​What does a typical workday look like for you?
I start the day with water and black coffee. I prefer working on creative tasks in the morning and administrative work in the afternoon. I always write down beforehand what I want to accomplish that day.

 Can you tell us about your process—how do you create your illustrations?
I work using traditional media, employing a wide variety of materials like gouache, acrylics, colored pencils, chalks, and ink. ​I love the sound of the brush sweeping across the paper and the squelching noise the paint makes when I mix it. 

My drawing process is very intuitive. Often, I only have a vague idea or a very rough sketch. I prefer to start drawing directly onto the paper with paint, without a preliminary sketch, though sometimes I use a light pad; I like letting a drawing evolve during the process.  At a certain point, you can feel things moving in the right direction—I love that flow. ​​

Do you have a favourite character, place, or object that you love to draw?
​I love drawing people, especially children. In a bustling square, at a playground, at markets, or during events—hardly anything can stop me from pulling out my sketchbook.

Above are some character experiments and below is what the final characters look like. Readers can follow 2 crabs whose dialogues with a pretentious human brain casts light about incredible things non-human brains can do. Science Crab struggles with Silly Crab’s simple mindedness, while Brian progressively enters an existential crisis.

​Each character’s features are underlined by what they do and how they interact with the elements in each page. Silly crab often dresses up, gets into trouble and reacts with curiosity but little knowledge while Science Crab helps cast light on the topic shown on each page, often also trying to make Brian be less pedantic and anthropocentric.

​I typically work with 2 or 3 colours and treat them as if they were to be screenprinted. That means 2 colours can be overlaid to create a third tone, which you can see in the gif below. It’s a fun technique, and it challenges you to anticipate how negative space (the white space in each colour layer) will make space for the other colours.

​I quite enjoy illustrating non-fiction books. I feel like –more than ever– they provide a safe space for learning, mixed with humour and passionate authors. And they provide a hint of the author’s stance on things depending on how they tackle subjects and what they decide to include. Spoiler alert: Brian the human brain learns that he is not the best brain, but only one of many amazing thinking organs and networks out there.

​Bertie Terrilliam’s humour was a perfect match for my silly characters. I very often try to include speech bubbles and reactions to characters, but the author had already planned for that. I won’t spoil too many of them, but Science Crab being aware that they are only drawings and not actual crabs makes the perfect joke for me.

And that’s it! I used my own brain to make this, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The No-Brainer Brain Explainer is written by the Crab Museum and published by Wide Eye Editions. Out now!

    Once we have the line drawings, we then send these to our master carver who recreates the drawings in
    wood.  The carvings are finely detailed so that when we make our plastic tactile pages from them, the
   reader can feel all the details like a hairy monster, or a big smile or a sleek cat.

     When we have the master artwork, we can then form our tactile pages using our thermo press. Plastic sheets
     are heated over the wooden carvings and the characters appears from nowhere like magic. It’s brilliant
     and my favourite part of the process! 

     Our tactile pages are then passed to our volunteer painters who paint each page in colours as closely to the  
     book’s colours as possible.

   ​​​ While this is happening someone else is writing a script that describes all the illustrations in the book as well
    as guiding the readers over the tactile pages to really bring the characters to life. We then ask celebrities who
    have a link to the story to read the script for us which is done in the studio.  We’ve had some wonderful people
    so far like, Olivia Colman, Richard E Grant, Sir Derek Jacobi and a whole host of other brilliant people giving their
   time for free.  This is then produced to include music and sound effects to really bring the story to life for blind
​   children.

  Margaret’s Unicorn is read by the actress Shirley Henderson and there is musical accompaniment, too.  
​  How many people are involved in creating one of your books?
  We have a small team of 15 in the office who all at some stage work on the books, whether it’s in the
  fundraising team to raise the money to fund the book, the publishing team who gain the rights and work with
  the publishers, writers and illustrators, or the production team who physically manage the production of the
  books in the studio, marketing to promote the books to our beneficiaries and the wider public and the library
​  team who manage the books and know where they all are at any one time!

​  Aside from staff we rely on our amazing funders to invest in our ideas to provide the income to bring them to life.

   We have an incredible team of over 150 talented volunteers who generously give up their time to write scripts,
   carve the wooden forms, hand paint the tactiles, print braille pages and bind the books. They work tirelessly
   to bring these books to life with love and skill.

