I always enjoy starting a new story.
Recently I went to the Bournemouth Oceanarium to sketch characters for my new picture book, a fishy tale set in the Indian Ocean. Luckily they had a model for the little chap who is the central character- an Angelfish. Not the easiest fish to draw as they move very quickly!
After many, many edits and my wonderful agent Elizabeth Roy pruning words further, she then gave me the thumbs up. So now its all systems go and June will be spent creating thumbnails, working on the structure, pacing and then some artwork. Here are some rough sketches pondering various layouts.
The one downside of this early part of the process is I can’t listen to anything - (except the Archers!) as it interferes with my thinking process. It can be an intense time.. so writing my blog is a nice distraction! Needless to say, I wont be making fish pie for a while……. another downside of getting to know some of the beautiful creatures in the ocean!
Oh, here is the answer to the joke in the heading- their scales!
