Hello, my sweet wolves!
A little post on picture book process today.
It’s been over seven years since my debut picture book LEAF was published with Flying Eye Books. It’s unbelievable how time flies! This book changed the trajectory of my career entirely and it is why I work in picture books to this day. That’s why I think we should kick off talking about picture books here on Mama Wolf by looking at Leaf.
It’s amazing to see many schools using it as part of their curriculum today. CLPE, the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education in the UK, has put together some fantastic learning resources for Years 1 & 2, addressing different topics like climate change, animals and habitats, empathy and kindness, and refugee experiences.
Excited school children send me poems and drawings, which is beyond all I had ever hoped for when I went into picture books. For children to connect with my stories. Now, that I have a five-year-old daughter myself, I truly understand the power of stories and reading on little people's lives and development. I’m so glad my own life took me down this path of working in illustration. Becoming an illustrator and author was not something I had planned. You could say it found me!
To celebrate my debut book baby I would like to show you some of the making that went into it here on Mama Wolf. But rather than overwhelming you with lots of artwork and writing at once, I want to concentrate on one facet of the process at a time. Today that is looking at roughs vs final picture book art.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Mama Wolf to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.