Lucy Frost Is Lost or How some stuff comes together to make a Picture Book.

OK. So those of you who follow me on twitter or instagram, will have noticed over the last couple of days that I've been posting spreads from a new Picture Book concept. This is something I've been meaning to do for a while now but I tend to get carried away & before you know it  the moment has gone.

  This is not by any means a way for me to drum up interest in a book concept but more as a diary of the journey from idea to finished art. How this particular concept came about & my very unregimented way of working. This query comes up quite a lot both in & out of publishing circles, 'how do you get an idea?   'what happens next?   'how do you make the book?  'how long does it take?
 
 So this time we'll do it before we reach a point of no return...


This book concept came straight out of a line that popped into my head 'Lucy Frost Is Lost'. At the time I was at my desk & had just been sketching out a character to paint up & send to a friend as part of an art swap. So here was this line of words & here was this character sitting in front of me. Now, PB (picture book), ideas never follow the same pattern in the way they come about or even the manner in which they evolve but when it happens this way, there is always a lot of initial energy. Think of it like colliding atoms. So, in this instance it was what has turned out to be the title & the main character. BANG!

I should point out that as I speak the script is unfinished, the thumbnails are incomplete & this could all turn out to be a great load of pants (rubbish). & that does happen, quite a lot in fact. Some ideas just never fly. It's all a gamble but if you don't try, well...

So, without further ado, I am pleased to introduce you to Lucy Frost

& as a way of showing you how unstructured I am here are the current incomplete thumbnail sketches

& for those of you who are going to ask, no, I don't usually work in red pencil. It happened to be at hand when I sketched Lucy & I stuck with it as you'll see with the full scale spreads. Switching up your tools of choice is a great way for allowing yourself a fresh perspective on how you work. & in any case, what's not to like about red.

 In the next post I'll talk about the second trigger that helped kick this script off, switching up perspectives.

 If you'd like to watch the spreads appear in real time please do hop on over to my twitter or instagram accounts.