handmade living blog tour {day two}

Have you been following the 'Handmade Living' blog tour? Welcome to day 2!

Working on Handmade Living has definitely been one of the highlights of my professional career so far. Today I will share with you a little inside information about the process and inspiration behind this book, as well as a sneak peek at some of the illustrations I created.

What exactly was my involvement in Handmade Living?

I was lucky enough to be asked by the talented Tania and Julie to illustrate for Handmade Living. Tania and I were first introduced after she stumbled across Tiny Concept and fell in love with my dolls (lucky me!). I equally admired her talent, and ever since then we converse on a daily basis for one reason or another. When the opportunity came up to be involved with such a magnificent publication, I literally jumped up and down screaming.

Not entirely sure what it is I would be illustrating, things quickly evolved and ideas started flowing as to what I could contribute to the pages. As well as the double page chapter headers, I created numerous projects though out the book, digitized the patterns and even photographed some of the images. There were many days when I had received 60+ emails from Tania, going to and fro to finalize details. We would both find ourselves sitting at the computer till the early hours of the morning, still making decisions on placement, colour, size - you name it!

What is the process undertaken to achieve the final illustrations?

Each chapter of the book begins with a double page line art illustration. I took inspiration from all the stunning designs within the chapter and even used some of the designs within the illustrations. After the initial sketch stage, I created all the illustrations digitally using Adobe Illustrator and a Wacom graphics tablet. This process usually takes hundreds of hours of constant drawing, fiddling and changing until I get something that I am happy with. When I finish an illustration, I like to step away from it for a day and then come back and look at it with fresh eyes - there is usually always changes to be made at this stage and it really allows you to look at it from a different perspective. Once the illustration was approved, the final image was sent to Tania where she added it to the pages of book. With both Tania and Julie in Canberra and me in Brisbane, it made for a love affair relationship with our computers!! I actually saw more of my computer screen than I did of my husband (or my housework!) throughout this process. I also illustrated all the 'swirls and curls', frames and decorative details seen throughout the book where Tania then beautifully placed them across the pages. I tried to add tiny personal touches to the illustrations - if you look carefully at the 'Nest' illustrated chapter header, you may even see drawings of Tania, Julie and myself hidden in the picture frames!

Below is a sneak peak of two chapter headers I illustrated for Handmade Living - 'Adorn' and 'little'.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment and I will answer it by the end of the day!