I spend a lot of time jotting down ideas or observations many of which are inspired by my family. This particular idea started whilst daydreaming on a train.​  I was imagining a book where the words were opposite to the pictorial narrative so that children could get a feeling of knowing something that their parent didn’t. I guess the idea is similar to going to a pantomime where children call out “it’s behind you” only for the adult to turn around just at the moment it disappears. I wanted to try to capture that feeling in this book where the words say one thing but the pictures tell a different story.


Libby Hamilton at Andersen Press acquired the book at Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2015, how did that initial idea or germ for a story develop into the finished book? Did it go through many changes or different directions?
​ 
The book went through many changes but generally the idea stayed pretty constant. Working with Libby and Beccy was brilliant. This is my first book and so I was definitely learning as I went along. Libby and Beccy were so encouraging of my ideas and designs that it was a real pleasure to work with them throughout the project. We used to Skype every couple of weeks to catch up on how things were going.  One of my favourite parts was a suggestion made by Libby to have the cat trying to eat sugared mice. The chocolate shop is one of my favourite images and I particularly love that little detail. It certainly wouldn’t have been the same book without their excellent advice!

​Did you find that writing the text or illustrating the pictures came more easily to you?  Do you have any advice for other début creators about the process? 

The text definitely came first but thats probably because it is such a short story, however I loved making the illustrations much more so I enjoyed taking my time over those.

I think it’s important to believe that if you really want to make a book, you can. Personally I find self belief really hard, but no one ever makes a book that hasn’t tried. So I’d encourage people to go for it, it’s a great experience.

​If you were to do it all over again, is there anything you would do differently?  Can you explain why? 

A small thing I’d change is I struggled with the French ultramarine blue watercolour that I was using. It was particularly grainy and I even had dreams about granulating blues... I think I’d use a blue gouache paint instead now. 


Can you describe your process for creating the illustrations from initial character sketches to the final art? What medium do you work in and do you have a favourite part of this process?

For this particular project I used Windsor and Newton water colour and pencil crayons and my favourite da Vinci brush.

My favourite stage is doing the rough drawings. I love the freedom of those early scribbles but I also love it when you have happy accidents with the finished artwork. 

My roughs drawings tend to be really small because I can then draw hundreds of little images much quicker than I could ever draw big roughs. In addition small doodles feel far less intimidating.

​​Looking After William is dedicated to your husband, Will.  Does the real life Will bear a resemblance to the character? Or is the little girl (and her cat) based on your own children? 

Most definitely YES. The girl is based on a combination of my two daughters, she looks most like my second but is also like my eldest. William is most assuredly based on my husband, Will who is also a great dad!  


​It is also dedicated to your daughters, Polly and Bea.  How much did they inspire you to begin working in the world of children’s books?  And how much do they continue to inspire you in what you do?

My children have been a huge influence. I think I really discovered the joy of children’s books through reading to my daughters. Trips to the library became an essential part of our lives. My girls are also hilarious,  like most children and so of course they have been hugely inspiring to the stories I’ve written.


You have worked in the world of animation, how does creating picture books differ from that? 

Both art forms have their unique qualities. Animation is very much a team endeavour with often hundreds of people working on any particular project together. Working on books can be quite isolating, so having regular chats with a fantastic Editor /Art Editor and lovely agent can really help with cabin fever.

Working in animation has been really helpful because it has taught me to draw lots and to think about characters and story structure all of which has been very useful for making books. 
​

Today's blog post introduces our newest signing, Briony May Smith, to the portfolio. 'Grab that Rabbit', with Pavilion Books publishes today, coinciding nicely with World Book Day, so we thought a behind-the-scenes look at the project was a fitting choice!

​There can be no doubt that Polly Faber's tale of kindness and forgiveness (with a dose of adventure!) was the perfect text for Briony's artwork - whose illustrations are often inspired by her rural surroundings. Briony brings a warmth and richness to her work with her soft pencil line and vivid colours. ​

Scroll down to see early cover explorations, first book layouts and more...

​When I started sketching the character of Hodge, two lambs were born on a nearby farm. One had a very striking black ear, which prompted me to place Hodge’s 'black splodge', as described in the text, on his ear and face. The cottage of Mrs Sprat is loosely based on the cottages I love to look at in Ireland, where half my family are from.

​It was an absolute delight to work on this text, starting with a few concept pieces, followed by loose thumbnails and roughs, and then onto colour artwork. I had a lot of fun hiding bugs and little details into the artwork, as I fondly remember looking for secret stories in picture books as a child. There are even items I own in the book. There are dog figurines based on my dog Finbar and our old family dog Paddy. I also own a sheep figurine and a tiny China teapot and a blue mug with pink flowers which feature in Mrs Sprat’s kitchen. There is a white chicken in a frame which is our ten year old chicken Sully. I hope people enjoy reading about Hodge and his adventures!

