New Book Release – Coming this Thursday, November 23rd!
As you may already know, I recently became part of an awesome team to put together a new book, as the illustrator of The Incredible Adventures of Merri Berri Blue, Tu-Tu Much…
Well, I’d like to share a bit more about what the goals our team are for this book to do. We wanted to share an inspiring and heartwarming story with all of you, the story based on the author, Sunday’s, life growing up and living with Cerebral Palsy.
As a team, we not only wanted to share the story of Lucy (Sunday), but we also wanted to help others with Cerebral Palsy to live as normal and wonderful a life as they possibly can…
So, with that thought in mind, Sunday, Dr. Carl, and I are donating 50% of our profits to United Cerebral Palsy, and if you’d like to learn a little more about that you can read their post “They Never Cease to Amaze Me.”
Illustrating the Book
It’s truly a wonderful story…I honestly enjoyed reading it, and I’m sure you will too. Yes, I read it already, since I’m doing the illustrations, I had to have an idea of what each chapter needed for the scenes. But, the hardest and longest task to accomplish was getting the initial character for Merri Berri and Lucy, figured out.
It took quite a few tries, but we finally got it!
Although one thing that made it a bit easier after the initial character came into being was the fact that Merri looks like Lucy, but much smaller…she is Lucy’s “spark of spirit” or some may call Merri her inner guide, or guardian spirit.
Below are a couple of images to show a little bit of the character, Merri Berri Blue…from the final pencil drawing of Merri to the finished version of her in color…you can also view Merri in a larger version here on Sunday’s site Merri Berri Publishing and find out even more about the book release, author, and the whole team…just click one of the images below:
if you’d like to view them larger, you can do so at their site…
again, just click the images and they’ll take you to an interesting post there!)
Once I accomplished the “look” that the author, Sunday Erickson, and Dr. Carl were wanting for Lucy and Merri, we then began on our merry way on the illustrations for each chapter. I know I had tons of fun, although there were times throughout the drawing of some of the scenes that I wondered if I’d accomplish it in time.
I’d first read a chapter and get to work on the scene after meeting with Sunday and Dr. Carl. For many of the chapters we’d go over ideas on what should be in the scenes or not, and I’d do a rough draft for them to check out, especially at first. Sometimes things worked exactly right and others we had to do some changes here and there…
All I can say is I had a wonderful time working with them as a creative team! I’m so glad to be a part of their team…throughout these many meetings and fun times even though we were all working our butts off, we’ve gotten to know each other quite well…it’s like a little family in our group of three, well, four…counting Merri!
Anyways, you can view a few of the chapter scene images on the post at their site by clicking the link below:
>>”So are You Ready for The Incredible Adventures of Merri Berri Blue: Tu-Tu Much?”<<
You can find out more about the Book Release there and even pre-order your copy today!
Thanks for reading!
Please share this if you like it…we’d all appreciate your help in spreading the word for the new book release!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Want to check out the Previous Post? Click here to read, New Book Releases and Illustrating a Children’s Book