10 Steps of Illustrating Ellie and Her Emotional Dragons

A behind the scenes look at my process of illustrating the children's picture book Ellie and Her Emotional Dragons written by Joseph Goodrich.

The project begins:

1. Manuscript cut up into text dummy

2. Thumbnails and exploratory sketches

3. Character development

I love drawing dragons and so this project was particularly fun since it has FOUR of them! And I just had to create Ellie as an elephant, and since the four dragon's colors match up to emotions, blue, green, red and orange, that lead me to a purple elephant. Plus, I love purple.

4. The painting splattering begins

After developing characters and getting approval I did this rough color sketch to establish my basic color palette. I didn’t end up using this spread, but it still holds a special place in my heart.

First color study to establish my palette

"I am speechless.  And there are only a few times in my life where I remember being moved to tears (of joy). Marines usually have a tough time with showing emotions. This is PERFECT!  Exactly what I was going for. I have accomplished many interesting and challenging feats in my life but this has to be at the top for one of the most proud accomplishments.  Thank you for helping me make Ellie and her Emotional Dragons a reality!

~Joseph Goodrich, author

I tried a new painting process born from my experiences with #paintplay which I started when I got Procreate on my iPad Pro. I use the Apple pencil sometimes and my finger a lot too. Over the last couple years, I’ve been pushing my color palettes (#colour_collective) and loosening up my style. I finally had a chance to put this experimenting to the rigorous test of illustrating a full picture book.

I've always loved the idea of splatter painting, but never had the courage to let loose and do it. Until now. I love how paint splatters encourages the imagination and how shapes emerge and inspire the next step of painting. There’s such energy and playfulness. I loved breaking out of confines of my previous painting style. It helps also to have the freedom to paint on the couch, or comfy chair, in bed, or up on the roof in the garden — Even at my nephews graduation from High School. Shhh. (They announced like 1000 students. Yeah, huge.)

5. Just keep painting

I worked on all of the spreads in stages. I couldn’t finish just one since I was still figuring out what finished was. It drove my business partner (who is also my husband) crazy that I didn’t finish at least one piece so he could see where I was going. I didn’t even touch the cover until I thought I was sort of, maybe, kind of, a little bit close to the final of one of the spreads. They’re never really done for me until I’ve sent the final file and the book is in print and even then I’m afraid to look at the printed book for fear of hating what I did.

I’m happy to say in this case that — well, in pretty all my picture books, I’ve never hated what I did. I always see ways and things I could have done better, but I think that’s a good thing. That means I’m growing, developing and always exploring and getting better — or at least different and hopefully … ugh, this word — marketable. I’m not a trend chaser, but I have been trying to freshen up my style.

I digress.

Meanwhile back on the drawing board...

6. Finalizing the art

Once I figured I was reasonably finished, I transferred the files to my big Magic Machine Mac and opened them all in Photoshop where I finalized details and cleaned up some of the splatter using my Cintiq. I did at least one or two more rounds (some spreads more than others) to finish and polish and make sure I had consistency with the characters (her hair butterfly), nose lines, clothes colors, etc. I had a long list I made sure to check off as well as character pages for quick reference.

I didn’t do the cover until the very end when I was satisfied with the style and knew what I was shooting for at the finished level. Originally I had a different cover in mind, but this image spoke to me and begged to be the cover, and then I had to add the neighbors (read to book to find out why) next to them on the back cover.

I was happy with the family, the houses, the neighbors and trees and turned in this one.

Something is missing...

Can you see what’s missing from the final cover?

Dragons!

Sometimes I think too literally, and I figured the dragons would be waiting for Ellie in her bedroom closet since that’s where they exist — they’re magical. I was going to have them out on the balconies and in the windows of the house, but that just didn’t work. I had to shake logic loose. These are dragons. They’re her friends. They should be front and center, same as the family.