​Welcome to the agency, Briony! 

Yellow Kayak by Nina Laden and Melissa Castrillón (Paula Wisemen Books/ Simon & Schuster, £12.99) hit shelves this February and we were keen to find out more from illustrator Melissa about how this exquisite project came together.




Congratulations on Yellow Kayak, your second book with author Nina Laden and publishers Paula Wiseman Books. Can you tell us a bit about how your illustrative process works?
 
Using the imagery to frame and play with the text is a really important initial stage for me. I often start by taking elements of the text, visually elaborating them and looking at objects with interesting shapes to try and make the imagery and text work both together. I often use negative space to do this, or I use vignettes or the illustrations to frame the text.

Then the colour palette is chosen.

For the final artwork, I drawn it out in layers – each layer corresponds to a colour, like I would prepare a screen print. And then the final stage is adding the digital colour, which I do on Photoshop. I try not to rely on computer processes too much, so that the final outcome can still look handmade/handprinted.

Here's a spread from initial sketch to final artwork.

Did you have total freedom on the characters in Yellow Kayak? Did you experiment with other characters?
 
The character development is always the part of the process that I am least comfortable with, perhaps because I feel it is my weakest area. Because Yellow Kayak is kind of the follow up book to If I Had a Little Dream, my art director, Lizzy Bromley, suggested it would be a nice idea to have a boy protagonist in Yellow Kayak, as the main character in Little Dream was a girl.

I had initially started developing the characters for Yellow Kayak as a girl and her dog but then Lizzy suggested I try having a boy and possibly a giraffe. Which, at the time, seemed insane to me to have a giraffe! But, as always, Lizzy is a crazy genius and it really worked.

Do you have a favourite artwork, or a layout that you’re most proud of?
 
I think the most surprising spread for me and one that was a happy accident was the sunset spread where the boy is bailing out the kayak.
 
I knew I had to have a lull in the story somewhere and a spread that was more serene with less action. By chanceI had been looking through my huge stack of sketchbooks in preparation for a day helping students at the school of art here in Cambridge and I happened across a coloured pencil study of some rolling hills. I thought 'AHA!' that would be perfect for the rolling waves. Luckily it worked out just right and it is now one of my favourite spreads.

Your work is always exploring negative space and interesting layouts, as well as beautiful natural scenes, are you inspired by any other artists or illustrators?
 
Thank you for noticing this about my work! I find that exploring negative space and interesting compositions is one of my favourite parts of the development process. I adore lots of older children's book illustrators and textile designers such as Roger Duvoisin and Joseph Frank. The limitations of colour printing and process back then seemed to bring out a stronger sense of design, which I really admire. Other more modern day illustrators whom I love for their amazing use of colour, composition and design are Joohee Yoon, Iconori, Eleanor Davis and Joelle Jolivet.

Your colour palette is so striking too - do you select that at the early stage, and like limiting yourself to a certain number of colours? Is there a colour you’d never use?
 
Choosing the colour palette is so important for me, it ties everything together and breathes life into the whole book. Colour is always something I start thinking about from the beginning. Sometimes the colour comes straight away but most of the time I have the palette at the back of my mind and takes a bit longer to prise it out.
 
I'll always work in a limited colour palette and no more than 5 colours. I feel like a lot of my work is detailed so I need that reserved colour palette to restrain the imagery and stop it from become to overwhelming. It creates a balance I suppose. I thought I'd never work with black, but in the current book I’m working on, my debut as author and illustrator, there is a chance that black will come into the fray as one of the 5. I guess never say never!

We love the foiling under the dust jacket of Yellow Kayak, was that your idea?
 
I’m so glad you love it! I’m so blessed to have the support of Simon & Schuster and Paula Wiseman Books to make the bling become a reality!  On our first book If I Had a Little Dream, it was my idea for foiling under the jacket. It was gold foiling on a beautiful blue back round and I wanted to do that same for Yellow Kayak. However, once again, it as Lizzy Bromley my amazing art director who had the genius idea for the bluey-green foiling. I was reluctant at first, but she hit the nail on the head and it makes the book look even more magical!

Yellow Kayak by Nina Laden and Melissa Castrillón is published by Paula Wisemen Books/ Simon & Schuster, £12.99 and available in all good bookshops. Melissa's full portfolio can be seen here.

2017 is drawing to a close and we've just posted out our annual wrapping paper to all our clients. This year our four designs were created by artists Eve Coy, Lucy Eldridge, Paola Escobar, and David Wardle. As our final post of the year, we thought we'd show you some of the development work for Lucy's wrapping paper 'An Aurora of Polar Bears'. 

