20 Years of Illustration.
How my illustration career began...complete with sketchbook peeks!
I’ve hit a bit of a milestone in my career. It’s exactly 20 years since I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a degree in illustration. I can hardly believe it! I thought this special anniversary was the perfect time to tell you all how my professional career started, back in the summer of 2004…
In my final year at art college I wrote and illustrated a book about a tiger who had lost his smile. It was called Augustus and his Smile. This very book went on to become my first ever published title, it won multiple awards has now been translated in to over 35 different languages. I’m so happy to be able to say that my book continues to make people smile today.
I really do feel like Augustus the tiger was the springboard for my whole career. In the short film(s) below, I’m going to tell you how I ended up with my first book publishing deal, the work I had to do once I’d got it, and what the process was like for me, with some sneaky sketchbook peeks too. Grab a cuppa and I hope you enjoy…
Please continue watching below…
I hope you enjoyed hearing about how Augustus and his Smile came to be a published book, and how my career started all those years ago! It feels funny looking back over my old work and sharing it with all of you - it’s as though it was only yesterday that I was figuring out how to create his unique stripes and whiskers!
A peek inside my sketchbook…
Info about the illustration above: I very clearly remember painting this portrait of Augustus when he had finally found his smile. You can see my doodles on the left hand page. In the little boxes I have sketched the page layout and how I wanted his face to sit on the page - leaving room for the text, of course!
Info about the illustration above: You can see doodles of early front cover ideas on these pages. You will have seen in the film how the cover of the published book ended up looking. I was really pleased that I managed to keep the essence of the original cover (that I made at art school) in the final book. The main difference being that he he smiling - but my publisher and I happily agreed that he needed to look friendly for the published cover. Oh, and the yellow on the new cover… I would have actually preferred white but I was overruled on that one!
Info about the illustration above: In this sketchbook painting I was working out how I wanted to paint Augustus. I settled on watercolour pencil, with watercolour paint on top, and then acrylic paint and acrylic ink on top of that for the detail. It takes ages for Augustus to dry after I’ve painted him as he’s made in so many layers. I often used the hairdryer to help hurry things along! The ‘ground’ on here is masking tape.
Info about the illustration above: It was the sketch on the right-hand-page that pretty much inspired the whole story of Augustus and his Smile. This illustration isn’t actually Augustus - I must have drawn this about three months before I created him as a character. But the fact that this tiger looked so sad - like she had quite literally lost her smile - is what gave me the initial brainwave for the story.
The illustration is made with brown Indian ink and a traditional dip pen over a pencil sketched outline.
Info about the illustration above: I made this sketch/collage when I had started to design the book and was playing around with layout ideas. You can’t really see - but there is a layer of tracing paper taped over his face - this was meant to represent the water. The final illustration in the book turned out very differently - it was bright blue and Augustus was fully underwater, as you have seen in the film above. But I still always loved this image.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about how Augustus and his Smile came to be a published book, and how my career started all those years ago! It feels funny looking back over my old work and sharing it with all of you. If you have questions please do put them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!
Please note - I’m not an expert in children’s publishing! If you are working on a book of your own and would like publishing advice I can highly recommend The Writer and Artist’s Yearbook for advice (linked). I read it from cover to cover 20 years ago and found it incredibly helpful. It’s updated every year.
YOUR STORIES - I should add that unfortunately, I am unable to illustrate any of your stories, thank you SO much to those who have asked. I’m afraid I can only accept texts via my agent or my publishers.
More of my books…
I have written 26 picture books to date, including Augustus - and illustrated many more! You can find most of them here and order signed copies if you would like to!
Thank you so much for watching this video. I’d love to hear your thoughts and find out what kind of content you’d like me to share in the future! I’ve planned the next one already and we will be looking at the materials I like to use every day!
If you would like to see more of my work please head over to my website to explore my collection of original art, babywear, greetings cards, books and prints…
Love, Catherine x
P.s - I do have some limited edition prints from Augustus and his Smile available - here is a link to the page.
P.p.s - I apologise for any typos. I’m sure that I’ll come back and read over this tomorrow and cringe as I correct quite a few! I’m just going to hit ‘post’ because otherwise I’ll tinker with it forever. Byeee!! xxx
Absolutely love peeking into your sketchbooks-- you use them the way they're meant to be used. Sharing them is a big deal, so thank you for being so candid with them. You learn a lot about someone's process from seeing (and reading) things like this. Keep up the great work!
Hi Catherine! I'm so happy that my simple decision to join Substack allowed me to find great author-illustrators like you! Thank you for sharing your journey! ✨️