Wee Puffling - roughs

When I'm making a picture book I draw as I write. I find it hard write a story without the pictures so when I send my ideas to my editor and art director it looks like this... 

Page turns are really important in picture books so it helps me to edit my work if I lay it out like a book.  The thing that's really important to know is that in these idea stages your drawings can look like this. They can look better, they can look worse, but there's a reason they are called roughs and so my drawings are exactly that. It's important I show composition and where the text will fit but more detail is not required. At this early stage things are easier to move around, and they often will move, if they're kept simple. All I've marked in is the blue of the sea, and that was just for clarity. The sea plays and important part in the book and I think it helps make sense of the picture. 

This image didn't change too drastically throughout but this was the next stage...

As you can see I needed more puffins. Also the art director has set the text in the font we're using at the correct size which helps me to size the speech bubbles. If anything needs to move this will be discussed and suggested by the art director too, it just hasn't happened on this particular page.

At this stage some editors and art directors may want to see colour ideas or main character drawings but I'd worked with this publisher before so I wasn't asked for any of this. I also rarely plan colours ahead but I send artwork as and when I have it early on to get their feedback and make sure we're all happy with how it's looking.

Here's the final image...

You can see that we've changed the opening line. We played around with this quite a bit. This book is sort of a cousin to Wee Unicorn so we wanted the opening line to echo the first line of that book, and to make sure it was really clear to readers what was happening.

Wee Puffling is out now!

Making Wee Puffling

Wee Puffling is a picture book about a young puffling who doesn't want to go out to sea with the other puffins. He loves his home too much. Instead, he decides to hide and is shocked to suddenly discover he is alone on the island. Wee Puffling must set off on an adventure of his own to find his friends.

The artwork for the book was made with paint and assembled digitally. The process echoes the way screen prints are made except I don't print my images on paper, I make them on my computer as it's easier to experiment and make adjustments.

All of the puffin outlines were drawn in pencil.

I chose to draw all the other animals digitally in Procreate. Their outlines just looked better that way. Once I had my outline drawn I would print out the spread at a small size to use as the guide to paint over.

My printer is old and only prints in red now.

I was using a limited palette and would paint each colour separately. These separations are painted in black because it scans clearly. Once I have them scanned into my computer I make them the correct colour. The painted separations look like this.

I paint them on tracing paper so I can see the drawing underneath as I paint, and I can make sure each new colour is in the right place. Sometimes I want two colours to overlap to make a third colour. Imagine the layers like coloured glass. Where there is only yellow it will be yellow. Where there is only blue it will be blue. But where the yellow and blue overlap it will create green.

All the layers spread out. Top to bottom will be blue, pink, yellow.

Layered on top of one another. They can look quite confusing in this state.

Let's add some colour! 

This is the outline layer with the yellow painted layer. And below is the teal layer.

If we overlap them we get this...

The pink layer looks like this...

When we put the pink over the other two colours it looks like this...

The oranges are made when the pink and yellow overlap, and the seal's skin where the teal and pink overlap. There's also a dark purple layer...

When you put all the colours together, add some white details for whiskers and bubbles, and add a shadow layer to show we're underwater you get this final image...

I love using limited colours. It makes me think about colour in a more exciting way. And I love the way it looks.

Wee Puffling is out now!

Cover Reveal - Watts and Whiskerton Book 4

It's June my next Watts and Whiskerton book has just gone off to print. It's a wintry mystery set on a steam train so I have spent the past year or two drawing snow. (Book three is also a snow-filled adventure.)

It will be published in November when we're all wrapped up hats and mittens again.

Here's a peek at the cover.

Tasked with guarding a fortune in stolen gold aboard the Midnight Express, the world's most secure sleeper train, the dog-and-cat duo are ready for anything. Or so they think . . .

When the train screeches to a halt in the middle of a snowy forest and the gold vanishes from the vault, all paws point to Patsy Caboose, the eccentric security goose. But something doesn't add up.

With suspects on board, clues in every carriage and a mystery that's going off the rails, can Watts and Whiskerton crack the case before the train reaches its final stop?

Mischief on the Midnight Express is available to pre-order now.

Wee Puffling - colours

I thought I'd make a little post about the colours used in Wee Puffling. 

Firstly, I have to admit that pufflings are not purple. They're grey and black and white like this.

From my sketchbook

And they don't have the lovely colourful beaks the older puffins have, a look I much prefer. 

I thought kids would identify the traditional puffin colours easier and though our main character is often alone (searching for the other birds) I wanted to make sure that he stood out when all the puffins were together. 

