blog today we asked Hanako Clulow to chat to us about a recent branding project for the Ronshin Group, a Chinese publisher specialising in novelty and high-end educational titles for children. Hanako was commissioned to create two characters based on their logo for a range of merchandising to promote their brand.

Ronshin asked me to create two characters for their baby brand, koala siblings called Amelia and Benny from a very happy family. They had very specific and clear ideas about these two characters already so I had a strong starting point to work from. I often do research online (mostly Pinterest) to gather reference images for my illustrations. I started out drawing koalas and then gradually transformed them to have more human-like characteristics.

The client also briefed me to work on several different facial expressions for both characters, and to draw them in various scenarios or situations. Going through these processes really brought Amelia and Benny to life and helped me in understanding their characters better.

I often find the colour stage the trickiest and originally went with more traditional colours for Amelia’s clothing. I tend to overthink and can lean towards being more conservative in my colour choices. After some feedback from the client, we adjusted the colour to brighter ones which worked really well and definitely made the characters feel much more contemporary.

Early colour

Colour amends and tweaking the eyes

It's been a great collaborative process and Ronshin has produced some fantastic merchandising from my illustrations of Amelia and Benny. They have been brought to life in several different ways ranging from 3D figures, to cushions and even a thermos! It's been lovely to see my characters made into these products and my kids have loved receiving and using all the merchandise!

Can You Keep A Secret with Melissa Castrillón

16/3/2021

Take a peek inside award-winning author-illustrator Melissa Castrillón’s sketchbook as she tells us a bit more about her working process on her latest book Can You Keep A Secret? which has been chosen as the Children’s Indie Book of the Month for March and tells the story of a little girl called Winnie who discovers some magical, mythical creatures…

Below are some early sketchbook pages for Can You Keep A Secret?

In these sketches I’m looking to figure out which beautiful beasts would feature in the book and how our protagonist would look. I love, love, love this stage, everything is so new and there are so many exciting possibilities!

Next up colour. For me colour is what brings the whole thing to life and it sometimes comes quite easily but on other occasions it can take a while to nail down the perfect palette.

The palette for Winnie’s story, Can You Keep A Secret was a bit tricky; it’s my tenth illustrated book and third which I’ve also written, so I didn’t want the palette to feel like any of the other books I’ve produced.

Amazingly I’d never used hot pink in my previous books and since it is one of my favourite colours that went in the bag straight away. It was then a challenge to find colours which emphasised the magical and fantasy element to the story but which could be flexible to work with both daytime and night time scenes.

The book itself is printed in spot colours, similar to a mass produced screen print technique, where each of the five colours are printed separately. This provides a really vibrant finish and also allows each colour to blend when layered, to produce secondary colours. It’s an amazing way of doing a book! And I feel so lucky to have my book printed in this way, it’s really old school and the finished book is so vivid.

And here’s the finished book, hope you enjoy it!
Thanks to editor Alison, art director Zoe and the team at Scholastic.

Thanks to Melissa for this fascinating post - and who doesn't love a good endpaper design - we'd like this one as wallpaper!

What Are Little Girl's Made Of? - Isabelle Follath

17/9/2020

What Are Little Girl's Made Of? by Jeanne Willis published earlier this month with Nosy Crow. Described as 'a new nursery rhyme collection with a feminist twist', it has been beautifully illustrated by Isabelle Follath.

We sat down with Isabelle to chat more about her illustration process...

What initially drew you to this project?
I loved Nursery Rhymes when I was little (and still do), but in a lot of these rhymes, girls and women play a passive or weak role. Jeanne’s new reworked rhymes are empowering, clever and have a great sense of humour, I was thrilled to be asked to illustrate a classic theme with a contemporary, feminist twist

Can you talk us through your process for creating the illustrations for the book?
My process usually begins with a decent amount of panic, but once I get started on some loose character sketches, I feel much more confident. I'm normally drawing tiny thumbnails first, but this time I scribbled some loose ideas directly onto the layout prints with the text already in place, I then gradually added more details, refining my sketches:

Once the roughs were approved, I made some very detailed coloured studies for every spread, because it was vital to work out how the colour would flow throughout the book. After the approval I could move to final art using watercolor and gouache with coloured pencil on top, just concentrating on the painting process, which was really relaxing and fun. I then scanned the artwork and used Photoshop to clean up unwanted bits, to to do some color tweaking, and to add details, like the eyes, white lines or tiny patterns.

Early colour studies

Many artists work fully digitally nowadays, why do you prefer to draw traditionally?
I love the unpredictability of some art materials and the variety of textures you get from watercolors, gouache or pencil. I haven’t figured out yet how to achieve the same effects digitally within a reasonable period of time. Also I’m terribly overwhelmed by the endless possibilities that digital painting programs give you. Or maybe I’m just too obsessed with granulating paint, waxy pencils and vintage nibs!

