This past week I have been working on the final four pages of my second book, "What Makes Me Special?". In my first book "When I Grow Up" I changed the background of the illustrations from a blue sky to a sunset in the final pages when the overall conclusion and message took place in the story. For book two I have changed the setting to be an arctic theme. So wanting to keep my book's sort of themed/tied together as a series, I wanted to make the setting change ever so slightly when the moral of the story came to the surface. In this case Niku the narwhal has a realization of what makes him special. I wanted to celebrate that through the images in the story and from the beginning I have planned and envisioned the story to end with northern lights! Now for this book I have been working in water colour and copics. The background is in watercolor and the characters are in copic marker. Water colour and I have been at war for a long while. It's a medium I have not quite figured out entirely yet. But I wanted to challenge myself and so I set out and did a lot of research and trial and error to get the effect I wanted! I contacted my aunt who works in card making and specifically uses watercolours in her art and then I also found many artists on YouTube either showing or teaching how to create a northern light sky. There were many many different ways to do so. But I ended up finding a technique that I liked and practiced that over and over. My mom and I even went out to get a specific brush and some masking fluid to help me keep my characters safe from being painted over. I spent an entire two days just practicing watercolour and creating northern lights. My mom was a big supporter and helped me when I got frustrated. I finally was able to put it to the good paper and illustrate my pages! They are my favorite pages in the book! I am so happy with the outcome it was worth the trial and error and frustrations. And! I learned something new! I am also inspired to learn and work more with watercolours now as my outcome with this turned out so well.
