The wonderful The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (Wide Eyed Editions) published this month and we're excited to go behind the scenes with Bruno Valasse to hear more about how he created the artwork.
 | If you’ve seen any of my social media posts lately, you’ve already been drowned in posts about the book release, but bear with me, I’ll share some exclusive bits here! When I first heard I would be working on a book with the Crab Museum, I pictured myself drawing tons of crabs of different species - some of which I did for World of Rot - underwater scenes and diagrams. I quickly learned that that book had already been made, and that I was to illustrate a book about brains, narrated by two crabs and a brain named Brian. Even better! |
| While making Shine, my first picturebook, I learned to tackle projects by making rather than planning. Thinking and solving images with your hands, then sorting a plan by going back and forth. This book started with line sketches but I quickly felt bored of a linear process I already knew, and felt drawn to bolder shapes, so I ended up sketching characters with paper cuttings.  |  However, because of the timeline we had to follow, most of the process ended up being digital, so I decided I would follow the results of the character tests, but on screen. |
 I also added hand printed textures that I collect every time I clean an ink roller. |  |
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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.
| That is also how using only 3 base colours, the book features lots of red, purple and a darker brown which in turn give the illusion of a full colour image. Try and figure out which parts of each layer overlay on top of the other two in the jelly fish here. It’s a kind of puzzle. Most pages deal with how brains process information, as well as how neurons and networks work in a larger sense, like ants in an anthill or slime mould growing in the right direction to find food. So I took advantage of the idea of connections and used it as a hint on the end papers. |  |
Two early cover sketches
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.
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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!
The No-Brainer Brain Explainer is written by the Crab Museum and published by Wide Eye Editions. Out now!