On Friday, I finally got the go-ahead for the cover for Baby Can Bounce.
When I was deciding on the title, I could have chosen any of the featured actions, but I wanted to keep the alliteration that I established with Baby Goes Baaaaa!, which narrowed it down. Ultimately, Baby Can Bounce! is catchy, plus it's a fun, slightly silly action for a cover.
Inside the actual book, the 'Baby can bounce' page features the slug and snake:
Though the idea of a slug on a cover makes me laugh, slug and snake are not desperately cute and might put some people off (especially those with slug or snake phobias!), but one of my fave characters is the baby croc from Baby can dig:
What seems like months ago, Sarah, my designer at Egmont, sent me a basic cover layout, just to get the ball rolling and give me something to design around. That's really handy, as it gives me some idea how much space the title etc is going to need:
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5 Comments on Crocodile on a Trampoline!, last added: 9/28/2011
By: Lynne Chapman,
on 9/23/2011
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: artwork, pastels, Baby Can..., illustration, Add a tag
I struggled to get going this week, taking an age to finish off this piece, which was virtually done at the end of last week. I think I had lost a bit of momentum: I hate it when something sits on my desk for too long.
But after the fun and games of the weekend, followed immediately by a day of school visits in Nottingham (part 2 of a Greenaway Shadowing project), I've really had to get my head down and get on with the final bits of artwork for Baby Can Bounce. The deadline of Oct 1st is scarily imminent.
I've had this Baby Can Crawl piece on the desk for ages too:
But at last, come Wednesday afternoon, they were both sorted and I could start something fresh.
There were only two pages left to do, plus the cover. I decided to do Baby Can Wave next. It's the final page of the book:
By: Lynne Chapman,
on 9/5/2011
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: publisher, illustration, artwork, characterisation, Baby Goes Baaaa, Baby Can..., Add a tag
When last I showed you my artwork on the book, I was about to start the hedgehogs. I got on with them early last week:
There's so much other stuff tacked on the desk above, as I am using the artwork from Baby Goes Baaaaa! as colour reference for the characters etc.
The hedgehogs are all done now:
They are illustrating the page: 'Baby can dance' of course. I thought it would be more fun if they were dressed up. As you can see from this earlier rough, they were originally going to be trying on Mum and Dad's clothes, like children do...
...but Egmont felt that made things look too old and not babyish enough, so I went for more random dress-ups instead.
I finished the week by working on the polar bear and the anteater. Polar bear is about done (Baby can hide) so today it's anteater (Baby can shake) I'm going to get stuck into.
By: Lynne Chapman,
on 8/30/2011
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Baby Goes Baaaa, Baby Can..., artwork, pastels, Add a tag
I have been pastelling away like a fiend all last week on Baby Can Bounce and it's been going very well.
The artwork I did for Baby Goes Baaaaa! arrived back from Egmont safely (phew), so I've been able to use that as colour reference for the various animals, rather than just going on the print-outs they did in the office.
It's made a huge difference: I feel much more confident that I'm getting it right now, so things are going much faster.
I have to do approx one page per day, which would be a nightmare if it was a book with backgrounds - they take 1.5 - 2 days each to pastel - but as these are vignettes, a day is about right. Here was my desk on Friday morning:
I have to do approx one page per day, which would be a nightmare if it was a book with backgrounds - they take 1.5 - 2 days each to pastel - but as these are vignettes, a day is about right. Here was my desk on Friday morning:
You can see how I tack the Baby Goes Baaaaa! artwork above what I'm working on, as well as the line drawings for the current pieces alongside. I'm working on two at a time, so I can swap between pieces if I find myself slowing down on one (I seem to get slower as I go along).
I started to fill up my usual wall above the lightbox, tacking them up as I finished them:
I started to fill up my usual wall above the lightbox, tacking them up as I finished them:
...but John's been helping out again, cutting all the mounting card and overlays, so from next week I can mount them up ready as I finish each one.
I finished the squirrel and panda last week so today I am working on dancing hedgehogs in fancy dress (it's a crazy world...)
1 Comments on Going Great Guns!, last added: 8/30/2011
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By: Lynne Chapman,
on 8/12/2011
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: illustration, artwork, pastels, characterisation, Baby Can..., Add a tag
I've been rather distracted today. Not sure why. Every time I got interrupted for the loo, or the phone, or anything else, I found I simply had to check my email, just in case. And then, as if by magic, I would lose 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or worse to the dreaded computer. Facebook, you are a fiend! I really should turn it off. But then I might miss something genuinely important...
