Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 6 - final art

A final sneak peek inside the finished pages of Charlie's Dirt Day...
This image is one of my favourites. It was really fun to work on and until it was completely finished I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out.

I hope you've enjoyed the preview of the book as well as some of my process over the last few weeks. If you want to see more, you'll have to buy the book :)

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 6 - sketch

This is the last sketch that I'll be sharing from my new children's book, Charlie's Dirt Day. Stay tuned to see how the final art turned out; I'll be sharing that illustration tomorrow.

If you've missed any of my previous process posts from this book, you can find them all under the hashtag #CharliesDirtDay.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 5 - sketch

This scene takes place a year after the rest of the story as the characters are heading to the next annual Dirt Day. The same characters who attended the previous year have decided to come back, but because so much time has passed, I included some small changes in their appearance, such as the hair on their heads and facial hair. The two little girls who met at Dirt Day last year became friends and are going together this year.

You can see from my sketches below that I had to alter my original layout in order to be able to fit in everything I wanted to include plus have enough room for all the text. The final sketch features some of the things that Charlie wants to grow in his garden.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 4 - sketch

For this sketch, I tried to make the composition more interesting by playing with the foreground. I liked the idea of bringing the viewer into the scene on the left side of the spread with a close up of a bowl of freshly picked tomatoes while Charlie and Mr. Martino made a sauce in the background on the right side. Whenever possible, I like to integrate the text with the image and the bowl provided the perfect opportunity for that.

Because Charlie is so short, my initial plan had been to have him standing on a stool, stirring the pot of sauce. However, my publisher pointed out that it wasn't the safest place to put a little boy, something I hadn't considered when I was coming up with ideas for the spread. I reworked the drawing to instead show Charlie offering Mr. Martino tomatoes from the bowl.

Behind The Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 3 - final art

Here's another peek at some of the final art from my next book.

The Character of Charlie was based on a sketch I had done when I was traveling through Europe. At one point, my husband and I were living in Paris and I was drawing more than I ever have in all my life. I did a lot of sketches of children at that time and there was one in particular that I really liked but had never been able to use in a project. When I read the manuscript for Bye, Bye, Butterflies! a few years ago, that sketch immediately came to mind for the character of Charlie.

Both of the Charlie books that I've illustrated were written by Andrew Larsen and his stories were based on experiences that he had with his son. Knowing this, when I designed the character of Charlie's dad for Bye, Bye, Butterflies! I based it on a photo that I had seen of Andrew.

The older man in this illustration is Mr. Martino and he comes entirely from my imagination.  For that character, I liked the idea of an older man with an eclectic sense of style.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 2 - final art

This illustration is probably my favourite one from Charlie's Dirt Day because I included lots of personal touches. Several of the characters in this spread made appearances in my first picture book, Bye, Bye Butterflies, such as the lady in the yellow cardigan on the left, the little boy pulling the wagon and the little girl in the right corner with the green ribbon in her hair.  I thought it would be nice for the children who were familiar with the other book to make those connections.

In Bye, Bye Butterflies, the lady in the yellow cardigan appeared on the opening spread. I used the pattern in her shirt to reference an upcoming event in that book. Her shirt had butterflies on it. In Charlie's Dirt Day, I used the pattern in her dress in the same way.

The little boy pulling the wagon is actually based on my husband. He used to work for Apple as an iPhone technician and wore a dark blue shirt with an apple on it. I lightened the shirt and substituted a different kind of fruit. I'd also like to draw your attention to the words on the side of the wagon. My husband's name is Dario.

There is a mom in a green dress, a dad in a green hat and a little girl in a red dress at the top left. They're based on my friends, Kelci Hind and Colin Leach and their daughter, Juniper. Kelci and Colin own The Silk Road Spice Merchant and have been extremely supportive of my illustrative career and my previous book.

The woman in the red dress in the top right is based on my friend, illustrator Karen Klassen.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 2 - sketch

This image is one that I had in my mind from the very beginning, and you can see from the initial thumb nail sketch below that it didn't change much. Because of all of the characters that I wanted to include, this spread was quite intimidating for me. I ended up spending a lot of time on it in order to fit in everything in a way that worked.

When dealing with a double page spread, it's really important to pay attention to the gutter, that's the part of the image where the page folds. You don't want to have anything important, like someone's face, crossing that line. The part of the illustration that goes through the gutter can get lost once the book is bound.

In the end, I had quite a lot of fun with this spread and as a result, it's probably my favourite illustration from the book. I'll share the final art tomorrow, along with some of the personal things that I snuck into the image.

Follow my hashtag, #CharliesDirtDay.

freckle juice

This is a personal piece I just finished, inspired by Judy Blume's short novel, Freckle Juice. I realized that I needed more black and white work for my portfolio and I chose Freckle Juice because I wanted to illustrate a story that hasn't been overdone so that I wouldn't be influenced by existing imagery.

There are a couple of process photos below.

european picture books - pinocchio

Pinocchio, illustrated by Sara Fanelli, has been out for quite a while and it's a book I knew I eventually wanted to purchase so I was delighted to find it when I was still living in the UK.

The collage illustrations are so experimental, especially for a children's book. It's really inspiring to flip through and makes me want to push myself to think outside the box more with my own illustration work.

The hardcover edition of Pinocchio comes in a slim box that the book slides out of which is cleverly illustrated. The characters appear on the back and their noses grow as the book is slid from its case.






book cover:


interior illustrations:

birthday party - painting process

I finally made some time to paint this sketch on the weekend. I'm not quite finished it, but here's some shots I took on Saturday and Sunday of the work in progress.




©2009 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

Illustration Friday - similar

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

Uncle Fred is 37 years old and lives in grandma's basement

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

Uptown Girl

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

Awkward Girl

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

sketchbook - assorted characters

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

My Cookie - painted 2 ways

I was off from my day job all last week so I spent a lot of time in my studio. I wanted to play around with the way that I create finished illustrations. I especially wanted to try not using heavy black line the way I usually do. Here are 2 ways that I painted the image 'My Cookie.'


©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli


©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

sad boy

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

Tuesday night sketch group - a couple characters

I did these last night...

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

Little girl with her dad

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

old man

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli