Introducing...Laura Buckland, illustrator of Granny Rainbow.

Laura writes...

Self portrait, August 2013

I am 19 years old and have just completed an Art and Design Foundation course, receiving a Distinction. I have always loved drawing and painting, especially animals and characters. I love books and decorating things (yes that includes doodling) and now am aspiring to be an illustrator.The degree I will be studying is Graphic Design and Illustration at De Montfort University.

Spirit of a horse

Dance

The previous book I illustrated is called Metal Molly by Ariadne Tampion.  

I am very thankful for the opportunity of illustrating two books and developing my skills, including using a graphics tablet. A Graphics Tablet is a device that you plug into the computer which enables you to draw using a pen/stylus - a bit like a big cursor pad on a laptop. It makes it so much easier to draw than using a mouse.

Katherine writes...

Knowing that Laura had illustrated one book already, I thought it would be good to work on the pictures for Granny Rainbow with someone I knew. I do draw sometimes, but I'm not sure I could draw well enough to do the pictures justice. I asked Laura to produce black and white character portraits rather than scenes from the stories,  mainly because I like the character style of Chris Riddell, but also to keep printing costs down and make it easier to transfer to ebook format if I decide to publish via paper and digital routes.

Laura...

As Katherine finished each story, she sent it to me and I sketched out the main character who appeared in it. We promised a sneaky peek - so here are the early stage sketches of Granny Rainbow and the Black Shadow and the characters who appear in the 'Purple Potion' and 'Blue-footed Twitterer' stories: Timmy Tenta and Roger Randoodle.

Old Tom isn't here yet - he's still giving me some problems. (Katherine realised she'd asked me to draw him with a beard, but there is no mention of a beard in the first Granny Rainbow story! I think they call that a continuity error...)

Katherine...

Hmmm...must sort that one out! I'm really pleased with how Laura's taken my ideas and created the characters I had in my head, bringing them to life visually for the reader. Can't wait to see what she draws for the characters in the remaining stories!

So, over to you, Squidge's Scribbles readers - what do you think?