It looks like you had a lot of fun with all the characters. How do you go about creating them all and giving them personalities?
Drawing characters is my favorite thing! For this book I didn’t have to worry about consistency, as every poem features another main character. It meant I could come up with lots of different girls and boys focusing on representing diversity, something I’m really passionate about. I often go through children’s catalogues (vintage and new) to find inspiration and I create little imaginary background stories for the characters to get a feeling for how they would move and what they might wear. But in the end it’s all quite intuitive.

Do you have a favourite spread or particular rhyme that you liked?
I particularly love the the first rhyme 'What are Little Girls Made Of?'. I've always been irritated by the sugar and spice ingredients for the girls in the original rhyme, Jeanne transformed this into 'hearts and brain' and the boys are made of 'much the same', which sets the tone for the entire book so brilliantly. I also really like the spread with Diddle Diddle Dumpling, simply because I got to draw monsters!

Did any of the spreads change significantly throughout the process?
The first spread in the book changed a lot, it was a tricky one, because it doesn’t have a real narrative and it has to set the tone for the rest of the book.

Initial ideas for the first spread

Final version for the first spread

How did you come up with the colour scheme for the book?
That was definitely the trickiest part in the process! I wanted to work with a limited set of colours and I was looking for something with a vintage vibe to mirror the classic theme, but not too vintage to feel outdated. After drawing this page several times to see what worked, I ended up with a colour palette that was inspired by some interior paint chips from the fifties.

It was so lovely to work on this with Nia Roberts from Nosy Crow, she has a keen eye for colour.

And final question, who are you inspired by?
Oh, there are so many incredible illustrators that I’m inspired by, if I would name them all, my list would be unbearably long. If I limit myself to a few, I adore Edward Gorey for his inky lines and his dark sense of humor, Miroslav Sasek for his sense of colour and composition, Richard Scarry and Maurice Sendak for their unique characters and Júlia Sardà for all that.

Thank you Isabelle! If you want to see more artwork from the book please visit Isabelle's portfolio.

New artists: Sònia Albert and Gosia Herba

9/6/2020

We are thrilled to announce two new artists to the Pickled ink portfolio! Welcome Sònia Albert and Gosia Herba, we are excited to have so much talent joining us and two very distinct styles.

Sònia is an illustrator from Mataró, a Mediterranean city near Barcelona. After several years working in a comic studio she moved to the UK to attend the Children’s Book Illustration MA course at Cambridge School of Art, graduating in 2020. Her artwork was shortlisted for the Sebastian Walker Prize awarded at the graduates private view show every year.

Sònia works predominantly in traditional pencil, colouring her drawings in digitally and combining them with print-making textures. Her atmospheric illustrations have an expressive line, endearing characters and a strong sense of place.

Also a keen writer, Sònia has several illustrated graphic novel and picture book ideas that she is currently developing. Her clients include Bromera and Algar edicions.

For queries regarding Sònia's work or her availability please contact Amy Kitcherside at amy@pickledink.com

Gosia specialized in jewellery-making at the National School of Fine Arts in Poland. She went on to study Art History at university, focusing on the history of illustration which informed her choice to become an illustrator. For over a decade she has worked with advertising, editorial and publishing clients all over the world but recently her interests have shifted towards children's books. Her first picture book, Elephant on the Moon, was written by her husband, Mikołaj Pasiński, and published by Centrala in 2016.

Gosia’s illustrations feature stylish characters and a bold, often limited, colour palette. She has a playful sense of design which brings joy to her work, yet she also creates images which are contemplative and still, encouraging you to linger on them and get lost in the moment.

Her clients include: Quarto Group, Google, The Washington Post, Penguin Random House, Monocle, and Vanity Fair.

For queries regarding Gosia's work or her availability please contact Charlie Bowden at charlie@pickledink.com

Nine Lives Newton by Alice Mckinley

1/6/2020

Alice McKinley's debut author-illustrated picture book, Nine Lives Newton (published with Simon & Schuster UK), has hit the shelves and we're excited to learn more.

We asked Alice to chat to us about the process of working on her first book and also find out a little more about where Newton came from...

Let's start with the most important question: are you a dog or a cat person?
100% dog person! Though don’t get me wrong, I love cats too. But I think I resonate with dogs more… I’m a very cuddly, distractible and excitable person. If I had a tail it would be wagging a lot of the time.

Where did the idea for Newton come from?
I was chatting to my Mum about her dog Millie who had recently escaped and gone on her very own adventure. Thankfully, she finally came home, but when she did, she was covered in burrs, ticks, and goodness knows what. We sort of joked about what she must have gone through and it came from there. Maybe Millie had more than one life, like a cat? Either way, she was one lucky dog!