7. Publication

The dragons added a fun pop of color to the front. Which the folks at Wisdom House took and ran with when designing the cover with the playful and colorful type to bring together an appealing cover that hopefully will draw attention and pull readers in to enjoy Ellie’s story in learning to deal with her emotions with the help of her colorful dragon friends.

I hope you enjoy this touching story. It was a joy to illustrate. I would love to hear what you think of my process or feel free to ask any questions.

If you'd like to hire me to illustrate your book, please check out my post on Hiring an Illustrator and please contact me.

8. Official Release

November 16, 2018 was the official release date and Ellie and Her Emotional Dragons is out in the world!

Ellie and Nali, @2018 Traci Van Wagoner

9. Buy it Now

Buy it now :

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Joseph Goodrich

©2018 Traci Van Wagoner

10. Reveling in the great reviews

I'm very happy to say that Ellie and dragons are getting a lot of great attention, including a star review from Kirkus Review (see the review).  And several great reviews from Readers' Favorite.

"What an absolutely enchanting story! I fell in love with the artwork from the first page. The illustrations by Traci Van Wagoner are just fantastic, done in a style I have never seen before. The ink spatter style gives sweeping movements and is filled with energy, and I felt myself being carried along by the events. Young readers will be swept up into this tale by becoming visually engaged. There is so much to discover in each brightly colored panel, including subtle references to the colors of the little dragons."

~ Fiona Ingram for Readers' Favorite

I will share more great news in a separate post, so stay tuned.

Thank you for joining me here and celebrating my creative journey along with me. I'd love to hear what you think of this book that helps children learn to deal with the emotions. Feel free to share.

#process #kidlitart #releasedate #bookbirthday #EmotionalIntelligence

Silly Squirrel Chasing Dog

While transferring old files from disks to a new backup drive, I rediscovered several old dummy books and a variety of sketches for various projects. One project in particular I had a lot of fun going over again. I've had this picture book idea, My Dog is Crazy, bouncing around for many, many years and it has gone through various drafts, rewrites, dummy books, critiques, submissions and around and around and around. It's had some interest from editors, but not enough to make it past the final hurdles to get bought. So, it has sat in wait for a while. I just may try to tackle it again.

This illustration came from a sketch from an early dummy book which I still loved when I found it, so I painted it. Once again, #colour_collective provided the nudge I needed with the color Vert Pré.

Samantha Rose Edwards tried to hold Marvel, really she did, but Marvel is crazy. Zip-zooming, splish-splashing, squirrel-chasing crazy! 

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Don’t Fret, Fred, Your Day Will Come (hopefully sooner, since it’s already later)

Fred from Don't Fret, Fred Version 1

I’m happy to say that Fred is finally ready (again) and has ventured out into the wide world all shiny and new.

I revised and polished the manuscript, sketched out the dummy and completed (or should I say, redid and reillustrated) three samples spreads and it is now out into the world for consideration by agents and editors. Whoopee! And to tickle your curiosity, it is being seriously considered somewhere. To be named later if it comes through.

Don’t Fret, Fred is a wild romp of a tale in which Fred discovers that exciting things can happen when you look up from your e-things and use your imagination.

 This story has pretty much always been about that. Even though the journey has meandered to and fro, the heart of the story, the bare bones of a bored kid, Gram knitting and telling a wild yarn which spins out of control and Fred having bring them home has remained the same. Gramps has always been like, here we go again. The happenings, the specific interactions has changed, but the core has remained the same.

This picture book has gone through three major revisions (not to mention the many, many edits, and fussing with words, paragraphs, spreads.) I sent out the manuscript alone many years ago. I got personal rejections with editors who liked the humor but felt there wasn't enough there to pass the last hurdle to acquire it. After a pile of rejections, I put it in a drawer where it sat with all those rejection letters for a looooooooooong time.

