Continuing the journey into illustrations with less than a brave heart. Oh, for an agent of sorts!

 

The designer with whom I work, (she worked on The Ring and the Roaring Water and produced the illustration for that cover), looked at my painting of the illustrations from Things I Like ( previous post) and thought we could work with them. So I should be thrilled, right? I was, but being thrilled only lasts for some time, I’ve found. Being thrilled can so easily be followed by doubts. Is this  part of the artistic temperament?

So I’ve done two more, which are shown here. One is a night scene. Big challenge! I approached it by looking at other illustrations of night scenes in children’s books, and have come up with what I think may work. No, I haven’t shown it to my designer yet. I have two others to do, and one of those is a night scene inside. Source of light, etc. and how that throws light onto  the scene, to be taken into consideration. All very interesting, fascinating even.

The plan is to produce a CD from which we could produce a couple of hard copies to be shown to prospective sponsors. Excellent idea! Then ‘faint heart never won fair lady’ syndrome creeps in, that is, not about to win fair lady. How does one promote oneself? I really find it very hard. And this is why I wish for an agent for Jamaican/Caribbean children’s books, to market them, look for sponsors, set up readings, etc. and etc. and etc. The person would have to have some other source of income, decidedly. We have tried versions of this with great expectations, like someone going around to book/craft fairs, etc. for a percentage of sales.  Not even remotely sustainable.

Actually, I wish one of the young social media whiz kids would take this on while pursuing his/her other more lucrative sources of employment. Ah, well. Meanwhile I’ll continue trying with Things I Like.

 

Can A Level art translate into illustrations for children's books? Join me on the journey.

 I did indicate that it was not one of my New Year resolutions, attempting to see if A Level art can lead me to my own illustrations for my children's stories. But here I am. Oh, in all honesty, it was called Higher Schools when I did it, but who today would know what that was? So the equivalent is A Level. Also, in all honesty, I did some painting after I left school, flowers in water colour, but not really using a water colour technique, and landscapes and still lifes in oils. I actually sold a 'mother and child' in oils, and a number people asked to buy one particular landscape, which I would not sell, because I like it. However, none of this makes one a children's book illustrator. The challenge is this; there's this book Things I Like  (Early Childhood level) and I would like to republish it, but need the pictures to be in colour. I don't think I can afford the artwork. So I tried my hand, and my acrylic paints again. Aha!

Here, therefore, are two versions of the same illustrations; the second with the elements of the picture outlined in black, because I saw somewhere that illustrations for children's books should/could be outlined. And I know those lines are perhaps too thick, but that's the only pen I had here. The black broken line on the figures indicates that they are stuffed toys, and not real children. That's how the original artist interpreted them, and his name was Warren Chen Shui. I'll show the cover done by him as well.

I invited you to join me on my journey, although I'm not sure how far I'll take it. However should you wish to, you can say which of the pair you prefer.  We must bear in mind also that I did not draw these pictures. I have merely coloured them. So that would be something else to see if I can do.

By the way, it was my Higher Schools Art teacher, Mrs. Burrowes ( I hope that I've spelt her name correctly - I so admired her)  that introduced us to the earth shattering concept that the pictures we drew were to look like our people, our skin colour, not a copy of the golden haired, pink skinned figures we saw in books. What a release! What a freedom! What a pride in ourselves was uncovered! People who complain about all sorts of inequalities now, imagined or otherwise, have no concept of the difference between a colonial island and one that was independent, no knowledge of some of the people who really freed our minds. Mrs. Burrowes was one of those. Giving thanks.