Behind the Scenes: My Step-by-Step Illustration Process for the Latest Book

Welcome to My Creative Journey

Hello, friends!

I'm super excited to take you behind the scenes of my latest project — creating illustrations for the book 'Our Cornwall'! We have been going to West Cornwall every year for the past 20+ years, and the place is only growing on me with every visit. We have also discovered a few places off the beaten track that are free from crowds even in the height of the season. Sharing this experience might be interesting to those who are yet to discover Cornwall.

Stick around until the end for a special discount code to grab your own copy of the book from my shop!

Step 1: Collecting sketches from the locations

Over the many years, I accumulated lots of drawings and paintings of the place, so I looked back at my sketchbooks and picked the most frequented locations and viewpoints. Here are some of them.

Step 2: Picking the locations

I picked 10. Every book should have a total number of pages multiple of 4, so I settled for 24 pages plus the cover (4 pages), giving Godrevy and Chapel Porth two spreads each. I roughed the thumbnails like this..

...and started the illustrations from scratch, directly in my sketchbook, across 2-page spreads, keeping the central fold in mind for carefully positioning the elements.

Step 3: Illustration process

I drew the landscapes without any human presence (except the Porthreath spread), scanned them in, removed the central fold in Photoshop, and added people in Procreate. I find it difficult to draw people correctly right away - with the spot-on position, scale and movement. Digital drawing allows you to change and relocate them on the page infinitely. The text was added in InDesign.

Here are samples of 'before' and 'after' - from a sketchbook stage to a finished layout.

I got a little sidetracked by looking for the right font for the text and chapter headings, trying to do it in calligraphy or script, but decided to prioritise ease on the eye over fanciness. Sometimes, hand calligraphy looks beautiful on its own but does not aid readability.

Step 4: Printing

I use Mixam for brochure printing – they are reliable and I find their prices competitive.

Get Your Copy & Enjoy a Discount!

And there you have it! I hope you found this glimpse into my creative world enjoyable. To thank you for sticking around, I’m offering a special discount code: CORNWALL15. Use it at checkout to receive 15% off your order when you buy 'Our Cornwall' book from my shop! Offer expires 11.45 pm GMT on 6 December.