Children's Book Illustration-Belle's Journey

Orca Book Publishers 1991

Written by Marilyn Reynolds

Watercolour and Prismacolour pencil on paper. I used a Japanese electric eraser to create the snow effect. The pencil crayon work is very time consuming so it was scary using the eraser on these images but the effect works very nicely. This book is now considered a Canadian classic with over 40,000 copies sold so far. Editions have also been published in the US, Japan and Germany.

Children's Book Illustration-Interior B&Ws

Daughter of Light

Orca Books 2001
Written by Martha Attema

B&W Pencil drawings

4 examples of interior illustrations for young reader fiction. I've illustrated 6 of these books including the covers. Generally, these interior "sketches" take about 4-5 hours including research. Every book, especially historical books with realistic figures requires quite a bit of digging around for good reference material. Everything including, clothing, landscapes and architecture needs to be acurate and I'm always on the lookout for interesting details to include in these images.

Children's Book Illustration-A Dog for a Friend

Orca Books 1992

Written by Marily Reynolds






Watercolour and prisma colour pencil on paper

Water Colour Illustration-The Good Companion

Orca Books 1994

Written by Joan Skogan

Orca asked me to illustrate this book based on the success of my animated film, From Flores. The book is written for children but the themes are mature and sophisticated. The writing is beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed working on it.

Children's Book Illustration-The New Land

Orca Books 1993

Written by Marilyn Reynolds






I really enjoyed doing the research for this project. Many of the illustrations in this book refer to old photographs of the early immigration experience in North America. The bottom image pays homage to a picture called The Steerage taken by Alfred Stiegletz.