Steps to illustrating a picture book

Plus: new stained glass-inspired art is now available!

If I’m honest, it’s been a rough couple of weeks rehab-wise.

While I may be smiling in this photo because we’d successfully transferred me into a wheelchair for the first time in months… immediately after taking it, I was extremely lightheaded and nauseous. After we did this transfer, I also began having bouts of vertigo with the room spinning violently whenever I rolled onto my side a back again—something I have to do several times a day for my regular care.

Thankfully, some trial and error with the doctors and physiotherapists has largely resolved these issues now, but I can’t say it’s been fun.

Something that has been fun… getting to start work on The Perfect Ride!

The three stages of illustrating a picture book

Illustrating a picture book is all about planning. Ideally, you want to plan the book very roughly and loosely so that ideas can be worked out quickly without a great deal of time investment.

What this looks like in practice is three stages:

• Thumbnails (September to October 2024) - extremely rough drawings that suggest the action and placement of the action on the page in relation to where the text will be

• Rough Art (October to December 2024) - drawings that have been fleshed out including the design of the characters

• Final Art (January to August 2025) - the art that appears in the published picture book

I added a pre-step to the Thumbnail stage as I went through the text of the manuscript in late August and wrote illustration notes describing what I had in mind for each page spread. I then sent this to my editor at Owlkids Books, where we went back and forth on concept and pacing before I even started on the thumbnails.

Once I had approval for my notes, I jumped in on the thumbnail layouts and managed to knock out a first draft in a few days. I, unfortunately, still can’t sit up enough to create pencil sketches, so I did all the thumbnails on my iPad with my over-the-bed stand. I did try to replicate the sketchy look of my beloved blue animation pencils when creating these drawings.

I handed in my thumbnail draft last Friday, and I’m now awaiting feedback from the editor and the book’s designer before I move on to the next stage. In the meantime, I’ll be continuing with my picture book research and starting to flesh out the designs of my main characters.

Needless to say, it’s been great to have this project to dive into while dealing with my rehab rollercoaster. You can expect to see more tantalizing sneak peeks of The Perfect Ride in the months ahead.

Moving sale! Help us out by buying some art

Stefan and I are busy purging for our upcoming condo move, and, not surprisingly, we have way too much art. I’ve held on to some of these older paintings in my stained glass-inspired style for many years, but I’ve decided that it’s finally time for them to leave the nest.

For folks in Calgary

Loi Kratong - 19 x 25” acrylic and ink on slim canvas, framed (2017)
$250Cdn (pick up in Calgary only)

This is the biggest painting I’ve ever painted and will likely remain so, given how challenging it was for me to create at the time. I painted it for the very first art exhibit I was in back in 2017, Can You See Us Vancouver?, that was put on by Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture. It was also in my 2019 solo exhibit, Find Your Heart(h), that we had in conjunction with our wedding.

Its name is rooted in my Thai heritage after the annual Loi Kratong festival. In the festival, participants float paper lotuses with candles down the river and the lotuses are meant to carry away their problems and bad luck.

Peacock - 24x24” canvas print on thick canvas, unframed
$150Cdn (pick up in Calgary only)

This piece has always been very popular and I sold the original 2015 painting years ago. This one-of-a-kind canvas print appeared in my Find Your Heart(h) exhibit.

Because of their size, shipping these pieces would be difficult and expensive, so I would love to find them homes here in Calgary.

If you’re interested in purchasing either of them, please contact me directly.

Available in my online store

If you like this stained glass style but are interested in smaller original paintings, be sure to check out these pieces in my online store. These paintings can be shipped anywhere in North America.

Red Poppy Lamp - 10x10” acrylic and ink on canvas (2014) - $150Cdn

Trumpet Flower Lamp - 10x10” acrylic and ink on canvas (2018) - $150Cdn

Pond Lily Lamp - 11x14” acrylic and ink canvas (2019) - $175Cdn

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