Making a picture book

Books start in many different ways.
Sometimes a publisher will send me a text.
Sometimes a writer will write something for me.
Sometimes, as in the case of The Snow Whale, I sent a small drawing to Caroline, who wrote a story based on my drawing.
Sometimes the story and images form together in my head.

Picture books are usually 32 pages long and when I have read a text and agreed with a publisher to work on it, I divide the text up to fit with the 32 pages and then produce "thumbnail sketches" to give the editor and designer an idea of how I am thinking of working, which parts of the text I choose to illustrate and where I think the text will fit.

After these sketches have been approved I work in a "dummy" book, which is the same size as the finished book. Working in pencil, I sketch out
the designs and then the designer fits the type in the spaces.

The next stage is to produce the paintings. I like to work larger than the finished work. I work in watercolour, using layers of colour to build up the density. I do not mix colours. I have several brushes in different sizes for washes and finer detail. When I am painting I have to think of where the fold will be in the middle of the book (details sometimes get lost there when the book is bound). I have to work a little larger than the finished page so that when the pages are trimmed
by the printers there will not be any white showing. I have to make sure that any areas where there is type that there is no detail and the
background is light enough for the words to show clearly. The paintings do not always work first time and sometimes I have to do them again and again.

When the paintings are finished I send them to the publisher where they are scanned by the designer and put together with the type before sending of to the printer.

The printer will then send "proofs" to the publisher, who will send a copy to me and to the author and any mistakes are then checked.

I usually finish the artwork for a book up to a year before the publication date.

When the proofs are made the publisher will try to interest foreign publishers in the book. Most of my books are printed in several languages, and the publisher will try and get as many foreign publishers into a project as possible. The texts then have to be translated, but the more books that are printed, the cheaper each copy is to produce for the publisher.

Then one day a finished book comes through the post and into bookshops and schools and libraries.