Anyway, I did manage to get a reasonable amount done today and yesterday, despite myself. I finished off my monkeys and bunny and made a start on the octopus above yesterday. This morning I finished him off:
Confession time: I nicked the cute star-sunglasses idea from this detail in a lovely book George and Ghost, by my good friend Cassia Thomas (hope you don't mind Cass x):
This afternoon, made a start on the tiger ('Baby can colour'), who is crayoning a portrait of his little spider friend. Ahhhhh....
I should have got much further on with him really, but it was then that the worst of my fidgitiness k
3 Comments on Getting On... Sort Of, last added: 8/12/2011
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By: Lynne Chapman,
on 8/4/2011
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: roughs, characterisation, Baby Goes Baaaa, Baby Can..., Editor, publisher, Add a tag
Hurrah - all my changes to the roughs are done and I have emailed them off to Egmont!
I thought you might be interested to see some of my 'before' and 'after' drawings, to get an idea of why changes are requested and to see how they can improve on an illustrator's original idea.
For those who've not been following the progress, the 1st book Baby Goes Baaaaa! is about baby having fun making sounds with Mum or Dad. It has a cast of 26 animal characters making the sounds for baby to copy. I wanted to re-use them all in the sequel, Baby Can Bounce!, which is this time about sharing simple actions.
Each creature in turn demonstrates an action, which they share with a new character: a little spider, who appears on every page. These are my 'before' and 'after' drawings of the baby anteater, who is on the page Baby can... shake:
The feedback from my publisher, when they saw the piggy-bank idea, was that it was an object that would mean more to a slightly older child, rather than the target 1 - 3 years. Fair point. They suggested the maracas, which I think work well:
Note that I had to change anteater's stance, as you hold youself differently when you shake maracas.
Another one that needed a substantial change was Baby can... tickle. The monkey triplets all appear together in book 1, so I felt all 3 needed to be here too. As you can see, in the original version, I had two of the monkeys giggling at the spider tickling no 3. Egmont
3 Comments on Baby Can Bounce - Reworks, last added: 8/7/2011
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By: Lynne Chapman,
on 8/2/2011
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Editor, publisher, roughs, layout, Designer, Baby Goes Baaaa, Baby Can..., Add a tag
There's been so much going on throughout July that I'd almost forgotten I am in the middle of a couple of books! This week though we start a new month and I am back to real work with a vengeance.
On Monday morning, my friendly postman delivered a package - jiffy bags always mean something interesting... This one was no disappointment, as it contained the coloured layouts for Baby Goes Baaaaa!.
They are not the actual proofs, just print-outs, but the colours look pretty good. This is the first time I have seen how it all looks together, and not just as files on the computer.
It seems ages since I finished working on the scans. Things have been going on in the background though - it has already been shown to oversees publishers and to Waterstones for feedback.
I'm really pleased with how vibrant and fun they are looking. I also love what Peter and Sarah (my editor and designer at Egmont) have done with the 'extra spread' below:
I can't remember if I told you, but I did a fair bit of educational research into p
3 Comments on The Layouts are Here!, last added: 8/5/2011
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By: Lynne Chapman,
on 6/20/2011
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: illustration, writing, drawing, planning, roughs, characterisation, Baby Goes Baaaa, Baby Can..., Add a tag
Over the past few weeks, in between my other adventures, I have been beavering away at my new book, the sequel to Baby Goes Baaaaa!, turning my big ideas sheets into proper drawings.
Book two is going to revolve around 'Baby Can...' rather than 'Baby Goes...' showing actions a baby is familiar with. I figured one of the most familiar actions for Baby is putting inappropriate things into its mouth, hence these early ideas for 'Baby can lick':
Without the alphabet to hang this set of illustrations on, I needed an idea to link the images together. I decided that the book would feature all the original characters from Baby Goes Baaaaa!, but I would introduce an additional tiny creature, who could wander through all the pages, interacting with the various animals.
My first sketches used a little caterpillar, who seems sufficiently cute.
Then I got the idea that he could change into a butterfly half way through the book, which would be fun and make the perfect illustration for 'Baby can point':
2 Comments on Incy Wincy Spider to the Rescue!, last added: 6/20/2011
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Wonderful post Lynne, thank you for sharing :)
Thanks for sharing the process with us your readers!
I love the movement you've got in your bouncing Croc Lynne, and he's cute as well! Fascinating to hear what a long winded process things can sometimes be, then they'll want it desperately no doubt?
Hope you got the blind sorted out, what with this FANTASTIC sunny weather we are having. I was thinking organza or voile? these might work? You may have melted in the sun by now, I'm just heading back to work in my spare bedroom and the sun will be blazing there too! Best of luck, Julie.
A great story, love all the drawings.
Lovely cover work through.
The croc is a favourite of mine too, and the bouncing spider finishes it off perfectly. :o)