Lucy kept us updated with some lovely miniature sketches and paintings as she worked through her ideas. The patterned background was a completely unexpected and imaginative way to respond to the collective noun brief we sent her. We especially loved the images below where we really started to see her vision for the artwork come together. 

We want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from all of us here at Pickled ink! We'll be closed for the holidays from Friday 22nd December and opening again on the 2nd January.

Lalalimola continues her successful collaboration with Specsavers with this illustrated Eye Pack for Schools.  Her clear, bright and graphic illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to Specsavers' fun and informative pack explaining how our eyes work and why it's so important to look after them.   It also informs pupils about what to expect at an eye test, why we have different eye colours and concludes with a testing quiz full of interesting facts.  Do you know what the average life span of an eyelash is*?? 

Below is a snapshot of Lalalimola's illustrating process showing roughs to final art. As you'll see in this project the final art barely differed from the line sketches, which is an illustrator's dream!

*The answer is C - 5 months.  Have a go at the other questions in the quiz below and learn some fun new facts.

Announcing a new artist signing at Pickled ink is always exciting. Today we're very happy to welcome Paola Escobar to the portfolio!

As you can see from the images here, Paola has an eye for creating beautiful, detailed scenes and is fond of a pattern or two! Combined with her sophisticated colour palette, Paola's artwork just jumps from the page. 

It was her illustration of Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian seamstress and spy in the Kickstarter project 'Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls' , that first caught our eye. An incredibly popular campaign, the book created by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo was later published by Penguin.

Paola spent several years working with advertising agencies before deciding to focus on illustration as her passion. Picture book 'Matrioska', illustrated by Paola, publishes this month in Spain and we can't wait to see how her work continues to grow as we go forward. 

If you would like to commission Paola please contact her agent Amy Kitcherside at amy@pickledink.com

DARON PARTON | ERICA WILLIAMS | HANAKO CLULOW | JEZ TUYA
 JÚLIA SARDÀ | RACHEL CLOYNE | YA-LING HUANG

​PAOLA ESCOBAR
*launching soon*

CINDY WUME | DAVID WARDLE | KATIE HICKEY | LAURA ELLEN ANDERSON
LO COLE | LUCY ELDRIDGE | MELISSA CASTRILLÓN

DAMIAN KELLEHER
DAVID STEVENS
OWEN PYGRAM

Alexis Snell first worked with The Monkey Puzzle Tree on their logo design. Just recently she has collaborated with the company again to create this beautiful pattern entitled 'How the Leopard got his Spots',

Printed onto a rich velvet, the pattern is incredibly striking and none more so than when seen in person. We're thrilled to share these fantastic photos, curtesy of The Monkey Puzzle Tree, which show Alexis' fabric as upholstery - creating some stunning pieces of furniture! 

To read more about the project, please click on the images to view the original blog post.

Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball, Laura Ellen Anderson's debut novel, publishes with Egmont this October and a fantastic day was spent at CPI watching the book being printed in person. It's safe to say we were probably one of the giddiest groups to tour the printers, much to the amusement of James our guide; who kindly took us around and patiently answered all our questions and let us ask take as many photos as we liked. 

First up was a general tour of the printers. After seeing all the printing and binding machines at work we came to an area where copies of Amelia were whizzing around on conveyor belts; allowing time for the spine glue to dry before the book was trimmed down to size. 

We came away with hot-of-the press copies and as a further surprise, CPI had designed and printed a limited edition of Amelia books with a special, illustrated fore-edge for Laura to keep. They looked incredible. Below you can see the final versions complete with cover foil and an orange fore-edge, that will be available to buy. 

Thank you to CPI for a great day for us all and to Egmont for organising the trip for us. We'll be back for book two! 

Today we have a gorgeous project to share with you, and one that's been a while in the making. Back in 2015, after seeing Hanako's design for our annual wrapping paper, Rachel Williams at Frances Lincoln Children's Books approached Hanako about working on a new natural history series aimed at 4-5 year olds. The series was written by UK scientist and natural history writer, Catherine Barr and each book would look at a different species of animal and give 10 reasons as to why that particular species was unique. 

What followed was a wonderful, collaborative project that everyone is incredible proud of and (we think) some of Hanako's most striking artwork to date. Scroll down to view some of her detailed pencil roughs and their colour counterparts...

'10 Reasons to Love a Turtle' and '10 Reasons to Love an Elephant'' publish next week with Frances Lincoln Children's Books, in conjunction with the Natural History Museum. Books three and four (Bear and Whale) will follow in Spring 2018 and a further two titles are also currently under way!