A dog's life

Picture book in the making

Meet Lisa, Jack Russell mix my family adopted seven years ago - or rather she adopted us. Considered “too lively” as a puppy and watching her five siblings get adopted without delay, she was seven months old when I spotted her on the shelter’s Facebook page. I was immediately attracted by her spunky personality and funny coat markings - she quickly became a perfect walking companion to me and a sweet, loving dog to the whole family.

Having a pet brings a lot of adventure and mischief into one’s life and I’ve always wanted to write a children’s book about the many cats and dogs I’ve had since childhood. When the idea was ripe Lisa gladly introduced herself as the main character. As we meet many dogs, cats and other animals on our daily walks, she keeps providing me with stories - I just need to find a way to gather them into a picture book.

I came across a lovely Domestika course, Sketchbook Techniques for Children's Illustration by illustrator Ema Malyauka, in which she describes the process of creating a dedicated sketchbook for each illustration project. A safe place for experimenting and developing ideas step by step and for keeping all the sketches, colour palettes, reference images and the project mood board in one sketchbook, like a creative manual.

I’ve created a vast collection of reference images on a special Pinterest board but the most relevant ones have been printed out or taken from magazines to create my analog sketchbook mood board: from examples of lettering, colours and styles that fit my story to the main character’s likes, dislikes, places and objects of interest.

Next stage is sketching, more sketching and even more sketching. I am not yet sure how realistic or cartoony I want my dog character to be so I am playing around with all sorts of shapes and expressions.

The actual story of the book is still in the making; so far I am filling my sketchbook with snippets, ideas and recollections.

I’ll have more to show next time, now I better get back to work,

xx Damjana