From Sketch Pads to iPads

Illustrations. Oh, illustrations.

They were a big part of the book that had me stuck staring at blank pages in my sketch book for months. I sketched and sketched till "Scarlett" appeared on the pages. Soon 24 pages of drawings were drawn on paper but then a giant roadblock (once again) stood in my way. How is the world am I going to make these digital?!?! So I once again sat and stared at my sketchbook, this time with drawings covering the pages, but absolutely NO idea where to go from there.

From this... To this....

Until one day... an iPad Pro commercial caught my eye. There it was, the way I was going to finally make these drawing digital! But, I couldn't use the drawings I had spent months slaving away on... I could only use them as reference for the final drawings I was going to create on my iPad. Welp, goodbye to all the time spent drawing on paper and time to redo it all. Aye Aye Aye!

So I ran down to the apple store and bought an iPad Pro and got to work. I was able to select a specific page size and draw away with no fear of images being pixelated when printed! Made a mistake? Didn't like a line? With one easy click it could be gone with no eraser marks. Boy, was this a game changer- and with one click they were sent straight from the iPad to the publishers!

During the whole book writing process, the illustrations were actually the one thing that slowed me down the most in the publishing process. If you are stuck or are wondering what way to go for illustrating a book...throw away the pencils and stacks of papers and get yourself an iPad Pro, the app Procreate and get a-drawin!

The Trip That Started It All...

In March of 2018, exactly 2 years ago, my mom, myself and baby Scarlett (she was 5 months old at the time) packed our bags and jumped on Scarlett's first international flight to Australia to visit my older sister and her family.

While we were visiting, I checked every book store, gift store, children's store and basically any store that might have a book about Australia. I couldn't find a book ANYWHERE, and I don't mean some "Goodnight Australia" book or a book that only tells kids about koalas and kangaroos. (Not that those aren't good books...) After over a week of searching, I finally realized I was going to have to channel my inner DIY self and write the book on my own. I began to take in all the places we went from the zoos, to restaurants, to the feelings I experienced when exploring on my vacation. I took note of all the differences and similarities Australia had from the US and focused on some main points that I wanted Scarlett to know about the country her family lived in. And now exactly two years after touching down in Australia, countless hours trying to create rhymes, drawing sketches over and over and over and now Scarlett's Passport is off to print!