Podcast Highlights: When Penguin Random House approached me to illustrate Nancy Tupper Ling's new picture book, One Perfect Plan, I accepted the job without a second thought, even though I knew nothing about the project. It had been centuries since we last collaborated, our first being Double Happiness, published by Chronicle Books. I was thrilled to work with a dear friend again.
However, upon receiving the manuscript, I began to panic. The book was a collection of short poems on Bible stories, a sensitive and imperative subject for many people. I immediately thought that visually depicting each complex epic story in one single spread would be challenging… though it could also be a fun design challenge and a “rite of passage” for artists to check off their bucket lists. Isn't every other cool artist in Western history had to paint some biblical subject matter at some point in their career?!
Right away, I began intense research, reading many contemporary children's Bible story books, creating dedicated vision boards on Pinterest, and watching countless History Channel documentaries and movies for inspiration related to biblical subjects. This research phase ended up taking longer time than sketching out the first draft of the book.
As an archeology nerd, a news article about a mosaic discovery in the Sea of Galilee got me all excited and gave me the inspiration for the story about 5 loaves and 2 fish. I integrated the ancient mosaic design into the background design of the page.
To get a sneak peek of the book, visit the One Perfect Plan book website.
Archeology & book illustration?!