Michi Mathias. illustration & comics.
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Five things I learnt whilst illustrating my first picture book

21/4/2017

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I'm an occasional volunteer for the Ministry of Stories, a creative writing and mentoring space for children in East London and I was delighted to be asked to help with their picture book project. Seventeen kids each wrote a story, and seventeen of us illustrators met them last month and worked out characters and rough layout.  I was paired with a nine-year-old who'd written an imaginative action story as my comic style would suit it well. Then we had about a month to do fourteen pages or seven double-page spreads - quite a lot in a short time!  Mine involved a mansion, a lab, a robot, armour, the White House, and other things I'd never drawn before... All the words and pictures are now at Penguin Random House, which supports the Ministry and is printing the books. 
PictureMaking corrections to part of the 14th and final page after scanning.
Looking back at these hectic weeks, here's what comes to mind: 

1. No matter how much I wanted to draw in simple bold shapes - this is a kids' book, after all - detail kept creeping in. Maybe that's something that can't be avoided, and I need to accept it (at least for now) instead of trying to fight it. The book designer I'm working with assured me there's no problem with detail and I know my own kids liked it, but it still felt odd not being able to draw in any other way than the way I always draw. 

2. There is nothing wrong with using reference photos, not even putting them on the lightbox under the drawing paper to get the White House accurate. Okay, I knew this already, but had a strange resistance -- it's "cheating" if I don't create everything myself! But figuring out a sweeping staircase in perfect proportion and perspective would've taken forever and still might never be right. And of course nobody really cares how it's done, just that it's there. 

3. Everything takes a ridiculously long time. Yes I knew this already, too, but still get caught by surprise again and again. Rough drafts are quick, second drafts are fairly easy, but commiting to the actual final inked lines is another matter entirely. And then the colouring-in, which looks like it should take a matter of hours but somehow takes two days...

4. A big project with a tight deadline is probably not the ideal situation for trying a different fountain pen ink, but I'm happy with the new one - dokumentus - which is very fast drying and properly waterproof, not smearing when watercolour is added.  Unfortunately it's not as free-flowing as what I'm used to, needing a bit of nib pressure and an extra second to start a line, but even on Bristol board I had no smudging problems which was a huge time-saving benefit and well worth the trouble. 

​5. As always, the first rough sketchy draft looks better in a lot of ways than the finished picture.  A sense of fun in the lines, the feeling of life and motion - it's so difficult to define and difficult not to lose this as the final draft gets tightened up. Though I did find myself having to make last-minute additions by eye, free-hand, on the final artwork so maybe that'll help... 

Oh, and one more, actually. An important one. 

6. My usual method for drawing in perspective -- draw it by eye, come back and look at it later and move any lines that don't look right -- just won't do for large-scale whole room scenes. Being a little bit off with one part obviously affects everything else in the scene and there's a reason people map out the vanishing points and all that before drafting. I tended to work from my earlier drafts and didn't notice some parts weren't quite right until trying to neaten everything up for the final... and then time pressure meant I couldn't just start over.... yikes. Next time, a little more planning. While somehow keeping the spontaneity!

Can't wait to see the printed copies at the launch party next month!


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How to create a short book in only fifteen years

20/7/2016

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About fifteen years ago I had an idea.

I'd seen some of those choose-your-own-adventure gamebooks that involve making decisions and turning to different pages accordingly as you navigate your way through a story and try to stay alive.

With two small kids in primary school, and me trying to do freelance work, there were a lot of little things that could go wrong and mess up ones day. So I started thinking of making a little adventure story based on real life just for fun, to share with friends.  

​A few pages in, and it got abandoned. But not forgotten.. 
Picture
Four years ago, I needed to find a project to do for an online course, and I resurrected this idea with one additional element - I would also illustrate each page. Within a month, I'd worked out the twists and turns of a forty-page adventure using post-it notes and arrows on a big board - which was very tricky and so much fun! - and drawn several pages. But again, it got put aside while I did other things.  

Then a couple of years ago I began making comics. And I began to think this would be more interesting if I re-worked the whole thing as a choose-your-own-adventure comic, not something I've ever even heard of. So I redrafted the story to make it conversational and active, rough drafted that in more detail, then drew the final pencil draft. Then I used those pencilled pages as a guide while doing the inking onto good Bristol board paper over a light box, as in photo. 

Today I finished inking the last of the 40 pages, and now need to do the colour. I have a printer lined up and ready to go - just have to send the files within the fortnight in order to have the books available at my ArtWave exhibition in August! Hard to believe the end is in sight after all these years.

Edit 10 Aug: Now completed and sent to printer. There's a short playable version online here.  
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    ​Note: Two Shillings per Day graphic novel-related posts now appear over here on their own page. 

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Michi Mathias     illustration & comics    

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