To Illustrate a point...

Since the first draft of my book has gone out on review, it has been a quiet, contemplative time, filled with editing and studying of the 'grammar rules', especially around dialogue.  An enjoyable task, this involves a lot of reading and studying, and reading and re-reading of my own story, changing the odd word and texture of the tale to better suit (I hope!) my audience.


My mind has also wandered back to illustration.  My original idea was to offer Lexi for publication complete with full colour illustrations, but as I research and further research, the trend seems to be for small, black and white illustrations, often by a well known illustrator such as Nick Sherrat or Quentin Blake. Does my 'pop art' style of schoolgirl scribblings belong in this kind of market?  


Illustrations are also time consuming and take the focus of the mind away from the word-craft required.  But they have been extremely useful in providing my own visuals for the story.  I knew what Lexi looked like before I started writing her.  I have a visual of the layout of the house she stays in, and the village, and of other main characters in the book.  But this brings me back to technique.  My drawings are rather cartoon-y. Think Jackie magazine, in it's heyday of colour illustrations to represent the clothes in fashion spreads.  They are not quirky a la Mr. Sherrat or Mr. Blake.  They are reminiscent of the girls on the Pippa Doll boxes (you are showing your age if you have the remotest idea on this one!).  So perhaps a little time is in order to work on my technique and proportions.  To my mind Lexi looks a little like a red haired, green eyed, freckled version of a young Jet Metal - the creation of Andy Sparrow - to my mind, artist of some of the most perfect illustration around today.


So hey ho - more learning to be done, more techniques to perfect - which leads me to wonder how writers and artists ever get anything published, as, if they are like me, they are on a constant cycle of revision, improvement and self-criticism.


And if you want to know, the little sketch above this post, is my daughter, Edie, sketched from her school photograph on the back of an envelope as an exercise in proportion. And it actually does look like her.