A question about developing style and when to start a book dummy

[Adam Thornton 0]

Hi folks,

I've been sketching away at my first book dummy which I would like to be a strong marketing tool to get a book deal. However, I know that I'm still trying to find my style and a bit paranoid that the style will change as the book progresses. That would be a disaster!

If it were you, would you wait until your style is pretty solid and consistent before starting a book dummy?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Adam
(Sheffield, UK)

[Fey Realme]

@Adam-Thornton-0 im in the same spot! Just a year down the road. Im still not quite sure what my finished art style is, but working on my book dummy has helped me get a lot closer to figuring it out! Theres nothing like a project to show you what youre bad at and get you to being good at it!

At the begining of 2023 made a very rough book dummy by making really bad sketches on paper and redrawing over them several times in proceate. I have made three iterations by now, the last of which i sent out to agents in a scbwi event called critique-a-palooza (the event way to buy a crit from an editor or someone else on their panel, and afterwards they let the participants submit to the panelists,) all in all i got a lot of helpful feedback. All of it basically saying the story was great, but they couldn't tell if they liked my art.

Thats super helpful!

Heres a spread from my second iteration and the “finished art” version i submitted in my dummy in july.

And this is what the rest of the pages looked like

In the last month (after taking a break to do other things and live life) i have picked the project back up by doing a master study to help me figure out the final style and so im doing concept pieces and promotional coloring pages, and by the time i finish that hopefully i have a pretty solid idea on how i am going to do the final art so it is consistent enough.
link text

Anyway, long story short, it isnt a big disaster if your dummy is inconsistent, its going to be. But thats okay. If you focus on big ideas first (interesting story and composition first in each image and over all) and keep it loose for a long time, you will have something solid to build on (finish out) all at once when you know better what and how youre going to do it. Finishing it all out at once (and a limited color palette)will get that cohesive look—or so ive heard, im still in the thick of it myself.

Best of luck

[Adam Thornton 0]

@R-Fey-Realme
Very best of luck to you too, Fey.
What you said was really helpful. Thanks for taking the time to write that and include those pieces.
I love your character designs, gestures and facial expressions. They're nice and clear and interesting.

Was your master study of an artist you want to emulate in your own way? Did you achieve it?
I think I'm so transfixed by the three styles that I love (Marco Bucci's children characters, David Litchfield's colour light and Cartoon Saloon's Irish trilogy compositions) and look at them so often that my own style is becoming very muddled, or rather suffocated, and not allowed to develop a life of its own. It seems that this is showing in my artwork.

Your closing comment of "Finishing it all out at once (and a limited color palette)will get that cohesive look" was also really useful.

Thanks again!

[Fey Realme]

@Adam-Thornton-0 aw thanks! I'm glad that it is helpful! I do my best to pick up one-liner advice like that from the podcast and other places to try and piece together a map that will take me where I'm trying to go (hopefully where I'm trying to go actually exists).

I did a master study of an illustrator named Gus Gordon, more specifically his book "finding Francois". I was doing it with the 3pp method where you try to copy a piece of work exactly and take note of what you learned, then do your own piece in that style. I only got like halfway through the copy of one of the pages from the book (i picked up lots of helpful insights by then, but didn't have the time or patience to keep going) before I started doing my composition, during which I broke down the illustrations from the whole book and studied them for themes, tricks, and applications I could apply in my own piece of art (you can follow the is link to see the thread I made while making the personal artwork part.)

all in all I would say I achieved success. I gained some insight on how I want to do the characters, and how I can work in more of a collage mindset instead of the 'renaissance realism painter is the only form of finished art' mindset I have been trying to fight for a while.

