Starting on my picture book
I always forget how to do this
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I’m working on my first book since having kids - a picture book slated for 2028 called What’s So Great About Nicholas. It’s about a little girl who’s pissed that it’s her brother’s birthday and everyone is being nice to him. It’s based on true events, and named after the actual little brother I terrorized, my brother Nick, who lives in Portland and who I love very much and am totally nice to now. My lovely editor at Penguin is also named Nick, which delights me.
This is my second book for children, my first as writer and illustrator. I wanted to share a bit about the process of beginning work on the final art. It’s something I always forget until I’m there again, and I’m like, wait — how do I do this again??
I didn’t go to art school. I have no formal training. I learned to make books by making books. Here’s how I spent my first few weeks working on the final art for What’s So Great About Nicholas.
Spend tons of money on paint, pen nibs and paper. 3 trips to the art stores the first week, two online orders placed.
Do math. How big is the book? I know I’m going to draw it bigger, but how much bigger? 30%? 50%? More? I cut out paper and print sketches and tape them up to my light board. I draw, paying attention to how my hand feels making the shapes. Does it feel cramped? Or too much of a stretch? I try different sizes until I find one that’s right. It’ll be slightly different for different pages. I’m kind of winging it at this point, hoping even if I ink at different proportions it will look relatively uniform and nice. Soon I will need to go to a print shop to have the sketches for 2-page spreads printed, and that’ll be a whole thing. (Is this making any sense?)
List out every illustration needed for the book, along with my editor’s last little notes highlighted in yellow. I tape the list by my desk and will cross each off as I finish.
test papers Find the right pen. For this book, I knew I wanted to draw it in a nib pen. I’ve fallen back in love with them the last couple years, thanks to Carol Tyler, and have imagined this book drawn with pen & ink. I tried a ton of nibs over the course of a week until I found one that felt perfect.
Use a material I’m a bit unfamiliar with. After getting into Helen Oxenbury, I decided I wanted to paint this book with watercolor, which I’d never used before a few months ago — I’d always just used gouache as watercolor. The fact that I’m actively learning as I go keeps me really engaged. I painted What To Do When I’m Gone fully in gouache. Before that, I’d only made a few paintings with gouache. But I was curious about it, and I wanted to be like Maira Kalman. Huh! I’m always trying to be other artists! I guess that’s my art school right there.
Freak out about my deadline and call my agent begging for clarity and reassurance. She tells me it’ll be fine, I can ask for an extension if I need more time.
Sketch all the characters in their final form. I discover things in the process. I want this shirt to have thick stripes, not thin, because it feels sillier, or the grandma actually doesn’t have freckles, stuff like that. I’m mixing watercolor in little jars labeling them “Lucy hair” and “Mom pants” to keep things consistent throughout the book. I pin my colored sketches to a cork board and keep it near my drawing area so I can look up and check: are this character’s socks pulled up or rolled down?
All the while, I’m treating my body with extra care, because drawing every day takes a huge physical toll. Especially the way I do, with my face hovering like 4 inches over the page, back fully bent over. I wake up before the kids every morning to lift weights or do Pilates with Helen Phelan. (Use this referral link if you want to try - doing her body neutral classes is the only thing that’s helped my chronic back pain from drawing. I’m religious about it.) I try to take a short walk in the afternoon to avoid sitting too long, and at night I stretch and sometimes take a bath and smoke weed to relax and roll my back and use ice or a heating pad on my back.
Summer is so busy, so many visitors and interruptions and sporadic childcare, and I think, why couldn’t my deadline be in winter? Then I think about how my book is set in the summer and this is a gift. I try to walk around with my ears perked for details, colors, flowers, trees, good summer energy to fold into the book. I try to tell myself, it’s ok not to work on this 12 hours a day. Go live your life, and carry that soaked-up beauty back to the book.
Futz with the fucking printer for several hours trying to print sketches. The fucking thing won’t comply, until it does. Hours of the day gone, $$ for childcare passing as I troubleshoot. I’d so much rather be drawing, and I lament that I’m now in a bad mood and can’t draw and the babysitter leaves in an hour. Then I suck it up and draw anyway.
I feel so much fear and hesitancy every time I sit down to ink these final drawings. The stakes feel high because the paper is expensive 300lb watercolor paper, thick and beautiful, $30 for a big sheet that I chop into uneven pieces. I keep pushing through my fear, tell myself I’ll buy more paper, it’ll be fine, the only way is through. Don’t think — draw.
In the background I listen to groovy instrumental music that puts me in a trance-like state, or Gilmore Girls, which I’ve had in the background for the creation of all my books.
As I write this, it’s a Tuesday in early July, my third week of working on this book in earnest. I’ve only finished just a few spot illustrations and made a little headway on the cover — but the biggest decisions have been made. I know, more or less, how I want it to look and what materials I’m using, and that is huge. It will start to flow soon, and the finished art will slowly pile up in a box in my room to be shipped to the publisher.
It occurs to me that this is my happy place. A deadline, an engrossing project, fun art supplies, something expected of me, a paycheck at the end of the tunnel, an excuse to watch Gilmore Girls for hours. My ‘job’ often feels so loose and undefined, it can be a bit terrifying. But when I’m deep in a book, especially a book that’s already sold and been backed by a publisher who awaits my art, I feel so defined, so safe, pleasantly held and oddly free. The moment I finish this book, I’ll miss it.
Before I ever made a book, I felt so intimidated. I didn’t understand – how do you sustain a burst of genius for the length of an entire book? Then I started to make books and learned it’s a lot of planning and hard work and organization. And some bursts of genius!! But mostly steady, daily, incremental work and as I get older, lots of self-care in between.
I hope this has been demystifying for you, or at least kinda interesting!
Thanks for being here,
❤️ Hal
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The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman ← my gouache inspiration
Helen Oxenbury: A Life In Illustration ← my watercolor inspiration
A Soldier’s Heart by Carol Tyler ← my pen & ink inspiration
Referral link to Helen Phelan Studio, my body-neutral pilates instructor. I swear by her short classes. I just do one 15-30 min video a day, literally never longer. My back pain went away after about a month. If I stop doing pilates regularly, it returns.
If you have recs for groovy instrumental music that’ll help put me in a trance-like state as I draw, do send!
Happy to answer questions if you have ‘em.
As a sequential artist who is also not really formally trained, this is the most helpful post I’ve ever read. I sometimes feel like my creative process is complete chaos, but it is actually just the act of creating! I love your story and can’t wait to see it out in the world!
LOVE hearing about other artist’s processes, so thanks for sharing! For (maybe?) groovy instrumentals, I LOVE “Piano in the Background” (Duke Ellington) and The Darjeeling Limited soundtrack, both of which I have on records and 10/10 recommend (both have some lyrics/singing). For full instrumentals, my go-tos are random jazz records from the thrift store or the “Many Beautiful Things” soundtrack by Sleeping at Last!