Illustrating “Kimimela" Picture Book: From first sketches to finished pages
On 2023 I was constantly traveling from Asturias to Madrid, my host at an Airbnb Cornelia Jagsch approached me with a project she had in mind. She needed to illustrate the book she had written about the emotional process a child could go though in a path of self discovery, which she wrote it to be linked to the life cycle of a butterfly
Understanding the story
First I read the book to understand the global idea of what it could look like and what I needed to research on. The mood of the book, the emotional significance of each stage, and the colors I needed to use on each page, as Cornelia wanted me to link both the life cycle with the colors of certain emotions.
SKETCHing IDEAS and early visual exploration
I made some rough sketches of the character, and then I applied the same rough sketches to the whole book, very small drawings, the size of thumbnails to get all the ideas correctly. I experimented with layouts, studies of flowers and leaves, and I researched different types of butterflies.
Color studies and atmosphere
Color is so important! I photocopied my whole sketched book, after cleaning up the lines, I made a sort of contact sheet of the book, and with that I took out my oils, as I like to work traditionally, and painted the whole book, just like a color key to have an idea of the visual feel of the whole book.
I loved how the colors were changing on each page, just like a rainbow, and I needed the butterfly colors to be able to fit on all the pages, and also any other animal or insect in it was supposed to stand out in contrast to the background.
From originals to final work
Once the color key was approved, I worked on the final spreads of the book, my favorite part! I worked on them promptly and eagerly, as this is my most cherished step on the creation of a picture book. In this part I also have to make sure the images suit properly with the text, the alignment is right, and also that I am not forgetting the bleed of each page , the bleed would be the extra part that gets cut on the printer services when they assemble the book :) .
These are some Spot illustrations I created for the book, also as little stickers I think they are adorable!
Final spreads and reflections
When I finished the final spreads I showed them to the author, scanned and cleaned, in case there was anything that needed adjusting. I decided to repaint one spread as I tried to make it digitally but I was not happy with the result, I preferred it so much when it was painted manually.
I really liked how the colors progressing were a thing to keep in mind along the book, so I used them for the back cover, working on a scale of the life cycle of the butterfly. I was also happy to learn myself the cycle, and to get to draw a little happy caterpillar!
Here are images of the project, you can also find this picture book on my portfolio.
You can buy the book in Spanish and in German from Cuenta Hasta Tres here.
I hope you found this info helpful, if you need a book cover for your book email me!
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Now my darlings, go out to explore, stay curious and bold!
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