I'm going to be doing more posts like this one soon. That is, posts where I get to reveal a project that has been done for what feels like an eternity!
I illustrated this book, A Smart Girls' Guide to Money, and it's partner, Making Money, almost a year ago. I just got a big old box of them on my doorstep a few days ago, and I have to admit, no matter how many times it happens, it's always exciting to see your work in print and bound together as a book.
These books in particular are very, VERY dense with illustration. There was at a least an illustration per page, and sometimes multiple illustrations or images that spread across more than one page. A lot of work, in other words!
Things I had to learn while working on these books:
-how to design stacks of money in an appealing way
-how to design a box of receipts in an appealing way
-how to draw girls of every body type and ethnicity between the ages of 8 and 12 (it was easy to go to young and too old and I did both at times...the tweenage years are tough to draw!)
-how to design an illustration that packs many, many ideas into itself at once (the art notes for this book were DETAILED)
-how to have fun with an idea that could otherwise be very dry, like illustrating some credit cards, or a bank building. I had to make it fun for myself.
Anyway, the books are published by American Girl (yes, THAT American Girl!) and they'll be available next month. I have to admit, even though I'm supposed to be a grown up lady, I actually did learn a lot about money from reading the text as I worked on it. It's VERY smart, and yet very easy to understand, and if you know a young girl with an entrepreneurial spirit, I'd say you've found yourself a birthday/Xmas/whatever gift if there ever was one. Here's your sneak peak at what's inside!
