Let's Dissect A Picturebook Spread

            Hi SCBWI friends! My name is Sibu TP. I’m an illustrator and writer and my author-illustrator debut, Home, Home, released this past August (yay!) through Viking Press.

(Pictured above: it me)

I’m super happy to be able to speak to you all this month. I’m a big believer that it's the specific details that carry the universal lessons, so I'm going to share some of how I work. Ultimately, I’m hoping it will be more helpful than naval-gazing, haha. Ok, here we go…

In this post, I’m going to walk you through my illustration process for one of the spreads in Home, Home. 

(Pictured above: Home, Home in thumbnails)

As with the majority of books (I see you, picture-less picture books), Home, Home started with the thumbnails. Here’s the entire book laid out in thumbnails. (spoiler alert!).

The earliest versions of the thumbnails are way rougher. Just like you would do with each individual drawing, when you're plotting the entire book, you think more broadly. First it's the larger shapes and then you work your way into the finer details.

By the time we were really cooking with the manuscript and the layout, I started tightening up more and more. I added that gray mid-tone to help flesh out the light source(s) – this also really helps with mapping how I want to direct the readers’ eyes on each page. It also helps with showing how varied the spreads are.

I’ll be focusing on this spread right here:

So a little background: this book is a fish out of water story. In this moment, my main character, Ajesh, is visiting his parents' homeland (Kerala, India). In the previous spread, they land and he's immediately pictured as being separated from everyone around him. In this spread, it's the opposite. This spread is supposed to depict a feeling of claustrophobia while also maintaining that feeling of seclusion.

So to depict this, I decided to throw him right into a busy street.

People everywhere. Dust being kicked up. Signage that's unfamiliar. The perspective of the illustration is eye-level with Ajesh and we stay in his world. Everyone around him is taller and they're all walking in the same direction. He's caught in that forward momentum. What he does have is his sketchbook. It's the one source of familiarity to him, a piece of refuge.

(Picture above: color compositions)

So from the initial thumbnails, I go to color compositions. Here's two examples above. I went through several iterations of this spread to see where I'd want color to be placed and deciding on the color palette. It's great to consider as much as you can before moving forward to finals. It sounds a little obvious, I guess because it is, but all these small decisions really help bring to focus what that initial idea is. And that's kind've what you're chasing: that first moment of imagery.

(Pictured above: the pencil drawing)

Once these decisions are made, I start on finals. I realized early on in making Home, Home that I draw better with pencil. My last illustrated book, A Taste of Home, was done completely in Procreate. I'm pretty new to digital art, so Procreate is a great stepping off point for me. While I was making that book, something felt off that I couldn't place.

When I started making traditional work again, I knew exactly what it was. The drawing just felt different when it was pencil and paper. It was more comfortable, more intuitive.

(Pictured above: first pass of paint)

So when I work now, I feel it out more. There's no set point in how far I take the traditional side. For this spread, i really just mapped out light. Warm and cool, warm and cool. What will the light be touching and what will be bathed in shadow. Once I laid this thin layer of acrylic paint out over the drawing, I felt like I wanted to move forward to the next phase.
I think it's good to stay loose with process. I'm sure as I get older and work more (knock on wood ;)) I'll start to settle in more and more to a set process, but I like that there's a level of spontaneity right now and being open to change and adaptability is exciting to me. So for this, I moved to digital at this above phase. For other pages, I pushed the acrylic paint phase further before doing light final touches in Procreate.

(Pictured above: first digital pass)

This is where the noodling and the fine detailing comes in. In this case, it's a lot of signage and patterns/textures and background actors. So many of the decisions were already made. So now, it's just a matter of nudging it across the finish line. Because everything is more or less decided, any additions or changes will be generally minor and so it won't be too difficult to make. Speaking of which...

(Pictured above: the final!)

Pro tip: nothing makes things better than a pupper (or a kitty). This is where I ended up. In place of having a crowd of too many people, I made the people in the image more varied visually. He's still caught in a crowd of people, but the amount of people, the strange environment, and the different patters around him are all contributing to how jarring this new place is for our Ajesh.

(Pictured above: my book Home, Home)

If you this post interested you, please click the cover art here and it'll take you to where you can find my book. My contact info is below, please feel free to hit me up! Happy art-making, friends! Until next time.

About Me

I’m a storyteller. I make picture books that tell stories that aren’t often told, whether they be cultural or societal. They are rich, colorful, and touch on universal stories to the masses through specific, small details and moments. I work through the belief that we’re all connected by our relationships and our emotions, and all of the small moments in life that are captured in my illustrations. Born and raised in New York, I am a first-generation child of immigrants. I spent a great deal of my childhood years scribbling and sketching, dreaming and imagining. Today, I tell stories through picture books.I received my BA in English Literature at Stony Brook University and my MFA in Illustration at the Hartford Art School. ​When I'm not in front of a drawing board, I've got my camera in tow, taking pictures while hiking, and running from squirrels.

You can find me @sibutp on all the things, mainly Instagram

sibudraws.com

sibup.art@gmail.com

(Pictured above: Actual me, hi!)

Colors Are Relative (part one) - Illustrator AC Bodnar Plays with Color Theory and Practice

Did you know that in many ancient cultures, the ocean was described as "wine" colored because they didn't have a word for blue? I was gob-smacked by that, and amazed to learn that the way we perceive colors is so relative to what other colors are around them.