I think it is great that you have three main influences, although im sorry you feel suffocated. you may want to do an analysis on what exactly you like about each of those inspirations, and then take a break. Go to the library and read a lot of children's books. See if there are any that you are particularly drawn to, and do a master study of one of those new inspirations. (thats actually how i found Gus Gordon. I was working on that image I posted, trying to get it nice for the sub deadline, and I was just so lost. We took our daughter to the library and I pulled lots of books at random to read while my husband played with her, and one of them was 'finding francois' it didn't translate over immediately, but finding a new art hero has been a God-send)

also, the guys would be so proud that you know people's names lol. I'm sure you've heard them talk about some of the hero comparison exercises they have talked about before? there are only two, really. one involves getting 9 pieces of artwork that you wish you made and putting them all side by side. then you analyze (or get hit over the head with) trends to see what it is that you really like. it might surprise you and will almost definitely give you clarity.
The other involves putting a piece of your artwork in the middle of 8 of your 'i wish i did this' art heroes and then gaining some more insight on where you are and what your next step is.

you've got this!

[NessIllustration]

@Adam-Thornton-0 From what I understand, the book dummy has very little final art (maybe 1-2 pages) and is mainly super quick sketches to showcase the story and composition of the spreads. I wouldn't worry too much about style at this stage. You can do almost the whole dummy in thumbnail sketches, and just make one final page at the end and boom you're done.

[xin li]

@Adam-Thornton-0
Hi Adam, I think maybe finishing a book dummy is an excellent way to explore your style, both in terms of storytelling and the visual feel-and-look. I started my first book dummy as a way to explore my style. I was lucky the book got acquired in the end, and it is coming out early in 2024.

I started the dummy with very ugly sketches, just trying to figure out the storyline. It feels like the sketches were just part of the writing like some visual symbols only I need to be able to read.

When the story was roughed out, I worked on character design. After that, I redrew the entire dummy once again. Then that was the dummy I submitted to my agent and then it was forwarded to editors.

I made about 3 finished spreads before the story was submitted to publishers. I think it would do with 1-2 finished spreads normally. I did 3 because my story was longer than usual (my dummy had more than 60 pages, and the final book was 48 pages).

I attached sketches for one spread, and some character sketches, so you can see how rough it was in different stages. I think every artist has their own way of approaching making a book dummy. To me, the main purpose of a book dummy is to communicate my story and to show that I have the skills to pull off the book. There is no right or wrong way as long as you manage to communicate your story and your skills.

With the first dummy, it is hard to know when you are ready. Before sending it to my agent, I sent the dummy around to multiple people (fellow illustrators, and some writer friends, my partner, my mother-in-law too), just to make sure the sketches in my dummy were readable without explanation.

[Adam Thornton 0]

@NessIllustration Really? I thought it had to be a complete book. Would a publisher accept an unfinished book from a new illustrator? Don't I need to be able to show continuity of style and the ability to complete the whole project?
Thanks for any guidance on that, Ness.
Best wishes to you.

[Adam Thornton 0]

@xin-li

Thanks very much for taking the time to write that, Xin.

Firstly, I've got to say that I love your illustrations. And your character work and gesture is lovely. And hearty congratulations on having your book published! I hope you announce it here on the forum. I'll look out for it!

When you said that finishing a book dummy is an excellent way to explore your style, and that you started your first book dummy as a way to explore my style and it was eventually acquired, did you feel that your style was established by the time you started the final painting of the book? Otherwise, wouldn't your style change as you progress with the book, which would be a problem with continuity?

It was really helpful to read about your process. It was interesting to read that you didn't finish the book before submitting it - only three spreads. Ness (who commented above) also mentioned that the book dummy doesn't have much final art. Have you had a book published before, so you already have a truck record and evidence that you can complete a whole book competently? Because I'm new I thought I'd need to show publishers I can finish the whole job with the book dummy before they take a gamble on a new illustrator.

But I'm guessing that you didn't do that as you mentioned you sent your first dummy to lots of people to make sure the sketches were readable without explanation.

Thanks again. Really helpful!

[NessIllustration]

@Adam-Thornton-0 It's called a "dummy" because it's not a finished book. It's an unfinished work-in-progress to showcase what the book could be like when finished. Publishers and agents alike want to opportunity to ask changes and tweak the book before publishing. Making an entire finished book would be unpractical for that reason.

While trying out a new illustrator is always a gamble for publishers, they can see your style consistency from your portfolio.

