34. An Ethereal Idea Made Real by Human Hands

We Are Jellyfish: Picture Book Process

Psst… A quick reminder that my newest book, Might Could Make a Book, is now available for purchase! If you’ve ever wanted to write and illustrate a children’s picture book, this is the guide for you! Learn more and get your copy here.

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Haha, so what if I decided to totally redo the style of my in-progress We Are Jellyfish book? Wouldn’t that be funny? Wouldn’t that be fun? 😵‍💫

Sometimes, when working a long time on a big art project like a book, it can feel a little like I’m going insane. And I’ve been working on this book for two years now. Am I making the right choices? Am I the only one who sees the vision? What even is the vision? What if the vision changes? Why are jellyfish speaking to me?!

As you know, I’ve been plodding along having revelation after revelation with this book, and you all probably think it’s never going to get done. I think that sometimes too. But this time, I feel I’ve hit on something real. Something that ties together this book’s subject, concept, and mood (things I don’t really choose, but that float into my mind and demand to be made) with my artistic style, my writing voice, and my way of making things (things I choose and develop).

It’s this pairing together that makes art: an ethereal idea made real by human hands. But tying those two things together can be impossibly hard!

So anyways, I feel I am closer! Below you can see the process of making the spread that maybe is the new style of this book? This spread feels way more like me and was much more enjoyable to make.

Sometimes art requires struggling and pushing through, but I’ve learned that if you’ve pushed and pushed and pushed and still aren’t getting where you want to be… maybe you’re pushing on the wrong door? Maybe that door is meant for someone else, and if you could just stop struggling so much and turn around, you’d see you have your own door made especially for you, and that you already have the key in your pocket, and dang, if only you had known, you could have just started here and avoided all that strife, but maybe the door doesn’t appear until you’ve proven you’re willing to put in the work, and maybe you didn’t have the key until you showed that you could listen and try and that goshdarnit you are not going to give up, even if this door never opens!

Maybe that’s when the right door appears.

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Ha, I don’t know, here’s the process of this spread!

1. First, I grabbed the initial sketch from the storyboard