1. Story board

The story board is the backbone of any picture book, it’s an opportunity for Nina to quickly jot down idea’s, to become familiar with the story and interpret the text visually. Nina can start to see the dynamic of the story and get a feel for the overall book. She might illustrate several versions of a spread until she is happy with the final image. This process is were Nina spends most of her time illustrating a picture book.

‘People always ask me how long it takes to do an illustration. It’s difficult to say - the final watercolour may only take a few hours, however the work that went into the storyboard and sketches may have taken a few months. Illustrating a picture book is never about doing one illustration, it’s all about working on the entire book.’

2. Research

Nina spends hours researching her characters, The Internet is a good place to start. The library and even a trip to the zoo. Nina finds that a broad range of information works best for her.

‘I had trouble finding visual information on platypus feet! Most of the photos had their webbed feet hidden under muddy water. A trip to Taronga zoo was helpful as I spent time with my sketchbook getting a feel for how the platypus swim underwater however, the little creatures were moving so fast I found it difficult to see any kind of detail. I ended up finding an old tattered 1950’s book about Australian wildlife in the library. The book had horrible photos of a dead platypus the feet had actually been dismembered. Although disgusted, I finally managed to see a detailed image of a platypus foot.’

3. Ideas to final sketch

Having done enough research and being familiar with the characters of the story, Nina spends time on each individual spread (in this case it’s the cover of Little Platypus).

When Nina is happy with the final layout and design of her spread, she photocopies the sketch to full size ready to work on the finer detail. At this point Nina only works in grey scale, bringing in more detail and working on the shadows and highlights.

‘ At this point, I’m still thinking in grey scale as colour can get in the way of the details. A lot of the work goes into these greyscale drawings, I figure the mistakes I do here will save making them when I'm working on the final illustration.'

4. Final illustration

This is the easy bit, what Nina calls the colouring-in stage. All the preparation and research has finally paid off and Nina can confidently work on the final illustration. She traces her final sketch with a light pencil onto a sheet of watercolour paper and using her greyscale pencil sketch as a guide Nina starts introducing colour. To prevent overworking an illustration, Nina likes to lay down the colour quickly with a large brush allowing the watercolour move and do its thing.

Keeping in mind a few technical things like crop marks and bleed. I make an effort to keep my work space clean. Smudges and fingerprints can ruin an illustration.

'The trick is to not overwork the watercolour illustration. If I make a mistake I prefer to start over, this technique keeps my illustrations light and playful.’