Towards the end of last year Anna Granger, a self-published author and ASD Specialist Advisor in schools for children with autism and social and emotional difficulties, got in touch to ask if I would like to work with her on illustrating her series of children's books focused on emotions.
A few chats and Zoom calls later we realised that we loved working together and had talked through a lot of the development of the book and how we thought the pictures and words could work together.
Anna sent over the manuscript and I started a few character development sketches.
We both loved the characters and after reading through the manuscript and getting to know them, I started the storyboard and rough layout sketches, including a new character introduced through the illustrations - crab!
Once the storyboard was finalised, it was on to refining the line drawings and developing a colour palette. I love blues, greens and pastel tones and with the story being set at the beach, I got the opportunity to work with a colour palette I love.
After seeing my handwriting on the line drawings, Anna loved it for the story and asked if we could create a font unique to Ted, the Sea and Me.
Then it was on to the final artwork, a stage of the process I was so excited to get to. I couldn't wait to bring these characters to life and had so much fun adding little details wherever I could.
Ted, the Sea and Me will be published this summer. I had so much fun working on the book and couldn't have asked for a better writer to work with. Anna has also created an activity workbook that I will be illustrating to go alongside the picture book for teachers and parents to help children understand emotions.
You can find Anna Granger and 5 in a Boat Books online here.