Inventing Lucy Veloz: thinking behind the illustrations

In this week's update I thought I would share the thinking and creative process behind illustrating Lucy Veloz. Art takes a long time to create and much of that process is often left unseen. So I've taken one illustration, the first one from the book - which was also the first one completed and presented its development. Its invention.

After reading the initial manuscript by author Alex Hernadez, I worked on a series of conceptual drawings, along with a variety of looser sketches, like the one above. Below you can see how the initial concept drawing was developed. It retained some spontaneous secondary elements while its primary elements were refined.

What follows are the additional illustrated and digital components (along with the addition of one of the aforementioned concept illustrations) added to this illustration. It would be the first full-page illustration for the book. As the story's establishing shot it had the task of defining the protagonist's look as well as her personality; as illustrated by the other visual elements.

• The wallpaper indicates her youth and the values of her society
• Her hero-worship is evidence by art on the walks and screen
• The variety of her sci-fi inventions reflect her creative drive
• So does the chaos of her room
• Note the toolbox, because she's always tinkering
• Plus a fancy rug because Lucy is still a Princess

This is the level of thought that went into every illustration in this book. I just wanted to share this one because it really does illustrate the special-ness of Lucy Veloz: the high-flying princess.