I thought I’d spend a bit of time chatting about these portrait books I have been creating over the past 4 years. Below is one of my favourites, Captain Tom Moore, he became such a super hero for us all in lockdown, and I think he fell into everyones hearts.
Working on these books is really fun. Because I've created so many now, and the format is always the same, I can relax into the work and just enjoy the process. Much of the decision making process is done by the publisher.
I work directly with the Art Director, who gives me the illustration brief of the person I am to draw. I’m also given the quote to add, and what type/style of lettering they would like for the name title.
Even the background colour is given, along with the colours, and outfit the person will be wearing. It may sound less creative working in this way, but actually, when it comes to freelancing, I like to be given a clear brief.
I work in different ways with different clients, and I like a range…. but when most aspects are pre-decided, you know the client is totally focused on what works for them sales wise and they know what they need. Working in this way, I can actually just focus my skill of getting the likeness down, enjoy drawing the details, and making the page look as enticing as possible.
Kamala Harris is another book I worked on this year, and it came out in the last few months. I’m loving how the whole range looks together now.
Something I also love, is the pencil drawings that go inside the book.
All the interiors for these particular books are hand-drawn pencil sketches. I usually draw these when I’m wrapped up cosy on my sofa, then I move to my computer to scan them in and separate out the drawing from the white background, and darken the lines so they show up well in printing.
The ones I’m sharing here, are from the Captain Tom Moore book. And below are from the Kamala Harris book.
When I work on the interior spot sketches, the publisher gives me the brief, but working by hand in a more sketchy way, feels more freeing than the cover art. Each sketch can still take an hour, the portraits can take 2 hours, sometimes more, depending on complexity.
I generally go straight to finals with the sketches, rather than hand in roughs. I believe that working with roughs and finals , much of the sketch charm would be lost.
I’m working on 3 new books currently, so I will look forward to when I can share those with you.
If you’d like to purchase either of these books, they can be found online. Here’s a link to the Captain Tom book. And here for Kamala Harris, both at WHSmiths.