marina-aizen:::ilustrada: 2015

3.5.15

New images!

Hi everybody!

I've just updated my website! I hope you like it.

I will be posting week by week those images that I didn't include,
not because I don't like them, but because I prefer to keep it
short and simple --And because it is the best way of showing you bits of them
every week! :)

This week is for Mouse, the little one who wanted to go to the Moon
and his friends will help him to achieve such incredible wish.

Well, maybe there is one not so sure about it, but a story is getting there!

Do you imagine the names of these little friends?
If you do, please let me know!
See you next week!

Love,
Marina

28.4.15

How did Eustace and Clyde started? - Part 3

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry for taking too long to come back to this last post. I've been very busy lately!

Fortunately, I have finished working at the moment and I took a little bit of my time to share this last post about how my book Eustace and Clyde was created.

Just in case you missed it, here is the first part and the second part of this story.

Today I will let you know a little bit about some special pages, which were the title page and the final page of the book.

I was asked to create a new image for the title page and for the final page of the book.

I wanted to create something inviting to go with the title. So I thought a few options like these:

And the editor and I decided that will be good the one pointed with a red arrow. It was inviting to read as well as ideal to show a nice advance of these two friends.

Here is how it looked in black and white and then the final image:

Then the final was the other page I had to picture.
I had most of the book completed but still the last page was missing.
I first thought in doing a party --because the koalas returned to their home and friends.

And here it's my first option:

But the editor thought it would be nice to end the book with a more calm, silent and hopeful image. So I created a second option. Which was the chosen one fortunately.

And with this image ends the last part of Eustace & Clyde's story,

the story of how this lovely book was thought, created and made.

I hope you enjoyed it!

If you like, you can leave a message about which images did you enjoy the most

or what other things you would like to know about it.

Lots of love,

Marina

5.2.15

How did Eustace and Clyde started? - Part 2

Hello everyone!

At the last post, I let you know a little bit about how my book Eustace and Clyde first started.

Just in case you missed it, here is the first part of this story --The story within the story!

Today I will let you know a little bit about some spreads I revised
so that the story had more Australianness --or Australian appeal.

Here is the the dummy I first created and that later would be modified
by collaborating with the book's editor Melissa from Five Mile Press. A pleasure to work with!

Since the publishing house is from Australia, they wanted the book to have more Australian animals and plants. And they asked me if I could change some animals in the book
by adding a few local residents.

That meant fun time and research!

I started looking for Australian plants and animals at the web.
Australia has a gigantic variety of marsupials and lovely birds.
It's exciting learning something new with every book: I love what I do.

After this stage, I printed the images and get back to the other part of the work I love: drawing!
And after a few days these were the results.

The editor was happy with them so I started changing a few pages.

For example at the second spread we can see Clyde in a tree. As they live and eat Eucalyptus
or Australian Gum Tree, the editor asked me
to modify the leaves I originally drew -- you can look at them at the pdf!

And below, you will find a few more spreads I modified.
Look at these and the ones from the dummy and see if you can find the differences!
And if you can't, don't worry, I will answer any question or doubt you have about them, just let me know!

I hope you enjoy this story about how this book was born as much as I do.
Next time, I will show you a few pages more that I had to do before finishing the book: end pages, the title page and the final page of the book with acknowledgements.

Love,
Marina

17.1.15

How did Eustace & Clyde started? - Part 1

Last year, my first book as illustrator and writer was released by Five Mile Press.

It was a long way since I started, I think two years went by before it could get its home.

I wanted to show you the backtage of it, as a friend of mine says, "the kitchen."

Here are some first sketches, searching for the perfect koala pair.

I remember that in order to make them different I first did Eustace's head squared.

This was changed to a rounded one later, after a helpful editor's advice. Thank you!!!

Then, the first storyboard and a few corrections. For this stage, I used mostly recicle printed paper drawing them --or pasting with tape, on the non-used side.

A storyboard is the first rough of the book: it is where illustrators are able to organize things, the pace, actions or silences, and the whole story.

It is the time for drawing, erasing, drawing and erasing, over and over again.

It is also the moment to get to know your characters better and make them alive!

It is so much fun and some times it can be a little daunting.

Finally, the cover of the printed dummy. A dummy is very important because is what make a publishing house to decide wether they will publish it or not.

It is also the real object where editors will be able to see how the story works.

My story was taken to several publishing houses and after a lot of refusals and one almost approval, it finally got its yes in an Australia's publishing house: Five Mile Press.

And it was there, where I was asked to change the original title

from "Kokko the koala" to "Eustace & Clyde."