[xin li]

@Adam-Thornton-0
I did not know if I had an established style, it was always a tricky question for me regarding style. I think as long as every spread in a book feels belonging together, it should be fine. I can paint differently for different books.

I was also concerned about consistency issues when I was working on the book. I struggled with some spreads in the book, like crowd scenes, or a busy cityscape with traffic. I had never painted anything like that before this book. I ended up redrawing more than half of the book, because the drawing was inconsistent in terms of the level of detail, or the characters looked not quite right. It was frustrating at times. Now I am working on my next book, I just expected that I would be painting some spreads multiple times to get them right. I tell myself that it is ok to ruin some papers :-). haha...

My first book is out on Pre-order now. (https://www.lixin.no/books/i-lived-inside-a-whale) I will pop into the forum when it is close to the release date :-). Thank you for your kind words about my work!

[Lee White]

@Adam-Thornton-0 i agree with some of the others here, it's a concern for everyone. But you will find your style by making the thing you want to make. You should dive in and give it your all. Then just be willing to fix it if it feels like it's inconsistent. No big deal. We have to adjust stuff all the time so take the pressure off yourself and get in there and mess around. Have fun and don't worry too much. : )

[Larue]

@xin-li
Just took a peek at your book, sounds like a wonderful story and the illustration look lovely.

[Adam Thornton 0]

@NessIllustration Thanks for that, Ness. That's really helpful, and I hear what you say.
Actually, looking at my portfolio, although there are pieces there that I like, it's clear that my style isn't consistent. I think I need to get that in order before I carry on with the book dummy.

[Robyn Hepburn]

@Adam-Thornton-0
Hi Adam!
It sounds like you're having some familiar struggles... I was also trying to get a dummy book made earlier this year and just got stuck. I was uncomfortable with my style, I liked my sketches but didn't like what was coming out when I tried to get to final art, and I felt like I knew all the illustration theory but couldn't actually create a successful illustration.
So I gave up on the book for a while and tried "going back to school." I made a whole curriculum for myself (let me know if you'd like more details) and drew for fun every day.
Sadly, I can't tell you that I've become an incredible illustrator and have solved all my problems, but I have gone from not being able to create a double-page illustration at all, to creating four of them in the last four months. (They're not perfect, but they're done!)
My style has gradually become more comfortably "me" since then (for example, I also loved Marco Bucci but couldn't combine his colourful painterly style with my simplified, flat drawings. However, his colour theory is still influencing my illustration.)
So if you're feeling really frustrated, I'd recommend taking a break from that book dummy and just playing around with some one-off pieces, or specifically working on the areas you feel are weakest. I think I had put too much pressure on myself to create something as awesome as my favourite illustrators, but that suffocated me. Once I gave myself permission to learn through play and sillyiness and mess, I found things slowly clicking into place. So now I'm looking forward to seeing what developments next year will bring.
One bit of advice I've just found written in my old sketchbook from 2021: view yourself as a work in progress: focus on your small victories and overall improvement rather than each individual piece. I wish I'd taken that advice to heart earlier!
I hope that somewhere in all this rambling you have found something of value. Thanks for being open and honest with your struggles.
All the best,
Robyn

[Adam Thornton 0]

@xin-li I had a look at the sample pages from your book. I love it so much! That amazing one showing the huge scale of the whale against the girl and her boat is wonderful. Your brush strokes on the whale are exquisite!
I also love the way you did the baleen. I actually did a piece recently for a client with Right Whales but ended up leaving the baleen out because I couldn't get it to look right with the character design. Wish I'd seen yours before - so effective yet simple!

Thanks for your comments about your style, and the insecurities you felt/feel. I'm very glad you said that you expected to be painting some spreads multiple times. I think I feel it has to be right or perfect on the first go. So it's really reassuring to hear that you give yourself permission to do that.

[Adam Thornton 0]

@Lee-White Thanks, Lee. I am grateful to hear that.
Yes, taking the pressure off is necessary. I just wrote to Xin in this thread about how I feel it has to be perfect on the first go. So I've got to get more into the mindset of allowing myself to mess around with it.
Best wishes to you.