​   Then we also have the wonderful celebrities who read our exciting immersive scripts. We use sound
   recording studios to record these scripts to make sure the sound is really clear for our readers. This is handled
   by sound engineers who add wonderful sounds effects and music to bring the magic of the story to our
​   young readers.

    The most important people are the children who road test our books. We ask beneficiaries of our
    library service to tell us what they think. Are the tactile pages clear and make sense, does the description
    work? They give us vital feedback so that we can tweak the book to make sure we have the best possible product
   to send out to children who need these books.  We haven’t tracked it (yet!), but as you can see there’s a lot of love
   in our book from some brilliantly talented people.

​   What do you find are the main challenges to adapting books for your library?  
   The main challenge aside from funding, is making sure the tactile pages are as true to the book as possible.
   We rely on the skills of our artisan carvers who make 3d versions of the characters from line drawings.
 
  These are incredible to see. They make sure every texture, every sentiment, every leaf will be felt when the plastic
​  is formed over it. They are works of art in their own right.

​  Roughly how many copies of each book do you publish?  And how do children and young people gain access
  to them?
  We usually publish about 30 copies per title. Children can receive the books through our free postal library.
  They sign up (Free Library For Blind Children and Young People - Living Paintings) for free and are sent
  an introduction pack so their carer can introduce the concept with the child and practice with really simple
  tactile forms for the child to get used to it.  Then they can then order whatever books they like from our library. ​
  We suggest about three to five books each time they order. The books are sent and returned for free through
​  Royal Mail’s Articles for the Blind, so it’s really easy for people to send their books back to exchange for new ones!

  How do you go about choosing which books you’d like to adapt?  
  With new titles we look for gaps in our provision. So we look at our titles and map them for similar topics,
  issues and educational need and see where the gaps are. We then look for suitable new titles that we could
​  adapt. We also ask our beneficiaries if there is anything we’re not covering that they would like us to produce.

​
And for those who wish to find out more about what you do, or who would like to support your work through a donation or volunteering, how can they do this?
Our website (www.livingpaintings.org) has lots of information about us and how to sign up to our free library. 
 
There are many ways to support us (Support us - Living Paintings) including donating, volunteering or simply following and sharing our social media posts to help us spread the word. Everything helps.
 
To keep up with all our new titles, new celebrity readers and most importantly to hear form the wonderful children we work with, find and follow us on social media and watch as children get to fall in love with books their way, through touch and sound. 

The dragon, on the other hand, came from Chinese fairy tales: a flying dragon with whiskers and a red body. I gave him a cheerful expression, with curly eyebrows, golden wings, and ridges along his back. I imagined his personality as being like a baby who is just beginning to explore the world - excited and curious, yet easily frightened by unfamiliar things. 

Practising Light and Shadow
​
Exploring light and shadow was one of the most enjoyable parts of making this book. To better understand how the lantern would behave in different conditions, I first made a small dragon lantern. 
​
I quickly realised it was too small to place a light inside safely, so I created another lantern at full scale and placed a real candle inside it. (Thankfully, I managed not to burn down my house!) I took many reference photos, turning off the lights to imagine how the lantern would look in complete darkness. I also went outside at night to observe how the light behaved in darker environments, and later began sketching based on the photos I had taken. 

I noticed that in darkness, the brightest area wasn’t always the lantern itself, but the surfaces the light fell on. The lantern’s body can appear quite dark, sometimes almost blending into the background, depending on how strong the surrounding light is. 
​
As the project developed, I realised that working with a real lantern alone wasn’t enough, as much of the scenery in the book is imagined. I looked through photographs of lantern festivals and rewatched one of my favourite films, Spirited Away, which has beautiful examples of lighting and shadow that I could use as reference. Light behaves very differently in open spaces compared to small or enclosed interiors. It was a challenging process, but one that I enjoyed very much. 

Storyboarding: Pencil Roughs
​
During the storyboarding stage, the editor proposed a very interesting idea that I thought was brilliant: as the Little Dragon holds Logan’s hand, the grip gradually changes from tight to loose. At the same time, the colours of the scenes slowly become lighter, and the circles of light grow larger. This visual progression reflects how both characters become less afraid of the darkness. 

Because the story involves so many night scenes and shadows, I had to consider lighting carefully during storyboarding, which isn’t always the case at this stage. However, I found it fascinating to think about where the light would fall, where to leave space for the text, and how shadows could be used to block out areas and draw attention to the most important elements in each spread. It felt almost like planning a stage performance. 

