new book beginnings ~ db « My Secret Elephant

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new book beginnings ~ db

2009/08/03 at 6:37 pm | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | Leave a Comment

Grrr! This is the part I dislike the most – spending 3 days trying to work out a composition. Somewhere in those scribbles lies the answer (which I’ve since figured out).

It’s been really hot recently, which hasn’t helped the work process. But at the end of each frustrating drawing day, I took myself down to the ocean and went for a swim, and tried to solve the drawing in my head while I bobbed in the waves. Getting out of the studio like that helps me think of things in a different way. Thinking about the illustration while I’m swimming helps me not think about how dark the water is and what might be swimming around underneath me.