Weekly Update: Picture Book Portfolio Progress

These past couple of weeks, I’ve been working away at developing my picture book illustration skills and trying to develop a strong portfolio for the SCBWI event in NYC. Because the event is based in New York every year, I thought it would be a nice idea to try illustrating some of my favourite memories from the time I’ve spent there on and off during my childhood, but with fun or creative twists on some of the details. This ended up bringing to life some interesting and dynamic scenes. I don’t know if these will make it into the portfolio (since I’m still learning), but here’s some of the scenes I’ve made so far.

This one features a couple of mourning doves (my favourite bird) in Central Park, with one of the doves appearing to teach the other one how to skate. Although I like this one, I feel like it’s a very flat scene and needs more dynamic movement or a more interesting perspective. Like maybe the horizon line should be from the bird’s POV and the legs are all around them, with just a hint of the buildings in the background. The birds could also be in more interesting poses - I don’t necessarily like that they’re just kind of standing there. But I do like the colours and the concept. Here’s a slightly better one that I made called “Attack of the Horseshoe Crabs.”

This one definitely has a more interesting perspective with more flowing movement. The scene was inspired by a day that I spent down on West Hampton beach, where a horseshoe crab tried to climb into our boat. My problem with this one is I haven’t quite figured out what style I want to illustrate people in. I initially started illustrating on the iPad with the watercolour brushes, but for this one I used a lot of gouache brushes with some watercolour, marker, and coloured pencil for texture. I like the paper cut out kind of feel, but I also like the gouache/painterly feel. I definitely don’t want them to look too digital though, and I fear that this illustration looks a bit digital. There are also some small anatomy issues with the poses, but it’s definitely getting there! And it’s a big improvement from where I started, so I’m happy.

In other (kind of bad) news, my ebike was stolen and my car broke down within the same week, so I currently have no way to get to work. It’s looking like I’m going to have to buy a new car, which is going to make things very tough. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to afford going to that SCBWI event this year if I have to get a new car, but if not, that’s okay. I can always go next year, and it gives me more time to improve my skills. We’ll see how it goes.

See you on the next page,

Willow