Not-So-Weekly Update: I Finished A Picture Book!

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve completed my first picture book! It’s approximately thirty pages in total with multiple full-page illustrations. I had an absolute blast making it and I already want to start another one. Here’s a potential COVER REVEAL! I’m not sure if this will be exactly the cover for the final product, as I still have a lot to learn about typography, but it’s definitely a good start.

For this picture book, I challenged myself to not look at a single reference and draw everything from my head. I did this because it’s the #1 thing I have always struggled with in drawing, and it was the biggest thing holding me back from making picture books.

My Friends Are Weird follows the journey of a young girl telling the reader about how weird and strange her friends are. I wanted the title to sound a little controversial - the intention was for parents to question the nature of the book. I imagined parents thinking something like: “Why is this book trying to teach kids that it’s okay to call their friends weird?”

But then they open it to the second page, which reveals the main character’s friend Sarah:

Sarah is a blob fish monster with creepy eyes, but the reason she’s weird is … because she sings in the shower? The rest of her friends follow the same kind of pattern, where they look weird but the actual reason that they’re weird is for something that is arguably completely normal.

The second half of the book turns her friends “weirdness” into strengths. For example, Sarah is weird for singing in the shower, but…

Don’t worry, I won’t reveal all the pages here, but the book ends with a surprising and lovely twist that I think young readers will enjoy. PS: there is evidence of the twist in the cover if you look hard enough - let me know your guesses!

I chose a font called “Kindred” for the book that was created based on old silent movies. I was also inspired by Jon Klassen, and an interview with him where he explains that he likes to convey stories through the eyes of his characters. The characters in Jon Klassen’s picture books don’t move around much or look all that different on each page, however the pacing and the way he illustrates the eyes are hilarious. I tried to do the same thing by focusing on the eyes, but I made them look creepy, with tiny pupils and lots of dark folds.

I really like this book because on one hand, it’s just a funny and cute story, but on the other, it’s a socio-political critique that teaches kids to not judge others for their appearance or their personality.

I don’t have a release date for this book yet as I want to try traditional publishing and querying. I’m actually meeting with an agent next month at a convention, and I’m going to try and pitch this to them! I’m not expecting anything from it, but at the very least it will give me some experience in pitching my work, which will be helpful once I graduate next year.

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