Illustrating a Picture Book: Not an Average School Day...

Today I am out doing a school visit in Nottingham, but for all the rest of this week, I have been working away on my Swap! artwork. On Wednesday morning I finished off the school room illustration I was half way through last time we met: 

Since Wednesday was a nasty, overcast day (hence the slightly dingy-looking photo), I pulled the blinds and set-to at my light box, tracing up the last two pages I've yet to do. Of course that doesn't include the cover artwork and the front endpapers (which you remember are different from the back ones on this book, which I already coloured, just before the first batch of artwork went off to Frankfurt). At last the end of the actual story is in sight though.

I decided to tackle the other 'school chaos' illustration next, as I could use the image above as reference. It's so tricky making sure the various kids remain constant across the different spreads - who has teeth showing, who has freckles, which child has which hair colour, which hairstyle, which hair slides... 

I got it finished by mid-afternoon yesterday. This is Sparky's favourite part of the school day: the lunch hour. The publisher asked me not to make the food too obviously English, so I gave them a choice of pasta or good old sausages and mash. I don't know if you can make the food out - the light was bad again, so it's a wee bit fuzzy:

Before the end of the day, I just had time to sort out all my gear, ready for today's visit to Ambleside Primary School, where I will have a whole day with a single Y3 class, which is quite unusual. We'll start with an illustration workshop in the morning, then use the images we create to weave stories for a creative writing workshop in the afternoon. That's the plan anyway - wish me luck!