A Bear Far From Home - Picture Book Process

Hello plum cakes! It’s officially SEPTEMBER which is wild! Where did the year go?! It seems like just yesterday it was New Years and I was eating ramen and pistachio desserts (my fam’s little tradition).

You know what doesn’t feel like yesterday though? Reading the manuscript for A Bear Far From Home for the first time. It was December 2019 and I received the MS in my inbox with an invitation to illustrate it. Picture books can take so very long, and when they do come out, it feels like the cultivation of so much time, especially for the writer, but also the editor, designer, and whole publishing team. After almost three years (since reading it) it’s out in the world this month!

“Long ago, when kings and queens ruled much of the world, the king of Norway gave the king of England a bear.
Imagine a polar bear at ease in her natural arctic world, her only home–until trappers capture her and take her to the king of England.
Imagine a polar bear in her lonely new world, stuck in a cage. This small, enclosed space is her only home–until King Henry III decrees that she be brought to the Thames River every day to swim and fish.
Imagine now this same polar bear dipping a curious paw in the river water, then leaping in with a joyful splash. And it is here, in this unfamiliar, faraway land, in one small way, that she finds home once again.”

THE PICTURE BOOK PROCESS

When I first read A BEAR FAR FROM HOME, I was struck by the emotional aspect of Susan’s account of the bear’s journey. Opening in a snowy den in Norway, the cub ventures out with her mother to swim in the fresh blue water, to smell the air, and to experience her world. Once she’s grown, a ship full of men arrives on her shores, capturing the bear to give her as a gift to the king of England (as though she were their gift to give.) Throughout the story, we follow the bear up close, sensing her confusion, fear, and ultimate sorrow at being carried across the ocean and stowed away in the Tower of London. A glimpse of hope is offered in the end when the king allows her to swim for fish in the River Thames, and once again, however slightly, she feels a sense of home in the cool green waters.

Going through the process of the each book allows me to sort of relive it all and pay homage to the time it took to make. By now, many of you are probably familiar with my picture book process posts - We’ve looked into many books: Iqbal and His Ingenious Idea, Madame Saqui (my most popular post!), Becoming A Good Creature, Kafka and The Doll, and most recently, Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers. I love to share the process piece by piece (as much as possible) beginning with research, stumbling through studies and sketches, painting the finals, and then pre-production, design etc. Shall we dive in?

RESEARCH

Part of my initial enchantment with this book was the time period - a totally unfamiliar landscape for me. I had to explore 13th century Norwegian nautical culture from clothing to ships. I had to capture a parade through the streets, from the sea to the Tower of London. Actually…don’t even get me started on the Tower of London! I had to visually comprehend a complex structure I’ve never laid eyes on, but draw it 700 years ago and from a specific angle. Where did the bridge enter? How did the moat work? What was original to the building and what was post 13th century? Suffice to say I’m glad it’s done - I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

There were Kings to research. There was the crane to lift the giant crate off the ship, and the cart to haul the bear through streets of wood and plaster houses. Musical instruments to lead the parade, other animals kept in the tower etc. Lots to dig into for this book. I did start though, with the polar bear. I watched a ton of documentaries on polar bears and also an incredible peek into little cubs leaving their dens for the first time. SO CUTE. (This is a sweet look inside the den!) And below, a different clip of a new polar bear family wandering out.

Another part of the research for me, is always about stylistic approaches I’m drawn to for each book. I’ve never done two books the same, and that’s because each one has different needs - whether that’s in terms of history or texture or color palette. I usually dig through books and online to find work that I think fits the aesthetic I’m going for. In this book, I not only wanted to portray the bear’s world, but also fold in rich decorative details of the medieval illustrations of the time. Below are some inspirations for the book.

TESTS & STUDIES

This was the very first little study I did of the polar bear when I’d just read the manuscript. This one and the studies that follow plague me, as is the case in every other picture book I’ve done. Yes the seeking and testing is great, but everytime I go back to look at my initial impulses, a huge part of me always wishes I’d just dove in, straight out the gate. There’s always something so fresh about the beginning studies.

Here I tested different blues - a color I was excited to work with. In these studies, I didn’t have lines first, but just laid down paint. That was going to be difficult to bring to final bc the linework in the book is so intense (as we’ll see!) I played around with these and the AD was excited about them so I launched into sketches.

