Billie B Brown 17: The Deep End

Welcome to another Billie B Brown post! "The Deep End" was the 17th book in the series that I have illustrated in the Billie B Brown series, written by Sally Rippin, published by Hardie Grant Egmont.

Before I go on any further, for those Billie fans out there check out Booksellers NZ. They have been featuring a Billie B Brown Week this week on their Facebook page. It is still not too late to take part in their giveaways so get commenting, sharing and liking! Sally and I will be checking in on their facebook page too so feel free to fire away any questions or suggestions!

OK back to Billie-B-Behind-the-Scenes.

For "The Deep End" cover I sent in only one rough. It was approved straight away. Yay

For the background patterns the editor asked for Sharks and Stingrays.

 "Shark is looking a bit too evil" was the feedback so I fixed him up a bit.

After I have sent through the images the designer tweaked around with the colours and the cover was done!

I used to love swimming. My siblings and I used to spend our summer at the beach, swimming and fishing all day. We all used to take swimming lessons over the winter season. Unlike my sister and brothers I was terrible at all other sports that involved using equipment (Tennis, baseball, rugby etc) so I was happy when our coach told me I had "good form" and chose me to take part in local swimming races. Yay to my little athletic achievement. These days my daily activity involves walking to the fridge, walking to the post box and burying compost in our tiny backyard.... I really need to get out and active this summer!

Anyway working on the internal illustrations of this book reminded me of my childhood days a bit :)

I always enjoy drawing the whole BBB cast.

Occasionally changes are made before inking. 

For this image I got rid of Billie in the final image.

My favorite image for this book was the rough version of this exhausted Billie...

 I love drama :)

When Booksellers NZ announced that they are holding a Billie B Brown Week it made me reflect back on the three years I have been illustrating Billie. 20 books, 2 big bind ups, Billie B Website and numerous  limited Billie pack editions! So much time and love have been given to all these books, by me, by Sally Rippin of course and by the wonderful publishing team at Hardie Grant Egmont. Countless sleepless nights, dismissed roughs and despite the editor kind and well timed deadlines I have managed to corner myself against deadline-demons by over scheduling myself with other works and procrastination important tasks..

Now Billie has gone global, her stories have spread across over the pacific ocean and have been translated into many languages including Spanish, French, Thai, Indonesian and Turkish! Sally Rippin has been successful with the spin off series "Hey Jack". Furthermore books from the BBB series has won numerous awards and I heard someone saying  that BBB series is the bestselling young series in Australia! YAY I am feeling so grateful that I can be part of the creation of Billie B Brown world. Lastly, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all the readers who bring these characters to life, without you guys Billie's stories would have not spread this wide and far. Hoping for more stories to come :D