Until…

My nephew stirred interest again when he casually said one day, "don't fret, Fred." He remembered the fun repeating line from my book from when I read it to him years before. That gave me heart. I pulled it back out, reworked it with my husband and business partner and my wonderful crit buddies (where would I be without their invaluable input?), and I hammered away at it till I got something I was happy with again.

So, good to go, I created a dummy book and finished sample illustrations.

Fred had his debut showing at the SCBWI Winter Conference in NY, I also sent it out to to editors, agents, and hit the twitter pitch parties. I received some interest here and there, but I wasn't quite happy yet and neither was anyone who saw it. Something niggled at me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. In one of the twitter parties, I saw someone was interested in a book with yarn bombing and -- boom! -- the seed of an idea was planted. Then taking a walk in my neighborhood (on what we call the chicken walk) I came across this:

Yarn bomb on my dog walk

And the idea clicked. That’s what I needed! Gram is a yarn bomber. I went back to work.

Edit. Revise. Redraw. Sketch. Paint.

New Fred sketch adding yarn bombing

A new manuscript, dummy book and sample illustrations were born now with a yarn bombing gram. You see her behind the scenes yarn bombing all the places they land, which in the end gives Fred an idea to help bring them home. I think this has tied it all together with humor, surprise, and a bucket load of imagination

Okay, I was done. Sent out some more and received a smattering of interest. Then I received a great comment on twitter from Guiseppe Castellano which basically said (I can’t find the actual comment), “fun, but strange there are purple outlines.”

This was something that had been niggling at me, but I’d ignored for many reasons. It was an illustration style I liked and had developed for various reasons which I won’t go into here. I came to a conclusion that I needed and should and wanted to redo the final illustrations yet again. I wanted to loosen up and have fun just painting and breaking free from a conception of what my style was or should be. So I did, and I had a ton of fun. And this is what happened.

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

There you have it, the basic progression of this book. It's been a long road, and now I hope I'm at a point where others will enjoy it too and someone will be willing to take it on. One can hope.

And here's my query schpill:

Don't Fret, Fred by Traci Van Wagoner

Cut off from the electronic world, Fred is worried a day with Gram and Gramps in the boonies will be boring. Boy, was he wrong. While balling Gram’s yarn (yawn!), he asks her for a story. Crazy and out-of-this-world things begin to happen, spinning them up into a wild yarn of an adventure bigger than all of them. Fred will have to use his rusty imagination to get them back home before they are lost in space.

Dummy book available upon request.



I would love to hear what you think of Fred and his yarn bombing Gram. And please feel free to share any pictures or stories you have of yarn bombing in your neighborhood.


If you'd like to see more of my illustration process, click here to see the making of The Mermaid's Gift by Claudia McAdam, published by Pelican Publishing.

Thanks ever so much for sharing in my journey.

Sprout

The prompt for Illustration Friday this week is Sprout which fits perfectly with one of my picture book projects I'm writing and illustrating. This is one of the scenes I'm playing with using Procreate. I approached this project very different from other projects. Instead of starting with a fully written story and then pencil sketches, this picture book started while paint playing with my old iPad, my finger, Procreate, and an idea. I created a variety of color scenes of a girl planting a seed while it's still snowing, then waiting, waiting, until...

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Happy Birthday to Cody!

Today is the official release day for Cody and Grandpa's Christmas Tradition written by Gary Metivier, illustrated by me and published by Pelican Publishing Company. Yay! Click on my Books link for links to purchase the book on Amazon, B&N.com, and Pelican.

Tameka's New Dress Cover Reveal!

Ta da! I'm happy to be able to share with you all the final cover for Tameka's New Dress written by Ronnie Sidney II, illustrated by me, Traci Van Wagoner, and designed by my husband and partner, Kurt Keller. This is a touching story and has been a very interesting book to illustrate. I wanted capture the mood and progression of Tameka's self-confidence growing throughout the book with my colors, leading up to her getting her beautiful new and colorful dress as you see on the cover.

