A new book for Ollie

A friend of mine is about to have her second baby, a little girl. Her son, Ollie is now five years old and is bracing himself to have a little sister. So, as a small present I've created a small book for Ollie introducing him to the wonders of having a younger sibling.


I've done the book in pen and ink mostly because I wanted to finish it as soon as possible (my friend looks about ready to pop) so Ollie could read it before he's shocked by a new crying screaming thing in the house.


I prefer to draw from life, but as it was a surprise I worked from photos. And, because I know them it wasn't too hard to fill in some of the 'real life' information that I have in my head.

To create the drawings I did many many sketches of the family to create suitable cartoon likenesses.

The key to a good caricature isn't being the best drawer or recording every detail. It's about finding the 'defining' lines of a person's face. When you see someone you see their 'main' features, not every single wrinkle and crack. So, when sketching I'm working to find the lines that make the person look like themselves. This is why it's better to sketch from real life. But, when you know them you know what features are their most prominent. Amy (above) for instance is all eyes and teeth like a movie star!

Here are some of the sketches.

I draw the image in bits and pieces. Picking out the best bits, define the caricature and then draw and redrawn until I can create the person's look from memory. However, when I go to do the final drawing I keep the photographs hand to make reference to them if I need. Because I was trying to produce this quickly and edit in photoshop I actually created the image below in separate pieces and put them together digitally from the skectches above. Introducing the Fox family with the new (to be expected) baby.