Worth a thousand words

So, characters new and old are back in book two and I'm having a great time writing and drawing them again. I was drawing a portrait of one of our returning characters and it suddenly hit me that maybe just seeing her head and shoulders wasn't really enough this time around, though.

The first book's illustrations are mainly just portraits of the characters. The drawings were just as much for me really seeing and connecting with the characters as much for me as for the readers. The portrait theme in the first book also worked as it was very much a story about Gemmy at school/learning about himself and the illustrations reminded me of my old school portraits.

However, this time around I'm thinking I might have to give more in the illustrations. The landscape and what is happening around the characters is just as integral to the story as the characters themselves.

I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to express this. I'm definitely sticking with the pencil drawings for the book, but including scenery is going to present a new challenge and means I might have to reconsider my methods for drawing (i.e. scaling up the actual drawings).

What do you guys think?

Oh, and in case you're wondering who this returning character is. Here she is:

Any ideas who it is? Answers on a post card!

Enjoy!
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Taking one for the team

As we start book two. Gemmy has begun bonding with the girls and is already taking heat to try and protect them, just like any big brother would do.

The biggest bullet he has taken was to help smoothe the relationship between his mother and Ilä.

"The biggest stalemate between Nereth and Ilä was over her hair. Gemmy had hoped that letting his mother take him for a haircut would have reduced her determination, but her triumph only reinforced it."

Well, Gemmy, if nothing else, at least you got a much needed haircut.

 What do you think? Has our boy improved with a bit of a trim?

Enjoy!
‽




Buy 'Black Star' on Amazon in the UK and US
Check out Themo on Twitter and Facebook