Sparky And The Electrical Pillar
As a contrast to my work with Brightwater, at much the same time I was also collaborating with Fremantle Press on an educational resource for Western Power, part of an initiative to warn children about the dangers of exposed electrical wires.
The graphic design was done by the fantastic Rebecca Mills who is an amazing illustrator herself!
I’m not going to lie, this was an epic job and a steep learning curve! I’ve done one-off corporate illustrations before, many times, but never a whole book, featuring very complex scenes and comic panels that needed to be accurate but also funny. I also did the entire thing in vector, as the illustrations had to be suitable for transfer to animation - none of my usual texture and slightly sketchy linework! Originally the request was for illustrations like ‘Aqua Dog’, but that was quickly changed when the animator also working on the project pointed out that they needed flatter illustrations.
Fortunately Adobe Fresco has vector brushes, so I was able to complete the whole thing drawing by hand, rather than by using the Bézier curves of Adobe illustrator. That would not have been my idea of fun, I try to leave Illustrator for logos and much prefer to draw by hand, rather than tweak points and Bézier curves all day, and I didn’t like the idea of being in Illustrator for a whole, very complex, book!
An added difficulty was that the text underwent a dramatic reduction, from a very wordy book when I first accepted the job, to one of very, very few words. This was definitely for the betterment of the book overall, but left me with the tricky task of conveying everything very clearly (and in that more corporate style). For a book dealing with the important issue of electrical safety, I needed to make sure the story was very clear indeed!
Can you see the electrical pillar being broken in this scene? And the (fruitless) barricading to keep Sparky in his own back yard?
How many electrical items can you spot? It was a juggling act getting everything and everyone into this scene, and I’m so proud of the result!
People don't recognise the level of research that often goes into illustration - this spread had me down rabbit holes of plumbing, house construction and electrical supply!
There were two of these epic map spreads!
However, despite all the challenges, I think the final book turned out very well, and there has been some great feedback. And I learned a lot, too! (Including the best way to draw a dog having a wee without showing anything too naughty!)