SKETCHES

The AD and I decided to go with a horizontal book - something I’d been wanting to do since none of my other books were in landscape format. I did all the preliminary storyboarding/sketching in procreate. Some of these made it to final and for those that needed reworking per the AD’s request, you can see I had to revise. I focused hard on shape, design, and detail while also trying to make the world feel real.

I was really quite keen to bust out of my rut of drawing everything literally and put a focus on the flat shapes, design, and potentially poetic images for the book, since the text was itself, so very poetic. It was requested that it be a little truer to life since it was a historical text so I went back in and reworked some of the sketches as you can see above.

After the sketches were approved, I went to final on a couple of the spreads. It took a couple attempts but I finally settled on a look. Below are some of the tests that I scratched for various reasons.

Why didn’t I have the confidence to stick to this style? *face palm*

Before I could really go to final on everything, some of the sketches had to be flushed out super tight and approved by the publisher. I also needed a tight sketch on everything so I could easily transfer the images (via lightbox) to the final paper. Below are some of those (drawn on a roll of architectural paper bc it erases and grabs detail quite easily)

Once the lines were in I went over them in sharpie so I could trace them. Glutton for punishment.

FINALS

The final paintings were done in gouache and colored pencil on bristol paper (with digital edits on some of the pages - the light coming in through the surface of the water for example). The beginning of the book is done in teals and blues with navy colored pencil lines - a fresh winter palette. When she’s on the ship crossing the ocean, the entire color palette changes from blues to greens, and the lines become black on subsequent pages. A couple examples so you can see the shift are below (except the first image which is an illustrated manuscript style, differing from all other interiors!) These are just details from the illustrations - can’t give everything away before the book comes out!

Once the finals were finished, they were sent over to the Art Department where the team laid in text, colored corrected and set up files for print. Once the proofs are printed, I’m usually sent a batch to double check the colors. It’s here where the publisher usually tests a couple of papers and I’m allowed to choose. I always go for a matte stock - even though it dulls the color slightly, it feels more sophisticated to me. We did have a tough time on getting some of the spread juuust right but in the end, the colors looked great. Below are some of the proofs where, perhaps, you can see some slight variation in color.

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Now all I have to do is wait to see the book, which should land on my doorstep anyday - and yours too if you pre-ordered it. It comes out Sept 27 and I’m so looking forward to it being out in the world. It’s such a sweet book. While the story is true, and exceptionally sad, the reason I said yes to it was that I think it’s important to understand the lives of other creatures and what we as humans put them through for our own (often useless and selfish) reasons. It’s important to have conversations with young people about animals in captivity and whether or not it’s for conservation or exploitation. Also, the words Susan wrote are so poetic and tender. I feel very lucky to have been asked to illustrate it. So - a huge congrats to Susan, to Anne Schwartz and Nicole, and the whole team at Anne Schwartz Books - what a beautiful and poignant book to bring to life.

★ "A beautiful package that puts a beating heart into history." —Booklist, starred reviewIN BOOKSTORES SEPTEMBER 27! PREORDER YOUR COPY  

If you’re eager to dive a little deeper, I recorded a picture book process video for The Dessert Club Patreon. I’m sharing a look at studies (including a favorite of mine that you won’t find here on the blog) sketches (with a few procreate timelapses) linears, finals, proofs, and the cover that didn’t make it! All of this and more (a whole year’s worth of posts to be exact, my patreon turns one this month!) Only on The Dessert Club. Hope to see you there!

In other life news, I’ve just arrived home from Milkwood (Sophie Blackall’s retreat for the picture book community in the Catskills) where I attended a workshop with Doug Salati and Cecilia Ruiz with nine other illustrators. I am still in awe from the whole experience - it doesn’t feel real! I’m convinced it never will - it’ll always sit in my mind like a dream that was too good to be true and couldn’t have possibly happened. I’ll share more about it soon - for now, I’m still letting it soak sweetly into my bones like aged syrup.

And in the kitchen, I’ve gotten back into baking and cooking. Fall is upon us and I’m determined to perfect my pie crust (still) so I can make more apple hand pies. Also all the stews! And the white bean soups and chilis! I did recently make this pistachio lemon loaf TWICE in one week because it was perfect in every way.

Thanks for being here friends - I love chatting and sharing each and every month… but especially this month and the ones to follow throughout the year. In my world, these months reign supreme and magic settles in exactly on September 1. Can you feel it?

Until next time, stay spicy and golden,
xo,
Becca