How is the Magic Made? Steps In Creating a Page

Behind The Scenes In Creating A Page

I have been working with Mariia Luzina, a fantastic Ukrainian illustrator who currently lives in Pomigliano D`Arco,  Italy.  Its been a fascinating journey as we communicate exclusively via email and instant messages.  Luckily Mariia is FLUENT in English.

Here are the steps we have been following as we create our illustrations...

First Dad and I crafted the text for the page: "Katy has soooo many fun memories, she has a hard time figuring out which thing to choose."   

To have our illustrator create the image we were looking for I had to figure out a way to show Mariia what we were thinking - I can NOT draw AT ALL so that wasn't an option, I had to come up with something else.  Luckily, while in theatre, we often used inspiration boards to get ideas across to the designers, so I tapped into that process to communicate with our illustrator.

Mariia then sent us a sketch, this is all happening via instant messages!  The timing is always a bit tricky since there is a 7 hour time difference between Italy and Minnesota.  Luckily Mariia is a night owl so we often chat in the early evening. 

Below is the sketch she sent us from the ideas we gave her.  

 We loved a lot of it but wanted some things changed...

• Katy needed to look more happy, rather than confused

• The upper thought bubble w grandpa was adjusted to show both of the girls more clearly  

• Finally, the bottom image of Katy and Jack was updated to them grilling together - Mariia had replaced Bob w Jack in the image so that we included both of them in Katy's thoughts.  However, as many of you may know, Jack is NOT the chef in their marriage!  But he IS the grilling king and has taught the girls how to grill.

Once again, thank you so much for supporting our dream project. And we will be in touch w more behind-the-scenes updates soon.