Behind-the-scenes, Creating Characters...

Hello Lovely Studio Friends!

Welcome to my sunny Scottish studio… the light coming through the windows in the afternoon at the moment is so uplifting and makes everything look so colourful! I’ve put sunflowers on my desk and they are making me smile. I hope wherever you are you are smiling too!

When I asked what you’d like to learn from me most on my ‘Behind-the-scenes’ membership, the most frequent answer was: “How do you come up with the characters? What’s the process?”

So I’m here to share some secret insights into what goes on during my process of creating a character, specifically Solomon today.

He’s a much loved character and the book has been translated in to 15 languages to date. He came to life in 2012….

This is the first painting of Solomon where I ‘knew’ his character had come alive!

I don’t have any kind of template - or method - or specific process when it comes to getting started - I wish I did, it would make things easier! Every single character I’ve ever made has come to life in its own unique way. I tend to think they actually develop themselves. I’m just a vessel to get them onto the page. I listen and I nurture until I feel they have just the right presence to be believable - and perhaps just a tiny bit magical too…

I’ve made a film where I talk through the development of one of my early characters: Solomon Crocodile, in detail. He was (and still is!) really fun to paint, as there are loads of techniques, textures, and materials involved!

I had planned to touch on other characters too, but really, I need to talk about each one individually for you to get a proper sense of the level of detail that goes into each. And also (hopefully!) so you can feel fully inspired to work on your own characters too, using some of the techniques I share here!

Below is a closer look at some of the pages from my sketchbook - I realise that it’s tricky to see on the film - sorry about that!

In the film I share peeks inside my Solomon Crocodile sketchbook!