First picture book workshop experience

This week, I attended the first of the 10 ahiru picture book workshop held at Nijino Picture book store in Tokyo.

Face to face class of 14th term consisted of 5 students, 1 past student (who can join a class or two) and the instructor who has edited award winning picture books.
Surrounded by published picture books and artworks displayed in the small store, we:
1. wrote our dream and goals for the workshop
2. read each other’s picture book and rough works that were submitted to enter the workshop
3. critiqued one student’s picture book
4. received feedback from the instructor / picture book editor
5. received the first task

I gained feedbacks for not only my works but also feedbacks provided for other’s work.

Here are some of my learnings

1 For my Eggs picture book, the style of drawing for the cover and the inside is too different so keep it consistent

2 Another learning for my Eggs book was that for Japanese audience, some of the food items like spatzel and pastel de nata are too foreign
3 Set up a character at the start to grab the audience or if there’s a key item in the story, highlight it at the start so that the audience makes the connection that it’s important
4 Trial and match the story and the style of drawing by testing a range of medium or style for the same scene (could be as simple as adding an outline or not).

The overall feedback was positive that the picture book has a finished feel with good use of repetition framework for stability and that some of drawings are bold.

The first task is creating a rough concept of a short 16 pages original version of “red riding hood”.