Children’s Book Character Design
“I Paint Rainbows in Black!”
Client: Penguin Random House, Australia
Year: 2019
Medium: Ink
Context: Character design for children’s manuscript acquisitions pitch.
Collaborators: Katrina Lehman, Senior Editor, Penguin Young Readers
Brief: Provided with a short sample of a manuscript, I was asked to visualise my interpretation of an enthusiastic and unstoppable young girl.
The commissioned illustrations were to be used as sample illustrations as part of a pitch to a larger acquisitions meeting within the company.
Approach: I read the character as a “chaotic good” manic little girl, determined to be good at anything she sets her mind to — if not always in the cleanest way!
I tried to channel that with ink, and a little inspiration from a few real life kids I know! I took inspiration from P.D. Eastman & Hilary Knight’s classic illustration styles.
Character design for a children’s book manuscript pitch.
The key image above was the main part of the pitch.
We arrived at this after testing a range of character styles, ages and designs.
Here are a few sketches from the development process:
Results: After taking a suite of drawings into a meeting with the creative team, we decided on the key illustration plus a few selected pencil roughs to send to the pitch meeting. The illustrations are used by the commissioning editor to help persuade their colleagues in the other departments of the merits inherent in a manuscript. The illustrations are not necessarily intended to be used in the final book, just to help the marketing and planning staff visualise the characters in a story. This kind of work is always a blast, because I can work very loose and with a lot of energy when the characters are new and exciting to me.