Techniques

Book Dummy – A Very Late Update About Pi-Rat!

Childrens Illustration, Childrens Writing, Drawings, Techniques, Tutorials

As I was sitting here, delicately nibbling a doughnut (stuffing my face) it hit me that I never actually came back and updated my book dummy adventures. For those of you that were following or just like to read a happy ending, I’ll do it now (as soon as I’ve finished this cake).

…

That was lovely.

As I mentioned in my last ‘dummy’ post, I digitally submitted it to four literary agents. I sat back and started to think about my next idea. Then I got an email from one of the four the same week -I was completely taken off guard…brilliant!

After speaking initially with Lauren I knew straight away that I was going to accept her offer of representation. The conversation was laid back, Lauren was lovely and I felt at ease to ask questions (even the stupid ones). As I’d done my research beforehand, I already knew that on a professional level, this was one of the four agencies I wanted the most. At this point I withdrew my submission from the other three (one of them sent me a lovely email about my dummy and wished me well for the future too, which was nice).

So, the update is, I was offered representation (literary and illustration) by Bright and I have to say, I’m over the moon about it.

As for the dummy itself, it needs some tweaking…but it’s looking better with each one. In between tweaks, I’ve written and started to develop another.

My portfolio at Bright is HERE where you can also see a couple of colour roughs from the dummy.

Thanks to everyone that followed my process, I hope its been helpful,

Max 

https://www.maxinelee.com/book-dummy-process/

Updated to add the finished product -here it is on Amazon – Meet Pi-Rat!

 

 

Ooooh Shiny! – Pearlescent Tinting Medium

Childrens Illustration, Techniques, Tutorials

I don’t often use additives or mediums. Occasionally I’ll use a flow enhancer for larger pieces but only when I can get the lid off the bottle without breaking my hand (must remember to clean the bottle before putting the lid back on).

The flat colour of this Pearlescent Tinting Medium medium was perfect for my snow and having never used it before –I got it with a bundle of paint tubes– I thought I’d use it and see what happened (you know how much I love experimenting). You could go too wild with this and end up with something very tacky but in moderation it’s gorgeous.

Anyways, look what it does (if you haven’t seen or used it before).

This is the colour I wanted, and I expect, how it would reproduce in print. This is straight out of the tube:

And this is what happens when the light catches it:

Isn’t that lovely!

I’ll post the full illustration tomorrow when I can hopefully get some good light to photograph it properly.