Door mond-tot-mond reclame nam Bessie contact met mij op. Ze had een enorme wens om een kinderboek uit te geven. Eigenlijk niet één maar een hele reeks. Of ik haar daarbij kon en wilde helpen. Tijdens een korte maar zeer effectieve Zoom meeting was ik direct enthousiast.
Het eerste boek zou Jellyfish Hugs gaan heten en niet alleen in het Engels gepubliseerd worden maar ook in het Nederlands en het Spaans. Ik heb voor de boeken de illustraties gemaakt, de vormgeving gedaan en de vertaling van het Nederlandse boek. Het gehele project heeft wel een aantal maanden in beslag genomen maar de boeken zijn echt geweldig leuk geworden!
Loop je ook rond met een idee voor een kinderboek? Neem dan eens vrijblijven contact op!
From Concept to Creation
It’s a strange process when writing a children’s book that you envision being illustrated. In your head as you keep working through concepts and edits you get this picture in your mind of the story. Literally. What the characters, setting, colors, you name it, will look like.
It brings tremendous joy….and fear! Why fear? Oh, that wee little realization that one who is the writer is not in fact an illustrator.
For many children’s book authors they are also illustrators – but not me.
Bringing a story visually to life is an enormous task. And, you need to take someone else’s words, inspirations, dreams and integrate all of that into something that they can feel content with.
I got bizarrely lucky with meeting Mireille van Yperen. From the get-go she took on my wild ramblings about underwater worlds and creatures and the book series stories I saw in my head and POOF there it was. Naturally, it came together for her in a minute. HAHA 😜 I jest! Not at all the case. Countless hours and iterations from sketches to colors to tiny details to big moments (like when the Jellyfish all of a sudden had a bowtie!) brought this book to life.
So, this post is for her. To highlight her tremendous abilities and to share with everyone who takes a read to know that this is a skill beyond measure and she is a talent beyond a dream. ✏️🎨🖌️
Ah, wee side note – those people I mentioned up above who both write AND illustrate, yep, you guessed it – Mireille is one of them so don’t forget to look her up. 📚
P.S. Should you be looking for an illustrator you need to fight me for her time. I jest again, not really 😉
It’s a strange process when writing a children’s book that you envision being illustrated. In your head as you keep working through concepts and edits you get this picture in your mind of the story. Literally. What the characters, setting, colors, you name it, will look like.
It brings tremendous joy….and fear! Why fear? Oh, that wee little realization that one who is the writer is not in fact an illustrator.
For many children’s book authors they are also illustrators – but not me.
Bringing a story visually to life is an enormous task. And, you need to take someone else’s words, inspirations, dreams and integrate all of that into something that they can feel content with.
I got bizarrely lucky with meeting Mireille van Yperen. From the get-go she took on my wild ramblings about underwater worlds and creatures and the book series stories I saw in my head and POOF there it was. Naturally, it came together for her in a minute. HAHA 😜 I jest! Not at all the case. Countless hours and iterations from sketches to colors to tiny details to big moments (like when the Jellyfish all of a sudden had a bowtie!) brought this book to life.
So, this post is for her. To highlight her tremendous abilities and to share with everyone who takes a read to know that this is a skill beyond measure and she is a talent beyond a dream. ✏️🎨🖌️
Ah, wee side note – those people I mentioned up above who both write AND illustrate, yep, you guessed it – Mireille is one of them so don’t forget to look her up. 📚
P.S. Should you be looking for an illustrator you need to fight me for her time. I jest again, not really 😉
