so far

Best laid plans went up in smoke early. Although what I learned was that it’s less exhausting if you go with the current than against it. Might not end up where you thought you’d be but better able to deal with what ever’s there because you’re happy and ready to go. 

January and most of February was swallowed by covid. Then a short holiday to Eden and home the long way through Canberra. Stayed with my sister-in-law and her husband , their construction is underway and making progress, I saw my niece and her beautiful family, fossicked in second hand stores and gift shops and played around in nature. Back in time to start the year in March.

With that, I’ve been quoting on some freelance work and about to start a book which the manuscript is on it’s way, but the best thing has been finally getting involved in a challenge on Twitter I’ve been stalking since, forever. #colour_collective  Has been going for a long while and run by an illustrator out of the UK, thus the spelling and one of the reasons I started following it. They post two colours (it used to be one, but now it’s two) and you have a week to create a picture with those colours. Some use it sparingly, others intensively, all look fab! These are some of mine:

Divas

Leaf season

Lily pond

Frog chorus

Fishies

Last blooms

I see such amazing diversity of work using #colour_collective and I try to like all of them (sorry if i missed anyones (eek!)). I often covet different illustration styles, marvelling at how these geniuses work, just amazing!

You can follow me @_essayer on Twitter and see all the other #colour_collective drawings they’re great!

Cheers!

Earth Matters: How to make a book, from catastrophic fires and through a pandemic

Part 2: Pandemic ahoy!

Winning a portfolio review from Donna was a step out of my comfort zone. But I needed a poke and I didn’t know what I might actually get out of it. Hopefully, some direction, what to watch out for or where my strengths and weaknesses were.

When Donna arranged for me to meet Maryann from Wild Dog Books, I was a bit overwhelmed. Finally, the negative self-talk was shut down and there was silence. What a buzz. Is that what confident people get every day?!?

Maryann loved the infographic work I’d been doing, and liked my style. So I was asked if would I be interested in illustrating Carole Wilkinsons book for primary aged children about climate change? Would I be able to do it on a short timeframe, as it’s going to be taken to Bologna in May? Yes and YES! - try and stop me!

But low, what is that on the horizon? ...Ruby Princess.

I heard nothing more about the book. Problems with the printers. Bologna cancelled. Small beans really, people were dying.

But after the first shutdown in Melbourne, we were able to get started. Donna will be the book designer and hold my hand through the process. YAY!

I began by reading the text and talking through each page with Donna from the layouts she had sent through.

With a lightbox and each page, I sketched and placed what went where. Larger full-page infographics were given special treatment. Some, I had to do sums on!

The infographic work I’d done in the past was faceless - that is each of the little characters I drew had no facial features. I thought about changing this, but came to the conclusion - it wasn’t a narrative and I didn’t want to comment or provide any editorial on what any reader might interpret from the text. Just the facts.

Each of these were then photographed with the iPad and sent as a PDF for Donna to check and send feedback.

While waiting I looked at colour palettes, one of my favourite things to hunt around for. I like muted tones with a retro feel but I did need a dark - but not black - and I wanted it not to be gendered. Setting myself a palette keeps everything consistent and cohesive throughout the book.

To help, I needed to see it in a picture so picked a page and did three different colour versions. We all liked the same one *phew*

Shutdown 2 became imminent.

I packed up my lightbox, some paper and pencils, my iPad and set up at home to do it all in Procreate.

We watched Dan’s presser every day.

As each page was approved I worked up a set of colour roughs.

I set the page size in Procreate and photographed the rough. Laying the image on the artboard on the iPad. Making it 50% transparency and drew the finals over, just like tracing on the lightbox but straight into the drawing program using an Apple Pencil.

We watched Dan’s presser every day.

While waiting for approval, I made a few images to post as a small way of channelling some lightness past peoples eyes as they doomscrolled.

There were a lot more, which you can’t find on my instagram, as well as some colouring sheets which you can get here

As the colour roughs were approved, I finessed and tidied the images.

Phone meetings with Donna were like a little bit of light, someone different to talk to, something new to focus on. They were long rambling chats and I needed it.

Text was edited, layouts changed, more roughs were drawn.

We watched Dan’s presser every day.

My fancy printer was at the studio and with the shutdown, we were discouraged from going, and can I just say - it was a bit scary in and around the city with only a few people, one coffee shop and police roaming around.

I trusted the technology and I trusted Donna, and I was right to. It worked. Donna did an amazing job and we all deserve a nice cup of tea and chocolate biscuit or something cold and sparkling to celebrate.

Oh, and by-the-by, I picked up my single advance copy right before Shutdown 3.

And it looks great :)

Earth Matters: How to make a book, from catastrophic fires and through a pandemic

Part 1: Catastrophic fires can’t stop my self promotion

The story of how I got to illustrate this book is just as amazing as getting it done. Really, it is.

It all began with the 2019/2020 new year. We’d decided as a family to go and camp at the block my sister-in-law and her husband own. Spending a couple of days seeing in the new year, singing songs around the campfire, swimming in the cool clear waters of the Sapphire Coast, doing the Merimbula Shuffle (where you and all the other tourists wander up and down the main street of Merimbula), just like last year!

But it had already begun.

By the time we got there, the rest of the camp was on high alert. Not a lot of action in town, people staying put. Weary and worried, we were welcomed nervously. With the smoke already in the air, we settled in the best we could.

The next day we went to the beach, while there, a cavalcade of caravans and campers started setting up in an area not to be used for that purpose. Word spread. They’d been evacuated from Mallacoota.

The following morning, we went and did the Merimbula Shuffle, that is, we walked up and down the main street of Merimbula looking in the shops and eating all the foods.

