What I've done lately so far

I'm going to finally post my whole story. I finished writing it over a week ago, but I wanted to edit it and also decide on what text would go on what page. And I had to decide how many pages I was doing. So I've done that. It's going to be 10 spreads (20 pages) plus a cover dust jacket plus a title page, etc.

I have left out some of the story that happens in the middle, because if there is time, I'll add some more spreads. These parts detail some different plants and animals that Rudge and Leon encounter along the way. They can be left out. So I did. The book still achieves the goal of getting kids to want to go to the bog. I think that any book I read that takes place in an actual spot, I'd love to go to that place, as long as the book doesn't suck too bad. I hope my story isn't THAT bad.

So the next step is the illustrations and I had started those a few weeks ago. I began by sketching the animals and plants that are featured in my story. I looked up pictures of voles, hawks, cranes, and mushrooms mostly. I took pictures in the bog to get a sense of where my story will take place. For every page in my book, I'm going to show an actual place that I've photographed, so that kids can find these places too, if they want to.

The style I had decided on was going to directly reference Arthur Rackham's illustrations of "Alice in Wonderland." That meant muted earth tones in watercolour/ink and a thin black outline. It also meant putting human expressions onto animals and plants. My own style lacks the attention to detail Rackham used and the originality of his characters (I don't have the patience or talent) so I've decided to use brighter colours and a different style. I still like the look of wet (watery?) colour because it seemed appropriate to illustrate a bog with watercolour/ink. The bog is very muddy and wet.

Because my illustrations were of places I photographed, I tried out some things with the photos I took. I thought about taking the photos and adding my characters into the scene. This seemed a little inconsistent. My characters aren't realistic. And my photos aren't amazing either.

So what I decided to do is to trace the photos I took, then add my characters into it. It was the easiest way of adding detail and realism to my illustrations while keeping a consistent style.

I tries not to cover the entire page with my characters, etc. because I needed space for the text of the story. I transferred my tracings onto a thick piece of paper that could hold watercolour without warping too bad, by photocopying the images backward and using a blender pen to get the faint outline of the drawing. Then I painted on top of it in a sketchy way (I love things that look sketchy). I didn't worry about the outline of everything, because I wanted the look of a bleed. Everything was supposed to blend together a little bit, as if in a dream.

Then I scanned it onto the computer and manipulated the levels and curves so that it was as bright as the original. I faded the edges so that my text would be fairly readable. I chose a typeface that was large so that kids could try to follow along and so that it was very easy to read and see. For instance, if a child wanted to bring it into the bog while they go on a little walk, they could still read it even in low light or even if they were walking around.

When I started playing around with typefaces, I thought I would use something clear and traditional, like Garamond. But when I saw how boring that looked with my illustration, I decided to try something different. I noticed that when I used a retro typeface from the 60s or 70s, my illustrations reminded me of some of the illustrations from that time period. I don't know anything about illustration from the 60s and 70s, but it just reminded me of it. So I thought about using Gill sans for my body text, since it's a "friendly" humanist typeface and I thought I could use it with Cooper Black as display type so that the page looked a little retro. I need some advice on this.

One of the things I'm going to do in the future is play with the typeface (colour, font, placement, etc.). I have only illustrated one spread in watercolour. I have 9 more to go, plus the cover, etc. I also want to create a map of the bog, including the trails and Leon's journey and markers for areas of the bog that kids should look at or pay attention to, like the tractor, plants, etc. I want them to find markers in the bog that have more information about animals and plants in the bog, so that they can learn more about the bog if they want to. My book is supposed to entertain them, not bore them with facts, but if they choose to, I want there to be facts available for the curious child.