A.C. Bodnar explores this with some theory and four illustrations that are broken down and analyzed in her post Color Theory Practice: Playing Around with Color Relativity.

One of the illustrations, broken down by color

As A.C. explains it,

If you do not know what color relativity is, and color theory more broadly, let me endeavor to explain it as well as I am able. Essentially, our eyes do a lot of adjusting as we look at the world. Our brains want to see a full spectrum of colors like you see under white light/sunlight and will change our perception of what we look at to achieve that. The first time that I actively noticed and engaged with this in my life was with ski goggles (though sunglasses, blue light glasses, or any other tinted eyewear have a similar effect). I remember the first time my dad buckled me into little kid skis, strapped a helmet to my head, and snapped on a pair goggles, so tiny that I was still young enough for free lift tickets (I wonder if they still do those). I whined when my goggles came on because they turned the world orange. How could I have a beautiful snowy day if everything was orange?! My dad told me to just wait because, in no time, I wouldn’t notice it anymore and things would look normal. To my surprise, he was right. Soon enough, the world appeared the almost same as it would have if I was just seeing it under white light, despite the fact that what I was actually seeing could only be the orange light that passed through the lens of my goggles. And then, when I took my googles off, the world was so eye-searingly blue and bright that I could hardly look at it! Transfixed, I remember taking my goggles on and off, waiting for my eyes to adjust and then immediately switching back. I did not understand it at the time, but what I was witnessing was color theory (along with some optics, but I am artist, not a physicist). 

It's fascinating reading (and by reading I mean spending time with both the words and the illustrations.) 

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

When in Doubt: Change Locations!

Have you ever felt super stuck?

Like the jar of a lid that refuses to budge stuck?

Like you wore too many socks with your snow boots and now you can’t get them off stuck?

Like you typed some words and deleted them just to type the same words again stuck?

Like why am I even attempting this because it won’t be good stuck?

    Perhaps you get to the point where, out of desperation, you try something new. Recently, I impulsively booked a writing retreat. I thought I might try the “change your location” trick to get myself writing again. Amazingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it worked. In addition, by leaving my space and writing somewhere new, I also remembered the habits I used to have within my own studio space to create this same kind of experience at home: a desk for writing, a table for drawing, a couch for reading (Admittedly, most of my work gets done on the couch).  

A sunset at the Highlights Foundation

  I realize this is not new or original advice. I also realize that many of us can’t impulsively book writing retreats and run away from other obligations. However, as I was walking during a writing break while on retreat, I had a realization: this advice doesn’t just work to get your creative wheels turning again. It can also help get your story or art unstuck.

Is your story super stuck?

Like your character has run out of things to say stuck?

Like you need to get to a plot point but what you just wrote won’t get you there stuck?

    Try changing locations! If you are bored with your story or character, consider putting them in a new setting and see what happens. What do you discover about your character? Your story? Who do they meet? How do they change? What secrets does this uncover for them? For your story? Now, with the answers to those questions, infuse new life into your project.

    The same can go for portfolio development or when creating a book dummy.

Is your art super stuck?

Like you always draw the same characters and emotions stuck?

Like you have created all your stories in the same setting stuck?

    Try changing locations! If you are bored with your art, try putting your characters in new settings and see what happens. What would they do in that location? Who would they meet? How do they feel about it? What angle would add to the emotion of the scene? Can you create sequential images of the same character in different settings? Now, with the answers to those questions, start creating some new art.

    

Take your characters on a journey. Illustration by Anne Appert 

    One thing to avoid when changing locations is relying to much on here-to-there scenes to hit your word count. In writing, consider what is most important in the journey to the changed location and cut everything else. Do we even need the in between scene? Can this just be a writing aid to get you to the next chapter? In art, the journey should still tell a story. Even when creating sequential art, consider what is most important to show to tell the entire story, and cut everything else. Do we need to see every action between each illustration? Or can these just be an illustration aid to get you to the next scene? The here-to-there may be useful for you as a creator, but remember to trust your readers or viewers to be able to fill in the gaps in order to create your strongest work.

    I wish I could book a trip every time I felt super stuck. However, I can change my characters’ locations in my stories or in my art when I am feeling creatively stumped. These could just be exercises that help me know my characters better, that give me new ideas for my stories, or that introduce me to a new illustration style I want to investigate further. Even if these journeys don’t end up in my stories or in my art, they were worth the time to get me from there to here.

From stuck to inspired.

It could even bring us from I don’t know why I do this stuck to I remembered what I love about the process inspired.

I hope it does!

 

Anne Appert (they/them ) is a nonbinary author/illustrator who spent their childhood with their nose stuck in a book, while their wild imagination transformed their New Jersey backyard into faraway places. Anne still enjoys spending time in their backyard dreaming, and now their imagination turns their dreams into words and pictures for children. Anne wrote and illustrated their debut book Blob, which was published by HarperCollins in Fall of 2021. Their second book What If You Wish? will publish with HarperCollins in 2024. They are a member of SCBWI, from which they received an honor in the 2021 Conference Portfolio Showcase. When not writing and illustrating, Anne enjoys teaching college students, dying their hair every color of the rainbow, and attempting to roller skate. You can see their work at anneappert.com.