tips – Page 7 – James Foley

Character design – the twins

Between now and the launch of The Last Viking Returns (Sept 1st, 2014), I’m doing a series of posts showing my rough sketches for all the characters in the book.

Next up in the family are the twins.

The twins only appeared once in The Last Viking – on the very last page. I didn’t give a lot of though to their design. I didn’t think I’d need to draw them more than once. I was wrong.

Norm has fleshed out their personalities in The Last Viking Returns. It turns out the twins are not all sweetness and light – they are berzerkers in the making.

I needed to refine their appearance, make them look a bit older and cheekier, and practice them before trying to do any final artwork.

These are my sketches and notes.

twins-2

I made a standard colour version of each character too, so that I could keep their colours consistent. Here’s the colour sheet for the twins:

twins-colour

Point to note: the twins have never been officially named. I’ve been referring to them as Timothy and Tabitha (which aren’t very Viking-like, but to be honest neither is Josh).

Have you got some names in mind? Give us your best ideas in the comments.

The Last Viking Returns – front cover timelapse

The Last Viking Returns, the sequel to our children’s book The Last Viking, will be released September 1 this year.

In this post we reveal the cover for The Last Viking Returns!

I’ll also show a step-by-step look at the design of the cover, from the first rough sketch to the final drop of colour.

First off – here’s the final cover design.

For a step-by-step look at the design process, including a time-lapse of me colouring the cover, watch the YouTube video below.

(For the trivia-minded among you, the time-lapse represents about 4 hours work squished down into 8 minutes of footage; the whole video is 10 minutes long).

Character designs – Wolverine and the lady dog

Between now and the launch of The Last Viking Returns (Sept 1st, 2014), I’m doing a series of posts showing my rough sketches for all the characters in the book.

Next up in the family is Wolverine, Josh’s faithful companion.

As with the character of Josh, I’d already illustrated a whole book with Wolverine before, but I hadn’t drawn him very much at all in the 3 year gap in between. I needed to practice drawing him again.

Continue reading “Character designs – Wolverine and the lady dog”

Character design – Josh/Knut

Between now and the launch of The Last Viking Returns (Sept 1st, 2014), I’m going to do a series of posts showing my rough sketches for all the characters in the book.

I’m starting with the family characters. First up is our main man Josh.

Even though I’d illustrated a whole book with him before, it had been almost 3 years since I’d drawn him regularly. I wanted to feel more confident at drawing him consistently, so I sat down and worked out how to draw him again. These are my sketches and notes.

Josh-2 I made a standard colour version of each character too, so that I could keep their colours consistent. Here’s the colour sheet for Josh: Josh-colour

Next up will be Wolverine, along with his new friend…

I wish I could paint this fast

Here’s a timelapse of me painting a page from The Last Viking Returns.

This page features Odin and his ravens, as well as Freya (the goddess of love and beauty), Sigurd (blacksmith to the gods), and Thor (no introduction needed).

All the illustrations in the book (including this one) were drawn with pencil, then scanned and coloured digitally using a Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet and Photoshop CS3/Corel Painter X3.

The footage was captured using Screenium. The colouring process took 4 hours in real time.

The Last Viking Returns is the sequel to The Last Viking (2011) and is once again illustrated by James Foley (me) and written by Norman Jorgensen. All being well, it’ll be released in October 2014 by Fremantle Press!

Facial expressions worksheet

Here’s a worksheet on how to draw cartoon faces.

Available to download for non-commercial, educational purposes only.

The picture book publication process

Here’s how the picture book publication process usually works.

It’s oversimplified, and it’s not true of every book- but should be useful as a guide.

1. A writer writes a picture book manuscript.

A picture book usually has 32 pages. Sometimes a writer keeps this in mind, and divides their text into sections for each double-page spread.

Continue reading “The picture book publication process”

Tips for aspiring writers and illustrators

Mountain, by James Foley Many people want to have their work published. Making it happen is (usually) not easy. The challenge can seem overwhelming and insurmountable. But many people have done it before.

I’ve pulled together some links, books and tips to help you on your journey.

Continue reading “Tips for aspiring writers and illustrators”

Interview on 95.3fm, Perth World Radio

Yesterday, Peter Jeffery from 95.3fm interviewed myself and talented fellow Fremantle Press author/illustrator Sean E Avery about making a living as children’s book illustrators. Click below to hear the interview.

Audio courtesy of The World of Art, 6EBA 95.3fm World Radio (Perth, Western Australia)

The goodbye scene

There’s a scene in Last Viking where Josh arrives at Nan and Pop’s house, says goodbye to his mum and dad, and watches them drive off. Sounds simple enough. It took Norm and I a few goes to get it right.

The text and pictures would have to achieve a number of things- introduce Nan and Pop, introduce the setting, and show Josh’s close relationship with his Mum and Dad. The text and pictures couldn’t show Josh’s parents leaving in a way that implied they were dumping him so they could go away for the weekend together… it had to be sensitive.

The first and second goes didn’t achieve these things :p