We went back to the camp packed everything up leaving only what we actually needed to put our hands on, just in case. We had dinner at Eden’s Fishermans Club, deciding not to head too far away from the camp - but trying to get out of the smoke.

With the red glow showing over the mountain at the back of the block, we had a nervous night at the camp. Ash was everywhere when we woke up. Camp Leader decided we needed to move closer to town, out of the bush land. They had a friend with an empty house not far from town and we would all stay there. We made sure the cars had full tanks. The smoke was very thick by now, and everything was orange. The road to Melbourne was closed. The road to Canberra was closed.

NYE was stressful - to say the least.

New year’s day dawned and we woke to the news that the road to Canberra was open. We didn’t hesitate. We got the last of our belongings packed and we headed out in a convoy.

Camp Leader decided to stay.

So we went home the long way. Nose to tail until Cooma. We were on the road for 14 hours, with a short stop in Canberra. We were safe. A bit smokey, very tired and with raspy voices.

We continued to watch the emergency apps, hoping then camp and Camp Leader was keeping safe.

Alerts and stories were being shared all over Twitter: what can we do, who can we, help, where can we help. Celeste Barber had raised so much money but it was set up for a narrow band of recipients, so different parts of the community started to step up. #AuthorsForFireys  was born. Led by Emily Gale, it created a way for established Authors and Illustrators on Twitter to provide services like manuscript reads or portfolio reviews or query letter finessing or signed copies of works etc... Ran as an auction it raised over $500,000 (AUD).

I spied a little tweet.

I put in a bid and da da dahhhhh... I won a portfolio review!

It was from that quick look at my website that Donna saw something for a friend in the industry, and from there the rest is in the previous post. 

So out of the catastrophic fires came a book illustrator. Hopefully, that’s the last time that happens and the next one comes from a quiet search through portfolio sites. No more fires, thanks.

Stay tuned for Part 2: Pandemic Ahoy! 

Cheers,

…and Camp Leader and camp were all ok too.

Pandemic shutdown continues... :(

It’s been an interesting time here in Melbourne. Shutdown 2: electric boogaloo might just be done with next week (fingers crossed) but we are not counting any chickens and I don’t think it’ll be opening up without restrictions.

Still, I’ve been practicing more with Procreate and am about to update to the latest version so a new learning curve begins - nothing but excitement about the changes… Before I do that though, I have been working on a book and until I know they’re happy with what has been delivered so far I don’t want mess around with the software. This is in case there is any loss of data. Over cautious, probably, and I have backed up all the drawings, I just might let the it settle for a bit.

So aside from the book I’ve been giving flowers to anyone. Well, via Instagram, and they’re drawings…

I’ve also had a bit of success with the animation features. They are easy tools and great to make simple gifs. I can see a lot more of this happening.

I’ve also been up to my old tricks with statues, which you can see on instagram, and you can it check out here: https://www.instagram.com/_essayer/

Cheers!

Colouring in!

The walks taken as exercise while at home isolating with my family produced a sketchbook (previous post). All fantastical landscapes, some including waterfalls.

After a suggestion from my resident art director to turn them into colouring pages and subsequent gentle nudges from them, I’ve been beavering away doing just that.

There has been nobody in the studio to distract me. The whole building has been very quiet. It’s even been hard to get a coffee – in Melbourne!. As a result I’ve been very focused and diligent. I promise.

It’s been a challenge to translate the small A5 rough sketch, with the pencil lead smeared and blurry lines. It was a long process to clean them up, fix any composition errors and generally make them able to be used for colouring.

I began with a scan, make them into PDF format then print them as A3, trace them off (again and again), correct errors (again and again) and set my visual language so they’re consistent.

Et voilà

You can head over to the new freebies page for a high resolution download to print them out on your printer and have at them! I’d love to see the results of your colouring so if you post them on Instagram or Twitter make sure you tag me, @_essayer so I get a notification.

I’ll be working on a few more in the coming months, sign up to the mailing list, follow me on twitter or instagram and I’ll let you know when they’re available.

Cheers,

Pandemic wanderings

Like almost everybody I stayed at home from 23rd March at home until after the Easter break. I’d brought some supplies back home with the view to improving some skills, getting back to basics and exploring some mediums I hadn’t had a chance to get into in a meaningful way for a very long time.

Needless to say, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Not only was I at home, so was everyone else. Where we live is quite a spacious apartment, in theory. Four adults certainly make it feel a bit constrained and I’ve always found it hard to do much with an audience. The thing I’ve learnt about myself is that I’m a loner. Consequently not much experimenting and learning went on.

So instead I took the opportunity to explore the parks nearby. On my own or with a companion from our house I wandered around The Alexandra & The Queen Victoria Gardens and The Kings Domain.

There are sculptures, fountains, a fernery and The Pioneer Women‘s Garden, ducks and bush turkeys. And some the best landscaped public toilets.

Taking my time to see the same gardens repeatedly gave me the opportunity to see things I’d missed, to be amazed and fascinated by the way things grew together and apart, to see the repetition of the planting, how it all coalesced into such a glorious and enjoyable space.

The lush leafy foliage, got ticking over in my brain and so I sat and doodled in a sketchbook with no expectations or rules. It was lovely to play with perspective, interpret what I’d seen, stylise the lush leafiness and image landscapes.

The results were a fantasy, but drew on the experience of the walks and waterfalls seen and explored.

These simple doodled sketchbook drawings have given life to a new project. Now back in the studio I’m creating something new, from something I created from walks I did, enjoying the creativity of the gardeners.

Keep safe and cheers to you all,