Tameka's New Dress by Ronnie Sidney II, illustrated by Traci Van Wagoner

Book Summary

When you’re the new girl in school it can be a little scary. It’s even tougher when your parents aren’t there to help. Some of the kids might be friendly but what about that mean girl who’s always picking on you? The author brings up the subjects of childhood trauma, parental substance abuse, kinship care and bullying with a gentle touch suitable for even the youngest children. Tameka's New Dress shines a light on these tough things and lays them out on the table to talk about. He also presents us with a strong girl in Tameka, who not only finds adults who can and do support her, but also finds a way to confront her bullies without becoming a bully herself. Real tips for real life situations are presented here – just what real little children need - a great addition to the library shelves.


Tameka's New Dress is the second graphic novel in the Nelson Beats the Odds series.

To preorder your copy visit http://www.creative-medicine.com/tameka-s-new-dress.html


About the Author

Ronnie Nelson Sidney, II, MSW was raised in Tappahannock, VA, and attended Essex County Public Schools (ECPS). While attending ECPS, he spent several years in special education after being diagnosed with a learning disability. The stigmatization of special education created a lack of interest in school. Nevertheless, he graduated from Essex High School in 2001, but with a 1.8 GPA. With limited options regarding four-year colleges, he enrolled at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Richmond, VA. The following year, he transferred to and completed studies at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, VA. After several years of hard work, he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Services in 2006.

Ronnie's early academic challenges ignited a passion within him to pursue social justice and to work with youth. He has spent over eight years in the mental health and academic counseling fields and currently works as an outpatient therapist at the Middle Peninsula-Northern Neck Community Services Board (MP-NNCSB). Ronnie is an active member of the Richmond Association of Black Social Workers (RABSW). He founded Creative Medicine: Healing Through Words, an expressive writing program for offenders. He implemented the program at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia for six months before expanding the program into an LLC. The company's mission is to improve participants' social, emotional, and physical health through therapeutic writing and dialogue. For more information, visit the author's website at www.creative-medicine.com. 

Behind the Scenes
 
And now, some of my illustration process for creating the cover art.

pencil sketching

Two sketch versions

Final sketch

Final cover art

To see more of my artwork and some sneak peeks of interior illustrations for this book, follow me on Facebook and visit my website to see more of my art and more books I've illustrated.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you have enjoyed my creative journey with creating Tameka's cover, and I hope you will buy the book and share in her journey as well. I would love to hear your thoughts about the book, about my process, or about your experiences that are similar to Tameka's.

The Making of The Mermaid's Gift: My Illustration Process

A behind the scenes look at the making of a picture book

Color me excited! My new book, The Mermaid’s Gift written by Claudia Cangilla McAdams and published by Pelican Publishing is out and about in the real world. So I thought I'd share my illustration process for this book as a fun introduction for anyone who hasn't bought it yet. (Don't worry there are links at the end for where you can get your very own copy.)

A version of this post can be found on Dani Duck: Artist Obsure as part of Smart Dummies.

After illustrating eight picture books and creating five dummies for my own manuscripts, each a bit of an experiment, I’m happy to say that I finally feel like I have a pretty good system worked out.

Quick read through 

This quick read through opens my mind to the world of the story. I then let my imagination explore the possibilities without any limitations to specific pages or scenes. The process from first contact to contract takes a long time, so this story had a long time to percolate.

Reference research

Pinterest is a ton of fun for this. I set up folders for each project and collect images for reference and inspiration. In this case, colorful Burano, Italy (look it up on Google. If you’re feeling blue, this place will perk you right up); lace, lots and lots of lace research; historical photos of Burano and the lace museum there. I even used Google Earth to walk around the island.

Character sketches 

I work out clothes, hair styles, facial features, culture, and age. I sketch the main characters from a variety of angles, different facial expressions, moods, emotions, keeping mind the need to keep the main characters consistent throughout with the same clothes, hairstyle, facial features, eye colors, etc.

