Illustration | Nicky Johnston

Piper Picks the Perfect Pet – Illustration Process

by Nicky | Jun 10, 2021 | Illustration

Illustration Process Piper Picks the Perfect Pet has approximately 180 words (painstakingly crafted by Caroline Tuohey ), which is not a lot of words for a picture book. This excited me greatly because every word was perfectly positioned leaving me with a huge blank...

Amira’s Suitcase – Illustration Process

by Nicky | Mar 11, 2021 | Illustration

Illustration Process – Amira’s Suitcase Below is the illustration process I used to create the illustrations for Amira’s Suitcase. Amira’s Suitcase was such a beautiful book to illustrate. I loved working with the colour palette of rich, deep...

How I Stretch my Watercolour Paper

by Nicky | Jul 15, 2020 | Illustration

I am asked A LOT about the process I use to stretch my watercolour paper, so while preparing my paper for a new book I am illustrating (The Incredibly Busy Mind of Bowen Bartholomew Crisp – written by Paul Russel, EK Books) I decided to record my process. Now, I...

Illustration Process – Under the Same Sky

by Nicky | Sep 4, 2019 | Illustration

I love reflecting on the whole process of a book. Especially when I go back to some of my very first sketches. The evolution of illustrations can happen quite quickly but generally take many, many sketches to finally get the perfect story telling illustrations before...

Hide and Seek with Grandpa – Illustration Process

by Nicky | Jul 22, 2019 | Illustration

Illustrations… Here is a bit of insight into to how I illustrated picture book Hide and Seek with Grandpa. (Written by Ed Allen, Published by Scholastic Australia, 2018) My character for Grandpa didn’t start as a lion! Here are some other...

Illustration Process – At the end of Holyrood Lane

by Nicky | Jan 23, 2019 | Illustration

Where do I start? For this book (At the end of Holyrood Lane) I began with sticky notes to create my initial thumbnails. Due to my full life, I set up a folder that I would take with me everywhere so I could use all my available time to jot down my ideas. From these...