”Those drawings are soooo bad. Mammy, look at how bad these are!”
Oooph! That’s the sound of testing an early prototype with your end users — in this case, our young daughters. This was the first genuine and unfiltered response from our 5-year-old to test illustrations. I don’t think she intended to be mean. She just didn’t get the style. It didn’t really look like her and her sister, she thought. She was right. Luckily, I had been thinking about a few different styles to try to get the right balance of execution, repeatability, and consistency. All practical considerations you may agree, but ultimately the end result and response from the audience is what matters most. Option one wasn’t on the money.
Fail to prepare and prepare to fail
Fortunately, I had a second option ready to show, which went down much more successfully. I was sure to add more context to the plan; explaining the overall idea of the story as well as the illustration style. The response was almost the polar opposite from our eldest: “I love it, Daddy. This is such a good idea!” *hugs me*. 😅
This brought me great joy, I must say. Not only was it strong validation of the general idea, but a heartfelt response that got me in the feels.
“I love it, Daddy. This is such a good idea!”
Minimum Viable Product
I’m a digital product designer by trade, and so I try to take an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach to personal projects when I can. That is to say, focus on the core things that produce something of value without it taking a massive investment of time and money. That can come later, assuming you’re on the right track. This mentality may sound kind of cold in relation to the warm fuzzy moment I just described, but starting small and course correcting regularly is never a bad idea.
Details are important
After the first round of testing, I made sure to keep the girls in the loop. I didn’t want to put too much effort in without making sure I was on the right track. Feedback from this session? “That’s the wrong green for the Turtley Turts!”
One of the main characters who also happens to be a soft toy the girls play with in real life looking off-brand would be a disastrous move. “It should be more like this other picture” pointing to another illustration I had. “That’s much better.” Critique and confirmation in one swoop. Nice.
So, details like particular shades of colour are some of the important things to this audience. A lesson about designing for a specific audience: focus on what’s important to them first. Fancy techniques, textures, and lighting won’t make up for the wrong shade of green! Noted.
Some general lessons from the experience
Cart before the (sea)horse
For me, writing and illustrating are two very different things. I found it a real challenge to focus completely on the story without needing to bring the initial ideas to life with some visuals. I’ll admit I did a bit of both from the start. I was sure to have broad stroke ideas in my head for the story mind you. While balancing both tasks may not the most effective approach, I found it helped keep me motivated. There was clear progress being made along the way and I could continue to bounce it off the girls for feedback, which lessened as I was on the right track.
Find your workflow
Everyone has their own personal preferences with regards to workflow, but for me it’s gotta be pen and paper first. When I don’t take that approach I can always tell the difference in quality. Try out different tools to see what works best for you. I used a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with a basic enough stylus pen for my colouring. As alluring as an iPad Pro is — and it is — you can achieve good results without breaking the bank. I found the S2 Tab and Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk did the trick just fine. MVP ethos ;)
Get buy-in, then test early and often
As previously mentioned, prototyping & testing concept with end users like any product can ensure focus and save wasted time in the long run. If I chose to not run the initial idea past them it could’ve been received completely differently on Xmas morning. Understanding your audience and giving them what they want makes all the difference.
Consistency of style
I’ve never really tried character illustration before this project. As a result, I found the stop/start approach I took over several months meant inconsistency of style and palette was something that crept in. In the end I liked some of the character drawings much more than others when I stepped back and looked at them side by side. I made some refinements and also made peace with the fact that I didn’t have the time to make sure everything was perfect for this first cut and an Xmas due date.
Think about the layout early
I had to rework most of the illustrations to accommodate space for text. It’s not just an illustration, but a proper book layout. This may sound obvious, but it’s easy to forget when your pixel-deep colouring and texturing. Especially if you’re using a tablet for the illustrations and working with default screen based dimensions. I used Blurb for the printing, which I found to be easy to deal with. They even had an InDesign plugin that helps you set everything up correctly and even submit directly from InDesign.
If you’re thinking of doing a similar project, here’s some more pointers:
It is harder and takes much longer than you think it will, especially if you’re doing it over evenings and weekends. Think in months, not days or weeks to complete.
The story is the hardest part. Put most of the effort in here. The eye candy is important too, but if it doesn’t flow as a story then it may as well just be a collection of pretty pictures.
Be careful with choosing a rhyming approach to the words. While it lends itself well to kids books, it can also be more limiting and harder work throughout. You can rhyme yourself into a corner pretty easily.
Overall
Although I would have liked to continue refining the whole book, but in the end the illustrations and story were good enough for their purpose and an Xmas deadline. Hoping the intended audience enjoy the book on the 25th.
