August 6, 2010
Photo of Genevieve Gelles reading to her daughter (Glenda) in 1965. My mommy reads to me.  There is something magical about reading to a child.  My mom read to me often and I cherish those memories.  One of my favorite books was a manuscript my mom had written, “Herbie Hic-up”.  I’ve always dreamed of getting mom’s book published.  She had sketched illustrations, but always wanted an illustrator to bring the visuals to life. Fast forward 40+ years.  I may have grown-up, but I still dreamed of asking my favorite British designer, Jon Hicks, if he would consider illustrating my mom’s book.  2010, I finally asked Jon.  I was so thrilled when he said he would give it a go…that I squealed and bounced around like a little kid.  I may have grown older, but I have the heart and soul of a 4 year old (and I wouldn’t have it any other way).

Photo of Genevieve Gelles reading to her daughter (Glenda) in 1965.

My mommy reads to me.  There is something magical about reading to a child.  My mom read to me often and I cherish those memories. 

One of my favorite books was a manuscript my mom had written, “Herbie Hic-up”.  I’ve always dreamed of getting mom’s book published.  She had sketched illustrations, but always wanted an illustrator to bring the visuals to life.

Fast forward 40+ years.  I may have grown-up, but I still dreamed of asking my favorite British designer, Jon Hicks, if he would consider illustrating my mom’s book. 

2010, I finally asked Jon.  I was so thrilled when he said he would give it a go…that I squealed and bounced around like a little kid.  I may have grown older, but I have the heart and soul of a 4 year old (and I wouldn’t have it any other way).

August 6, 2010 • 1 note
First try at sketching out Herbie. I usually go straight to a Google Image Search to get a good reference point. The third mouse down on the right hand side is more or less a direct copy from a cartoon I found. However, after drawing for a while, it starts to take a life of it’s own, so the Herbie bottom left is done without reference. You just keep drawing and drawing, until you’ve got used to the character, and can draw it from all angles without reference. Sometimes you get a good drawing, sometimes a bad one. The point is, you just keep drawing.

First try at sketching out Herbie.

I usually go straight to a Google Image Search to get a good reference point. The third mouse down on the right hand side is more or less a direct copy from a cartoon I found. However, after drawing for a while, it starts to take a life of it’s own, so the Herbie bottom left is done without reference. You just keep drawing and drawing, until you’ve got used to the character, and can draw it from all angles without reference. Sometimes you get a good drawing, sometimes a bad one. The point is, you just keep drawing.

May 1, 2010

First Stage: Roughing out

In publishing, there is the concept of ‘galley proofs’, a basic print out of a manuscript, using the correct typeface and sizes, in order to check it’s length. In the case of Herbie Hiccup, I already knew that there were 12 pages of manuscript, but I needed to visualise the layouts. So, in InDesign I started planning out covers, title pages and spreads, using scans of the original manuscript as the artwork and typing up the text.

Originally, I’d intended to use the left hand page (or ‘verso’) for the text, and the right hand page (or ‘recto’) for the illustrations. However, this started to feel too large, and it was obvious that some spreads could share the artwork for better effect. Such as the one where Herbie has tried soap, and moved on to lotion.

After just under an hour’s fiddling about, I had a rough version of the book, and could see how it would all fit together. I could then start making decisions about how best to split up the paragraphs on each page, to help the flow of the story. You can download the Stage 1 PDF here.

For now, I’ve set the book in Bembo, but that doesn’t feel right yet. The next stage is to decide how I’m going to approach the style, which could be traditional or modern. The former would fit well with the manuscript’s origins, but the latter is what would fit my illustration style best. The right typeface will lead on from that choice…

May 1, 2010 • veer.com
P22 Platten Platten is a font that I’d always kept in mind for a childrens book. It’s the kind of typeface that was used on early Ladybird books, and evokes school textbooks of my youth. If I go for the traditional angle, this may be the one to choose.

P22 Platten

Platten is a font that I’d always kept in mind for a childrens book. It’s the kind of typeface that was used on early Ladybird books, and evokes school textbooks of my youth. If I go for the traditional angle, this may be the one to choose.

April 28, 2010 • 1 note

And we’re off!

A few months back, Glenda Sims approached me about illustrating a manuscript her mother, Genevieve Gelles had written, called ‘Herbie Hic…up’. She had 12 pages of drawings and story and was keen to get her mothers book published. Lured with the promise of complete creative freedom, I couldn’t help but say yes! Secretly, I’ve always wanted to illustrate a children’s book, and with having 2 children myself, I’m exposed to all sorts of lovely children’s books such as those by Oliver Jeffers (a big influence).

So, this could be madness - a ridiculous burden to add the that of the project itself, but I’ll be using this Tumblr blog to document the process. I’ll leave Glenda to explain the back story, but I’ll be documenting the decisions I make along the way.

Here we go!