MacMillan Prize Finals

and here they are! The MacMillan Prize required a dummy book plus four final spreads. These are the four that I chose, one of them being the final "Flight" spread which is posted step by step below. Raven flying to the heavens, opening a bag of stars, having his feathers burned by the sun, and the final spread of how he became black and how he brought light to the world. I'm so happy with these, and if I ever get a chance I'd like to finalize all my spreads. Especially the first spread so you can see the contrast between the world of darkness and light.

MacMillan Prize: Flight work in Progress

Right! Thought you all would like to see a work in progress of how I painted one of my spreads for my children's book. First I plan the pages out in the dummy book (posted below). I didn't need to correct much for this page so I lightboxed the sketch onto stretched watercolour paper and applied acyrlic texture in some areas.

Once the paper and texture dry I apply a flat wash of colour.

I keep working darker tones into the colour painting both wet on wet and also waiting for layers to dry, also keeping light areas in mind for the text.

I repeat these steps into each area of colour, working from the background into the foreground. For the final touches I will use white gouache and acrylic for highlights and also coloured pencil to bring details out.

MacMillan Prize Dummy Book

I decided to post a few older pieces up here during my last term of uni. These are some sample pages from my Dummy Book I did for the MacMillan Prize. I rewrote and illustrated the story of how Raven brought light to the world, which is an old Alaskan folk tale. The story is 32 pages in total plus covers and title page. I loved this project so much and would like to finalize the book one day if I get the chance. Not all the pages of the dummy book were in colour, but most were done in layers of colour pencil and acrylic for highlights.

Dummy Book WIP

I'm trying out for the Macmillan Children's Book competition! :) I'm really excited about this, and am now working on the dummy book. These are just some photos of a spread I did the other day. A sneaky peak ;)

My story is a retelling of how Raven brought light to the world. It's a traditional tale from Alaska, but I've changed it around a lot. :)