38 Comments
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Chooi Ling's avatar

Just want to say this is a beautiful post! I enjoyed the effort you put in to just get the paint, paper and feeling right. Hope your finger is much better now and congrats on the new book 🤩

Lian Cho's avatar

Thank you so much!! Yes the finger is mostly healed though it's still a bit hard to bend! Thanks for asking :)

Carolyn's avatar

Loved how the two separate ideas came together and the ending is perfect.

Jackie Gibson's avatar

Congrats on the 3 books! You are convincing me in real time to save all my doodles that have led up to my dummy...

Lian Cho's avatar

It's a lot of fun to look back on! Nice to appreciate the journey

Milena Milak's avatar

What a brilliant post! Thanks so much for sharing!

Lian Cho's avatar

Thank you for reading!! <3

Sarah Wheeler's avatar

Woah such a cool process! I had never even heard of the idea of doing the line art on vellum! And I love the style that you ended up with, it looks great!

Sophia Longo's avatar

What a generous, beautiful, funny and inspiring post! Thank you so much for sharing your process! It really adds a lot to the book learning a bit about behind the scenes. I can't wait to receive mine and read the whole story!

Celina's avatar

Wow Lian! Your stories & art are so cute! I love seeing the behind the scenes for book illustrations. I never thought about doing linework on vellum , I'll definitely have to try that out. Also i love those textured papers from your trip, the onion paper looks especially festive haha. And your book illustrations ended up so cute! I'll definitely be snagging a copy :)

Emma Mary Murray's avatar

I love this! I'm making a book right now, too, and feel like I'm in the stage of trying 28 things that DON'T work to hopefully find the techniques that do work. I appreciate how you highlight the methods that weren't ~it~ as not failures but important to the process. :)

namrata ukani's avatar

This is so wonderful! Congratulations, and you're too generous to share all of it here.

Florencia Ornelas's avatar

Thanks for giving us access to the behind the scenes of your work! I enjoyed every bit of it ❤️

Rosalie Haizlett's avatar

Holy moly, this is such a generous process post! All the iterations were worth it to get to the final style that you landed on. I am purchasing the book right now. :) Congrats on the book's release!

Elle's avatar
Oct 11Edited

wow, what an amazing post! i hope you're able to do process post like this for your future books, i would definitely be interested in that!

so in the end, did you end up making the artwork on the Canson XL watercolor paper?

and i was also wondering how you achieved that ivory background? did you remove the illustrated elements in photoshop and lay them over a digital color? or did you use the natural paper from the scanned image?

and also, did you draw a light pencil outline and then watercolor over it, or only use a lightbox with a drawing underneath and watercolor directly on the paper without any pencil?

thanks!

trig hardie's avatar

I just pre-ordered your book for my nephew Raphi's birthday! I'm so excited for him to get it. I sent Olive to my other nephew. I love you books almost as much as I love reading your substack posts! PS congrats on your happy marriage!

Swan Creates's avatar

This was a long post, and I loved every moment of it. I have about three book ideas, and even outlined two of the stories, but the thought of sketching out the characters stresses me out. But after seeing how much you pushed through, I think I'm just going to do it. Thank you

Julie Benbassat's avatar

The trial and error samples were so worth it! The vellum is amazing!

Sarah Williamson's avatar

Incredible post – thank you for sharing!! I love your explanations on finding the right paper, paint, texture, look of the book. On this note I can so relate. Your art is gorgeous (I love ALL of your sketches) and I can't wait to read this book. Pre-ordering from BuyOlympia now!