Early character sketches for Newton

Early sketchbook page of Newton

When did work on Newton start and can you talk to us a bit about the process of finding a publisher for your first debut? Was the process how you expected it to be and what have you learned?
I started work on Newton whilst I was doing the MA in Children’s Books at Anglia Ruskin in 2017 and I exhibited it as part of the degree show. I knew it needed some work but the bare bones were there. A lot of publishers came to the degree show and Newton got a lot of interest. I was VERY lucky that Newton got that much attention, because it meant that I got to choose which publisher I wanted to work with. This is a luxury that is pretty rare in publishing as far as I’m aware! And I’m still in disbelief, as I was fully prepared to come away from the show having no interest at all! I learnt that a story with some final art, and the seed of an idea can be enough for a publisher to take interest. I think they like to be able to collaborate with you on a project too, so don’t like anything too final when you first submit your artwork and ideas.

The original Newton!

Could you take us through your process. How do you work - is it traditional or digital or a mixture of both?
For Newton I drew everything out in pencil crayon and then went over it in watercolour to give it a bit more vibrancy and depth. Then I scanned it all in, and tidied any bits up, adding more shading and lighting on Photoshop. I’d like to get back into relying less on Photoshop though, as drawing with crayons and watercolour feels like I’m flying! Love it.

How has the book evoked and changed since its first concept?
Newton has changed immensely from when I started it! I filled 9 sketchbooks, had a pile of A3 pages of artwork experiments and hours and hours of time spent on Photoshop before I got my story to a place where I was ok with it. I drew my basset hound over and over again in so many different poses until he became simplified and I had a good idea of his character. I did the same with the cat too! As for the story, I must have re-drawn the story about 8 times to get the page turns and layout right.

Early sketches for Newton

Then the story went through a further 5 or so versions when I developed it with S&S too! Newton had swum with sharks, been chased by bees, ran from an avalanche, sky dived, sang in front of an audience, ran on a horse race track, been electrocuted by a rogue robot, pooped in a policeman’s hat, you name it. He’d done it! But we chipped away at it until it became about him exploring a nature reserve full of dangerous animals, rather than just a collection of random dangerous activities. I then did even more versions of the book figuring out which order to put the scenes in and whether they’d be double page spreads or single pages. Basically it’s changed A LOT!

Original spread vs the final spread in the book (below)

Have you included any little sub plots within your artwork?
There are a few bits to spot throughout the book… one of my favourite things is a swamp monster that appears 3 times in total in the book. Not sure why I decided to put this guy in there but it entertained me at the time!

Was there a spread that you found particularly challenging?
The bear spread was probably the hardest one to figure out… It must have gone through about 3 different colour palettes before I found one I was happy with.

Early sketch of the bear spread vs the final artwork (below)

What has been your favourite thing about this whole process?
My favourite thing was that I got to look at dog reference all day! Also I must have drawn Newton in about 20 different pooping poses, and it cracked me up! Poo humour always gets me. Maybe one day I’ll grow up. But probably not.

Now it’s out there, if there anything you would change if you were working on Newton now?
I kind of wish I had put in more little extra story lines or things to spot on every page. Like a little frog or ladybird or something. But there’s plenty of that in my next book!

Do you have a favourite spread?
My favourite spread is the museum spread! I’m really happy with the colour palette and looseness of the art on the left hand page. Plus the museum was modelled on the Natural History Museum in London, and I had great fun coming up with the ideas for the animal pillars. I’m also pretty proud of the scorpion page. Those little guys are just so angry!

Who are you inspired by?
I’m inspired by a lot of animators and concept artists from the 60s. The concept art for 101 Dalmatians is just pure magic!

What would be your ultimate project to work on if you could do anything?
I would love to do something super stripped back with tons of white space. Totally character lead and just hints of backgrounds. I really love that a white background can be anything. It was be an ocean, a park, a bedroom or outter space. Love that it leaves the reader to use their imagination. But I think you have to have a great character and story and simplicity of style to pull it off. Definitely something I’d like to try and explore… Either that or something to do with robots. That would be bad-ass.

What would you like to do next?
I have so many silly picturebook ideas I would love write! But I’d also like to try my hand at writing a young fiction too! That won’t be for some time though.

Finally, do you have any tips for illustrators starting out?
My advice is to keep drawing! People always talk about how important it is to find our own visual signature, and I always thought that finding your ‘style’ was really hard. But I realised that you find your visual signature in the same way you find your handwriting. Just keep drawing (from life) and it will come naturally. Embrace the mark making and the quirks that make your work naturally yours.

Thanks Alice! Alice's second author-illustrated picture book with Simon & Schuster comes out in March 2021, with a two further books planned after that so lots of silly adventures ahead! In the meantime you can check out some fiction covers Alice has been working on over in her portfolio.

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