Illustrating The Worrisome Wombat: a picture book dealing with worry
‘Little Wombat can’t stop worrying about all the calamities that could befall her and her bushland friends. It is only when an old relative comes to visit that she is reminded of some wonderful, deep-rooted truths about trust and courage.’
I think it’s important to have picture books that are quite simply fun! For that reason, I’m not necessarily a big fan of picture books with strong teaching messages. Some picture books become quite boring in their attempt to make a point. However, I do realise that a picture book is a perfect format for getting a message across. And ‘The Worrisome Wombat’ is a beautiful example of this. When I was first read the manuscript, I knew I would love developing the illustrations for this story! With the Australian bush featuring so strongly in my textile art, it was fun to bring it into my illustration work as well!
As with my earlier picture books, the illustration process began with scribbling over the manuscript - highlighting important words and noting down illustration ideas, and thoughts on where to put the page turns. Then there were lots of scribbly drawings and thumbnails in my sketchbook. This is where I nut out page layouts, and what to capture on each page. I want to make sure that there is variety throughout the book. That was especially important for this book with its bush setting, where it would have been very easy for each page to look the same. So this is where I’m thinking about perspective - close up, long distance, viewing from down low or up high.
It’s also where I think about how busy each page needs to be. The full, busy pages are fun to draw, but you don’t necessarily want a whole book full of busy pages - it’s also good to have quieter moments in the book, not just in the pace of the words, but also in the illustrations. (This was a big learning curve for me in illustrating Shine. I was inclined to add as much as possible into each illustration, and my editor helped to manage that so that the book also had quiet spaces). Another consideration at this stage was how to deal with the ‘scary’ ideas and thoughts that Little Wombat has. Scary things make a story interesting, but I had to be conscious of the target audience of a picture book (2-6 year olds), so I had to think about not making the scary pictures too scary!
Mood is a big part of this story, and I tried to reflect that in the colour choices, with some pages using more somber colours than others. When Grandpa reminds Little Wombat why she doesn’t need to worry, the illustration includes the joyful colours of eucalyptus and wattle blossoms to lift the mood.
After the rough sketching, and once I had a good idea of what I would like to see on each pages, the next step was drawing up ‘final roughs’. These are full size ‘pencil’ drawings of each page. This is where I make sure that I have the facial expressions and features of the characters correct, that everything fits well onto the page or spread, and that the drawing matches the text. This is also where I try to make sure to avoid the gutter of the book. You don’t want a character’s face across the gutter (fold) of the book! The final roughs allow me to get good feedback from others involved in the book, before proceeding to the full colour illustrations.
Once the roughs are finalised, the hardest (but most rewarding) work is complete. Then it’s time for the fun part - incorporating colour! I like to use gouache paint and colour pencils in my illustrations. This is the first book in which I completed each illustration as one full size painting (my other picture book illustrations were made by combining many smaller illustrations), and I really enjoyed working this way for this book. I think that the bush setting lent itself well to this approach. The rough outlines of the illustration were traced from the final roughs onto watercolour paper. I then began putting down layers of gouache. Once the gouache was dry, I went back into each illustration with colour pencil to add depth, texture and clarity. It was such a joy to see the drawings come to life in colour!