Text Dummy 

I print out the manuscript and break it up into 16 sections. I fold 9 sheets of legal or ledger paper in half and staple them in the middle with a special stapler I bought years ago for this purpose. I cut up the text and tape each section in its spread roughly where I think it might go, telling the story with the text — one chunk for the entire spread, or broken up with some on the left and some on the right. Since Mermaid is a retelling and set in the 1800s, I decided to go with a classic feel, keeping the text in blocks, but incorporating them into the illustrations. I played around with borders and copy blocks, but dropped that in the final sketch stage.

Brainstorm Scenes 

Blue sky thinking with my husband bouncing around ideas about the overall look, world, setting, perspectives, angles, pov, lighting. Playing with the best way to illustrate each scene adding to the story in unique ways. For this book I really wanted drama, which I achieved with lighting, angles, and unique perspectives.

“I love your boldness in composing the pages. Many illustrators are timid about the interplay between form and function, and your work is like a breath of fresh air.” ~ Johanna Rotondo-McCord, Artist.

More reference research 

This stage is pretty much ongoing and so much easier now days. I remember the days of having to go up to the reference library on 42nd street to get images. For this project, I did a lot of lace research — patterns, tutorials, various types of lace, designs, styles, materials, etc. I think that all paid off since I have had many people ask how I created the lace, and have complimented me on the beauty and realistic feel of the lace.

Thumbnails

With sketchbook and ballpoint pen, I roughly block out the scenes I have bubbling in my imagination after the brainstorming session. With this project, I established a sort of zig-zag pattern through the spreads, leading the eye through the story with a variety of spots, full spreads and text placement that would keep the eye moving how I wanted.

Sketch Dummy 

Sketch and explore scenes building on initial rough thumbnails. My ink sketches are rough at this stage. I scan those, clean them up a bit and print each spread as close to actual size as I can. With marker paper, several good ol’ #2 pencils, and a kneaded eraser, I set to work creating the final detailed pencil sketches. Marker paper is see-through without needing a light box, but not as smeary as tracing paper. I scanned those sketches and put them together back in their spreads. I cleaned them up, made pngs which I made into a pdf and emailed it to the AD. He came back to me with only a few revisions.

Value and Color Thumbnails 

I made a contact sheet in Photoshop of the sketches on an 11x17 document. I added a layer with my paper in a gray tone, creating an overall stormy feel. A second layer for value, establishing mood, and a third layer for color studies. I created a limited palette, keeping in mind the stormy feel of the story and moving to a light and happy feeling in the end.

“You have perfectly captured the moods of the various scenes, giving the story "life" in your depictions of the throwing of the fishing net, the ferociousness of the storm at sea, the mermaid's creation of the lace, and so on.” ~ Claudia Cangilla McAdam

Final Painting Begins

I paint in Photoshop with my own brushes, textured papers, and color palettes, plus a ton of layers. I could do a whole-nother post about the ups and downs of finishing a full book. There were days I thought I was brilliant, and days when I felt like a total fraud with no right to get to draw and paint for a living. Every book has this stage no matter how much I’ve learned and grown and figured out what I’m doing.

 

Finish the Dang Thing Already 

And then comes the finishing. This may be the hardest of all stages for me. I have a resistance to finishing things. I don’t know why. That’s just the crazy way I am. One night my husband told me to sit and finish one at a time. I had the final highlights and finishing touches and fixes and whatnots to do. When I finished one I’d shout it out. I was reward with a DING-DING-DING and a compliment of some encouraging sort. Then it was back to the next one.

I finally finished them and sent them off to the Art Director. The end result: A love fest with my art, and an offer for another book. Cody and Grandpa’s Christmas Tradition written by Gary Metivier. Stay tuned for updates on that project.

Thanks for reading my long ramble.

Live, laugh, and learn!