At the storyboarding stage, there were many elements to consider, such as the direction of the fish lanterns and the parade, which moved from left to right across the book. On alternating spreads, we used half-page compositions to show the Little Dragon holding Logan’s hand as he grew braver. 
​
Between these moments, larger scenes, like fireworks and dancing dragons, open up across full spreads. At the same time, I needed to think about how each spread connected to the next. I used shared visual elements, for instance, fish lanterns, bridges, and hills, to guide the characters along their journey to the lantern festival. Eventually, they reach the hilltop, where they let go of their lanterns, and their fear of the darkness. 

Switching colours helped me move between different locations and moods throughout the book. For the louder, more energetic spreads like 16–17 with the lion dancers and pages 20–21 with the fireworks, I used a colour palette that differs from the rest of the interior pages. These spreads give the reader’s eyes a break from some of the busier half-page compositions. 
​
The night scenes, in particular, were quite challenging. I learned early on not to use pure black in watercolour, which led me to think carefully about how to paint darkness. I observed that when many lanterns are present, often red in colour, using similar tones such as red, orange, and purple, works well to show their glow and reflections. Purple became the main colour I used to illustrate darker areas. It worked especially well alongside the Little Dragon’s red & yellow tones, while also providing a strong contrast to Logan’s green top. 

​Pages 8–9 took quite some time before we settled on the final composition. The original idea was to use four small panels to show, step by step, how Logan’s lantern transforms into the Little Dragon. At the same time, this early part of the book also needed to introduce Logan’s home and the location of the town. We eventually decided to zoom out and show the scene from a distance, with the glowing light at the doorway as the main focus. Around it, people are carrying lanterns and preparing to head out to the festival, suggesting that many things are happening at once. From there, the following spread zooms in, revealing the Little Dragon’s worried expression, bringing the focus back to the emotional core of the story. 

I really enjoy painting with watercolours, building up the image by applying one layer after another. I began by using white and yellow crayons to mask the areas I want to keep light. I then apply red watercolour, allowing some of the yellow to turn into orange, before slowly layering in greens. Once the main colour layers are in place, I move on to the details, using a mix of watercolours, coloured pencils, and a small amount of pastel, depending on what the image needs. Throughout this process, I always work from light to dark and from warm to cool, yellow before green, red before blue, so the colours stay fresh, clean, and luminous.

Here’s a note I wrote while working on pages 16–17: 
“28.7.2024 (Sunday) Keep the figures in the background loose - do not overwork them. Don’t rush into details. I started with oil crayons (yellow and white), then used a light yellow marker on the dancing dragon (left). After that, I brushed the whole scene with a layer of light yellow, followed by red. I also used red water-soluble wax pastel on the dancing lion. I noticed that when I begin painting the main subject with brighter, more saturated colours and then work back towards lighter, paler tones, it helps prevent the background from overpowering the main focus. Painting from stronger, higher-saturation colours down to softer tones made it easier to control the overall balance of the image.” 

The embroidery on the dancing lion’s costume is absolutely beautiful, and it was important for me to capture both the dazzling light and the sweet-smelling smoke in this spread. I imagined the light being almost too bright to look at directly, so I aimed for a strong contrast using vivid reds, green shadows, and a dark background sky. ​To achieve this effect, I began by applying white crayon to reserve the brightest areas, followed by a layer of watercolour. I then rubbed the crayon away, and at the very end of the process, I dabbed oil pastel along the edges where the light shines and reflects, helping to enhance the glow and finish the artwork. 

A Few Final Thoughts
​
Nowadays, I keep reminding myself not to overwork the details and to worry less about imperfections. It’s the texture of the brushstrokes that feels charming and intriguing, and it’s the imperfection that makes artwork feel human. This is also why working with traditional media feels like a commitment, mistakes are part of the process, and I continue learning through them as I go. 

While illustrating Logan’s Lantern, I realised that I was a lot like the Little Dragon, who is afraid of the dark. In my case, that fear wasn’t of darkness itself, but of painting dark colours. Through this project, I learned to embrace colours I wasn’t comfortable or familiar with. Purple, for example, became an important colour for me, especially in representing darkness and nightfall, where it creates a beautiful contrast with yellow, the dominant colour of lantern light. 
​
Using green to paint the sky was another unexpected choice. I wouldn’t normally paint the sky green, but it works well to create a strong contrast with the red of the dancing lion. Playing around with these colours helped me see how they work together, and along the way, both the artwork and I grew a bit too. 

Logan's Lantern is out now, published by Bloomsbury Children's Books.