Children’s Books
Leo’s Birthday Adventure Cover Design
Designing the cover of our children’s book “Leo’s Birthday Adventure” was a design adventure of its own. We first chose Jean’s illustration of lighthouses and sailing ship and then added a painted cut-out of Leo the Falcon to best represent the story. We added a Prussian blue background and worked on the title design. Jean drew…
Read MoreLeo’s Birthday Adventure Book Design
The design of our children’s book, “Leo’s Birthday Adventure” was somewhat of a challenge for various reasons. One of the issues was that some of Jean’s paintings were smaller in proportion compared to the size of the book. The solution to the sizing issue was to add details around the paintings. This is an example…
Read MoreWizard Kingdom Illustration
The Wizard Kingdom Illustration for our book, “The Wizards and the Whale”, started out as a painting commission for an Umbrian family in 2014. They wanted an Umbrian countryside filled with trees, medieval castles, Asian temples and their dog. Castle, Mountains and Morning Sun by Jean Tori 2014 With the brief in mind, Jean began…
Read MoreCrane and Wizard Story Design
This is the design story of one of Jean’s paintings for our “The Wizards and the Whale” children’s book. Jean has always been inspired by the Asian designed cranes, especially those found in Japanese woodblock prints and paintings, in Korean folk art, and the cranes in many Chinese screens. Here is a decorative Japanese crane…
Read MoreIllustration Evolution in The Wizards and the Whale
We have an unusual way of creating our children’s books where Jean paints and then Anthinula creates the story around the artwork. Once there is an outline, Jean will create other illustrations as the story develops. Here are the first pages of our children’s book “The Wizards and the Whale” and the following images show…
Read MoreInspiration and Gretchen the Sheep
Jean is inspired by many things from travels, nature, childhood, art and even friendships. Occasionally, people’s personalities and big-hearted spirit work their way into our stories and influence the animals’ characters. In “Elliot and the Perfect Wave”, we had a special friend woven into the narrative. Meet Gretchen the Sheep, mentor, helper and optimistic…
Read MorePrinting The Wizards and the Whale
Printing our first book The Wizards and the Whale was an adventure. We knew that because of the extraordinary colours we were going to have to choose an amazing printing house. We found the “Dream Team” at KMS Litho in Hook Norton. The printing process was incredible. Working with the team all the way through to this…
Read MoreAlphabet Book Paintings. Part 4
More alphabet letters during this Umbrian heatwave! I is for Isolated Island. And I couldn’t resist combining J and K – after all, I didn’t paint this jigsaw rabbit with a kite with the Alphabet Book in mind, but it fits the profile wonderfully! J is for Jumping Jigsaw and K is for Kaleidescope Kite.…
Read MoreAlphabet Book Paintings. Part 3
More letters for the Alphabet Book. F is for Fluttering Fish. G is for Galavanting Geese. H is for Hovering Horse.
Read MoreAlphabet Book Paintings. Part 2
Continuing with the idea of an alphabet book, here are the letters ‘C’, ‘D’, and ‘E’. These paintings are a mixture of details and entire painting images. I like the idea of keeping a graphic theme to the pictures, even though here my choices are more illustrative. C is for Colored Castles. D is for…
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