Book Trailer

Now, as I promised, The Mermaid's Gift is available at:
Barnes and Noble
Pelican Publishing
Amazon

Getting the Job

Since my picture book, The Mermaid's Gift written by Claudia Cangilla McAdams is hitting the shelves this month from Pelican Publishing, I thought I'd share a series of posts giving you some background to the book and how it came to be, starting with the interesting way I got the project in the first place. Well, I hope you think it's interesting anyway.

I have to admit I was hesitant at first (many years ago now) to join in the FB craze (as well as other social media), but I'm glad I did. One day as I was scrolling through different feeds with a variety of FB groups, and I came across a post in Children's Book Illustrations by Kevin Johnson, AD at Pelican Publishing, looking for an illustrator. I was like, oh, cool, a possible illustration job. I shared it on my timeline and then went back to the current project since I had spent up all my social media time for the morning.

An hour or so later, my husband was doing his morning read through on the iPad when he shouted up at me, "Hey, what's going on with this illustration job post?"

I responded with an, "Oh yeah, I saw that this morning, but I haven't done anything about it."

Frankly I was a bit jaded to the possibility of this being a real job since I've been working on Elance and most of the picture book jobs on there are a joke with the writer only wanting to pay $200 or so to illustrate a full book. But my husband urged me to get on it and send an email at least.

So I did. I introduced myself, giving my schpill about my experience and passion for children's books, a rundown of the way I work, links to my online portfolios, followed up with a closing paragraph about how excited I am about the title and the possibilities. I still wasn't holding out much hope of this being a real job. Like I said, a bit jaded.

I was happy that I finally finished a mermaid painting a short time before, so I sent that along with a few other samples.

He responded later that day with a very positive note and said he'd pass along my samples. Good news. Now, I was letting some excitement leak in. Hey, like my blog title says, celebrate the little things.

The next day I got another email saying the publisher liked some of my samples, but still wasn't sure I was right for this project. She wanted to see more natural colors and realism.

She likes the style that you use on the image of the mermaids on the rocks but she doesn’t want the whimsical colors for this book she want’s things to look natural. The sky blue, the mermaid’s hair a natural color, etc.

She asked if you could provide a sketch of two characters from the book since she wanted to see if you could do what she wanted. So, I was back to being a bit disappointed. That jaded part of me again since so many jobs I'd pitched on over the last year, they wanted free samples to prove I could do what I said I could do. That's what a portfolio is for, dang it! But I did understood since they wanted to make sure I could do a bit more realistic than many of the samples I'd sent which leaned to more stylized characters. I emailed that I would try to fit in the time to do some sketches over the weekend and also expressed my concern in doing this and hoping it would put me on short list. Kevin assured me it would and that he really wanted me to work on this book.

So, I did, and this is what I sent on Monday morning.

I crossed my fingers and went back to work on another project with a tight deadline. I tried not to think about, but you know how that goes. Every few seconds Oooh, maybe I'll get that mermaid book. How fun would that be?
  
 Wednesday afternoon I got an email back. "You're in!"

Yay! Happy dancing.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I got the job for The Mermaid's Gift, written by Claudia Cangilla McAdams. Thanks for listening.

For your convenience, I've included links to where you can buy my book online and also a link to the really cool book trailer.

Available at:
Barnes and Noble
Pelican Publishing
Amazon


Book Trailer

 

Coming Soon!

The Mermaid's Gift
Written by Claudia Cangilla McAdam
Illustrated by Traci Van Wagoner
Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
ISBN: 978-1455621088

Available for preorder at:
Barnes and Noble
Pelican Publishing
Amazon


Book Trailer

It's been a bit quiet around here since I've been busy as all get out illustrating another children's book. Yay! I had a blast illustrating Anything Can Happen in Mrs. Whynot's Room by Jayne Peters. It will be published by Puddle Duck Publishing this fall. In the meantime, enjoy the cover illustration. I hope you like.