Wednesday 22 January 2014

New Film: How I Design My Picture Book Illustrations


Yes, at last John and I have got another film finished - hurrah! 

I thought it might be interesting to use the work I have been doing on Julia Jarman's story, Jungle Grumble, to talk people through how my picture book illustrations are created. 


This is the first of two films about creating a set of roughs (the next one will be out in a week or so). This first film talks you through how I get from a simple sheet of typed text, emailed from the publisher, to a set of finished designs. 

I show you how thumbnail drawings work as a great way of capturing first thoughts, then how those are enlarged and redrawn in various stages. I talk about using a layout template and how I work around the text and the central gutter. I don't like to draw at a computer, but it is still an invaluable tool and I explain in the film how I use it to move the drawings forward.


The films John and I have created over the last year have been made as a direct result of writing this blog. Telling my readers about what I do has been really useful for me, as it makes me analyse my process and consider precisely what it is I am doing at the various stages. When you've been doing something for so many years, it can be hard to explain it to other people, because so much of the process becomes second nature.

If there is any aspect of my work which you would like to know more about, do please let me know. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the film. If you do, please leave me a comment. And it would be wonderful if you could help me by spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook etc, because every little helps!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic video, so informative, Lynne. Loved it!! Will pass it on to my daughter who is young teen artist. - Jill/California

Tamisha said...

Thanks for sharing so many great details. As an aspiring illustrator, videos like this help a great deal.

Marjorie Bahhaj said...

Love Lynne Chapmans' talent.... and the characters expressions and postures are just sooooo good.....illustrators are a writers god send for sure.... turning your mind work into the pictures you are seeing but can only express in words....then here comes along an artist that can get into your imagination and put picture to your words and storyline..... oh Lynne need you for my stories too....xx

Unknown said...

really useful information ...thank you!

Lazy KZ said...

Great piece. I can't wait to see the colored renditions.

Lynne the Pencil said...

Thanks everyone - that's lovely feedback :-)

Lazy KZ: it's taken a while to edit the film together and, in the meantime, I have been getting on with the artwork. You can see how most of it looks right here on the blog. Just click the Jungle Grumble label on the far right. Hope they live up to expectations :-)

Unknown said...

Thank you Lynn for sharing your progress. It's delightful to hear about it. :) I really appreciated the part about the typography. I didn't realize the publishers made the choice for the font before the illustrations where rendered. Can't wait to see the book.