While I'm writing I do all my rough drawings without colour, although I do mark in the sea. So I don't really worry too much about character design or colours at this point.

a rough page

But as the story got closer to being done I started to do some colour tests to find Wee Puffling's feather colour.

I knew the backgrounds were going to be bright like in Wee Unicorn so whatever colour I picked had to stand out against those colours and also sit well with the other puffins. As I began working on the final artwork I still hadn't settled on a feather colour so I would do tests against the finished backgrounds and send them to my art director to see what she thought.

Some variations I sent to my art director, Katie.

This is when I was trying a more traditional puffin look. I was also experimenting with beak colours and outline thickness. I tried painted feather details but they weren't as subtle as the pencil drawn ones.

I'd settled on the puffin group having this dark blue, almost black, feather colour and so I thought a lighter grey might work for Wee Puffling but it was too dull.

As a little last minute experiment I switched to a lilac. Something that felt quite grey but still young and bright. I was worried it might feel too faint and sent this purple too...

And this was the colour the art director and I liked best. It's so helpful to have a second opinion. 

The background colours are as limited as Wee Unicorn but tonally different. And where Wee Unicorn has its darkest colour be a navy blue, Wee Puffling has a dark purple to tie in with the feather colour.

This is the rough of the first double spread when all puffins are together.

Compositionally I've tried to draw focus to my main character as best I can by giving him more height and space around him. But as you can see having his own dedicated colour helps to pick him out too. Nothing else in the book is the same colour as Wee Puffling so that every time we look for him we find him easily.

Wee Puffling is available to buy now. 

Or you can borrow it from your local library.

Wee Puffling is out today!

My latest picture book, Wee Puffling, is out today! 

When all the other puffins head out to sea for the winter Wee Puffling decides to hide, and finds himself suddenly all alone.

At first life alone on the island is fun but he soon misses his friends and heads off on an adventure to find them. Here are a few of the creatures he meets along the way.

Seals!

Sea turtles!

Laid back otters

I could draw jellyfish all day

Wee Puffling is available to buy in all good bookshops. If they don't have a copy on the shelf you can just ask them to order one. Or you can buy it wherever you get your books or by clicking here.

A look inside The Great Glacier Hotel Heist

 I've been so busy working on Watts and Whiskerton book 4 (publishing in November this year) that I didn't realise how long it'd been since I posted anything here. I haven't even shown you what to expect from book 3! So here's a peek at the insides of The Great Glacier Hotel Heist!

Watts is excited to on his first ever family holiday, and especially thrilled that Pearl has been invited too.

They are visiting the Great Glacier Hotel and Ski Resort. Here's a map of the hotel. This will help eagle- eyed detectives to solve the case.

Sadly, Pearl has injured her paw but she doesn't let that slow her down when a mystery arrives. It turns out that the president of Trotskovia is staying in the hotel to transport The Ice Crystal, a priceless necklace, back home with her, But when a jewel thief strikes and the necklace is stolen, Mr and Mrs Watts find themselves under arrest!

And then the president goes missing!

And a snowbeast is seen in the grounds of the hotel!

It's up to Watts and Pearl to find out how all of these curious events are connected and capture the jewel thief. Can they do it? Of course they can. But can they ski? Well...

The Great Glacier Hotel Heist is available to buy now. Ask at your local bookshop, or wherever you like to buy your books, and don't forget you can borrow it from your library too.

If you'd like a more summery adventure why not try Sabotage at the Fete Cake Bake. Featuring teamwork, baking disasters and a thief! Can our budding detecives solve this cake catastrophe and earn and a first class ribbon for baking too? 

You can read more about it by clicking here.

Or Buried Bones and Troublesome Treasure. Featuring a budding detective duo, dinosaur bones and a museum break in. Can Watts and Pearl work out what's been going on?

You can dig up more dirt on that mystery here.

Cover reveal - Watts and Whiskerton book 3

 Hello! This is an exciting day because I can finally reveal the cover for Watts and Pearl's next adventure: The Great Glacier Hotel Heist.

Watts is looking forward to a holiday at the Great Glacier Hotel and Ski Resort. But when they arrive, his and Pearl's quiet vacation soon turns into another high-stakes investigation: the priceless Ice Crystal has been stolen from the hotel safe, and his parents are the prime suspects!

Will Watts and Pearl be able to clear Mr and Mrs Watts' names? And will they be able to catch the real jewel thief? This dog and cat detective duo will have to navigate through heavy snow, suspicious staff, and a locked room mystery. But will they manage to ski, sleuth and save the day?

It publishes next year but is available for pre-order now by clicking here.

Or you can ask your lovely local bookshop to order you one in.