Freya's Four Stages of Drawing

There's nothing better than knowing you've got another job to start when you finally finish the one that's running late. And I really can't imagine a better job than being an illustrator of children's books. But I've been noticing a bit of a cycle developing, and it seems to be spinning slower with each rotation.

I'm currently working on the first book in a series called "The Cleo Stories" written by Libby Gleeson and due for publication in 2014 by Allen & Unwin. This 64 page storybook was going to be quick and easy, but woah, there's a lot of drawing in a 64 page book. And I've rather extended the work load by having many full page colour drawings and a detailed aerial view on the endpapers (something left over from the 'anything is possible' period - see below).

I've noticed a series of stages I go through when illustrating a book. The first stage- the early excitement that comes with starting every new book when anything is possible- has well and truly passed now. This stage is characterised by scrawled interpretations of the interesting things you imagine in your head. They don't make any sense, but editors will pretend they understand exactly what is depicted.

Following this is the creation of 'roughs', which is simultaneously my favourite part of the process for the expressive and free drawings that result, but also the hardest because it can be so excrutiatingly difficult to solve the various problems creatively. This stage is where the first ideas are drawn up in slightly more detail to see if they work alongside the text and alongside each other. This is always much harder that expected. The lovely thing about this stage though is you don't have to draw the details you can't be bothered drawing - you only have to convey the general feeling. And there is a lovely freedom in this. Without exception, these drawings are always nicer than the next in the process.

Following this stage is the mind numbing period when everything must be drawn for the THIRD time, all the while trying desperately hard to pretend that it's the first time. Everything becomes slow and even though I sit at my desk and work, days pass without a useful line drawn. It's very hard to dodge the inevitable tightness that these drawings tend to have.

This stage can feel like an eternity but suddenly it morphs into a much more frantic period when I just need to get the blasted book finished. By this stage I'm left with all the drawings I didn't particularly like, and all those I couldn't work out in the earlier stages when there was some creativity flowing somewhere. And through sheer desperation, I make marks on the page that just have to do.

This is where I am at the moment.

But following this stage is the wonderful moment when colour is introduced and remnants of that early excitement return. I'm happy to say that I'm very, very close to arriving there. And so, I will return, in colour and full of positivity!

Lovely Cartwheel - Characters Who Design Themselves

I've been really enjoying this little character called Cartwheel, from a book I'm doing called My Two Blankets, written by Irena Kobald. Cartwheel is a very timid little girl, sheltering next to or behind her aunty. She's moved to a place that is so strange to her that she no longer feels like herself.

I don't tend to spend all that much time designing characters. I don't know whether I'm supposed to do more or not, but they seem to sort themselves out while I work on the rest of the book. I might do some quick initial character sketches, like these ones I did back at the beginning of the year when I started the book.

It's an especially lovely moment when a character gets colour for the first time. And Cartwheel was no exception, with her warm, saturated colour against a cool and pale background. It took me by surprise when I discovered Cartwheel had developed into such a beautiful little child, full of subtlety in her posture and expression. Here she is with her aunty.

Cartwheel seemed to have designed herself and was in complete control.  In some drawings of her, I couldn't even really remember drawing them - it was all her, quietly reworking a drawing until it expressed exactly how she felt.

Cartwheel and her aunty have been my work companions for six months now. They've been very quiet and shy but I'll miss them dreadfully when I've finished. Only a few more days of their company left...

My Two Blankets will be published some time in 2014 I guess, by Little Hare Books.

BANJO & RUBY RED Becomes A Book

Look what has become a real book! 

You can open it, smell it, turn the pages and READ it!  

It's got a quarter binding that looks and feels really nice. And the cover has my two favourite colours on it. 

And so far, there's nothing about it I don't like. 

Banjo & Ruby Red, written by Libby Gleeson, is a lovely story about the antagonism and eventual friendship between an old farm dog called Banjo, and a haughty chicken called Ruby Red. 

My dad, who isn't one to come out and say anything too gushy,  got a bit emotional at one point in the story and I deduced that he really liked it! 

Banjo & Ruby Red is coming out in August, but I believe my local bookshop unpacked some today. 

Here are some of my favourite images:

Horizontal Surfaces

A book can be all encompassing. I work for months, half a year, a year on a book. Everything else falls by the wayside - the lawn doesn't get mowed, the cobwebs build up, the dust bunnies take over.

And it can feel like I've achieved nothing in a long time. Then all of a sudden I turn a corner and discover a stack of watercolour boards with paintings on them and realise that the ideas I've had in my head actually might work on paper. It feels pretty good.

Of course, everything else looks like this:

And this:

And even in the house every horizontal surface is littered with stuff.

It's all good stuff though, and I'm certain it's better to have a table covered in creative bits and pieces than devoid of anything. That's what I tell myself anyway.

It's been an ongoing problem. Here's a drawing I did several years ago of this horizontal surface syndrome. 

Strange People on Trains

Enjoyed drawing these people...

Close ups from a page of a new book called My Two Blankets, written by Irena Kobald.

The Runaway Hug in Japan

It's always very exciting when one of your books finds a publisher overseas. Last week the Japanese version of The Runaway Hug arrived on my doorstep.

The covers of overseas editions can vary from the original, sometimes quite a bit! Countries have different aesthetic values, or the market calls for a different approach. (See the Korean cover below, with bright yellow hearts for added appeal...)

The Japanese version is a lovely edition of The Runaway Hug, with a different image on the cover, a snazzy dust jacket and a fabulous picture on the back. Thumbs up to the Japanese designer!

I particularly like the title font.

And a friend sent a photo of the book in the Kinokuniya bookshop in Tokyo. Thanks Owen!

The Runaway Hug can now be found in Japan, Korea, the United States and Canada (in French and English). Here's the Korean version, sporting some yellow hearts!

Miss Quick Snout Strikes Again

Art Alfresco is on again in Orange in conjunction with Food Week and this year, for the first time, I attempted a painting for the outside exhibition. Forty local artists were given a collection of still life images to use as inspiration for a large painting (1m x 1m). All forty paintings have now been hung on the South Court Wall of the Orange Regional Gallery and the collection look fantastic! If you live in Orange you should pass by the gallery to have a look. 

My painting titled "Miss Quick Snout and the Fate of the Lone Lamb Cutlet" features our lovely but very sneaky whippet, Pivot. That particular lamb cutlet, cooked the night before to use as reference for the painting, was stolen before I'd even finished painting it. And later that day she also stole four banana muffins. She's one seriously fast but extremely naughty dog.