Prickles the Curious Hedgehog: Scene Process
Happy happy New Year!
I hope this first post of 2021 finds you well, and that January was kind to you. Like most of us I transitioned from Christmas to New Year reluctantly, and have spent the first month of the year still at home, trying to balance staying busy with the constant disbelief at what’s happening in the world. Anyhow, I hope this month’s post provides a little light-hearted relief for you. Enjoy!
Today I thought I’d show you a behind the scenes look at how I created this illustration, which is taken from my children’s story about a curious hedgehog named Prickles.
Begin at the beginning
To begin, I must point out that the process I follow for most book projects is far from coherent. It’s essentially a long stream of problem solving in which I have to, at some point, decide on my characters, colour scheme, narrative flow, setting, the message I’m trying to convey, the number of pages, the size of the book … Right?! So many options. So. Little. Time.
I usually start with the text, as it’s the base of my narrative. I wrote this particular story myself, and it’s about 400 words. Once I was happy with the basic narrative outline I then started with visual research. I used to love visiting museums and galleries to begin a project, finding ways I could inject culture and history into my sketches. I also think external sources can add depth and context to images that may seem one dimensional if they haven’t been developed enough. But of course, with the UK being in lockdown yet again my chance of visiting a gallery was zero. So I began with a pinterest board, collating illustrations, fine art paintings for colour and atmosphere, photographs, and anything else that sparked inspiration.
From there I did a huge brain dump of messy, sometimes questionable sketches, of everything and anything I wanted to include within the book. I had to look at a lot of references for the animals, to get the proportions right. Then, with enough research, I started on my storyboards. These are just thumbnail-sized sketches where I plot out the narrative, and decide on what will happen in each scene. As you can see, for this scene I decided fairly early on that the burrow would be the main feature of the page.
This sketch was just smaller than A5.
Development
Then comes development. Fleshing out the narrative by building up characters, finding the perfect setting, asking whether it is day or night? What kind of flowers grow there? Where do the characters live? How do they travel? etc etc. After playing around with the content, I scanned the thumbnail sketch, and sized it up to A3.
Using my lightbox, I then traced the scene onto plain white paper, and worked on the finer details, making sure I could get it as close to the final image as possible (making most of the decisions at this point makes painting the final illustration a lot easier). Of course there are always slight tweaks to be made, like removing the table, or changing the string of lights to tree roots.
Experiment, experiment and experiment some more
Like I said earlier, my whole picture book process is far from coherent, so although this scene looked pretty straight forward, there were other scenes that required a LOT more work, and I can restart them multiple times.
Luckily though, I was happy with the way this scene looked, and I was ready for experimentation. The way I differentiate development and experimentation is this: While development grows your content, characters, story etc, experimentation grows the medium, style, composition. See the difference?
I have to say, this is my least favourite part of the process. I KNOW, controversial, but always find I have the urge to jump to the final artwork as soon as I have the rough sorted. But I know that experimentation can be the difference between a mediocre spread and a spread that really sings. So I reluctantly kept my nice smooth paper away from my desk for a while longer, and worked on some smaller tests first. I think one of the reasons why I don’t love experimenting, is because it’s is the part where self doubt can kick in. As soon as you think you’ve cracked it, you realise there is a better way of doing it and the process starts all over again. I spent about a week making test after test, some days it felt like I’d made no progress. As you can see, I was mainly working out colour, and how the mediums would work together as a whole.
Diving In
Inevitably there comes a point when you don’t physically have any more tests left in you, and it’s time for the MAIN EVENT. I chose to do the final illustration on bristol paper because I’m used to working on that, and I find the paint/crayon combo works well on the smooth surface. I used mainly Faber Castell Polychromos and Carandache Supracolor crayons, and acrylic gouache.
To get an accurate outline I used the pencil sketch I’d made earlier, traced this with my lightbox using a peach-coloured pencil, and sat down to paint. I’d say the whole piece took about two days to complete. I then scanned the image, cleaned it up on Photoshop, and added the text.
And there you have it, one scene complete! What do you think of the finished illustration?
Of course, this is by no means the exact way to create a spread. I’m sure most picture book illustrators work differently, this was just an insight into the way I work, and how I navigate my way through a project. I hope it was insightful in some way! I’d love to hear your thoughts, or if you have different ways of working through a project. You can see the finished scene here!
Aside from illustration, here are some things I’ve been loving this month…
*I finished reading Ballet Shoes and it was wonderful. I also got this book for Christmas which I’ve been dipping into intermittently. It’s full of stories from neglected women from history, which is fascinating.
*I’m obsessed with this recipe at the moment, I’ve already made it four times since Christmas. It’s the ultimate comfort food and has enough pasta and cheese to keep me satisfied throughout winter!
*I’ve been loving the sketchbook characters by Claire Powell recently and have been inspired myself to start a small sketchbook project. I’ll be drawing from my pinterest board and posting on instagram over the coming months!
*Since I’ve been busy drawing I’ve needed a lot of music to keep me occupied and I’m slowly working my way through seven years of BTS albums which, as you can imagine, is taking a while. Recently this song has been a favourite, It’s an oldie, but it makes me hopeful for Spring.
Okay that’s enough for now, I can feel a headache coming on.
Sending you all much love and optimism for February. Remember, they can’t cancel the Spring.
Catherine