Illustrating Children Book Workshop with Curtis Brown Agency

Back in October 2020, I’ve had the opportunity to do a workshop in Illustrating Children Book. It was an online course with Curtis Brown Literary Agency in London. It was such a wonderful course and I’ve had so much fun doing it . Lead by Sarah McIntyre, an author/Illustrator whose written and illustrated several picture book such as Morris the mankiest Monster and Jampires. Here are some of my project assignments :

Picture book draft sample

Title of the proposed book: Will you be my big furry Monster friend?

Printing format – Landscape

Size – 22.3 x 26.8 cm

Book format: Picture book only with illustrations without text.

The medium used – Colored Inks, Graphic pens, Black ink pens, and colored pencils.

Notes: My proposed book is a 32 pages picture book in which the reader will interpret their story based on the illustrations that I have provided. I am inspired by the illustrator, Adolfo Serra’s works, and thought about making a storybook in which the illustrations will become the narrator of the story instead of the text.

The general idea about this book is about a boy who meets a Monster and they became good friends. The Monster makes the boy laugh, comforts him when he is sad, and protects him from another bad Monster. The final twist is at the end of the book when the boy is actually shown sleeping in bed hugging his favourite Monster soft toy. Perhaps he is dreaming about the adventures that he had with the Monster. I will leave it to the reader. I illustrated the Monster in which different features of the body are magnified on a bigger scale such as the big ears and the big eyes.

Mini Picture Book

Creating characters in a story

I actually enjoy creating characters and their personalities for a story. For this particular project assignment, meet Madam Labouche Ganache and her sidekick, Scarety cat. Madam Labouche is big, loud and flamboyant while her cat is very timid and always scared of things. His greatest wish is perhaps to not be afraid and be a huge giant cat so he could attack Madam Labouche!

Using various medium in creating illustrations

One thing I learnt about this project is to be free and trying different kinds of medium for my illustrations. I tried using various items such as stones, rock and leaves that I could find in my garden to create a setting for a story. This picture for example is a cave where a bear lives. This bear really loves cookies. I tried to use a real cookie and see the effect that it created when photographed along with my illustration. I also use various design apps in my phone in order to digitised the illustrations.