Making of The Pet Potato

Hi! In this post, I’m going to share my creative process of illustrating The Pet Potato by Josh Lacey (Andersen Press).

The Pet Potato is a story about a boy called Albert who is so desperate to get a pet and gets super excited when Dad finally brings a pet home just to find it’s a POTATO! My family always had pets so I never needed to beg for one as a child. But my grandmother taught me to handle inanimate objects with care and respect because all objects had souls. To this day, I have a habit of naming things like my phone and plants and talking to them. So, when I read the Josh's quirky story, I could instantly relate to Albert who gradually got attached to his potato. 

I sent some character sketches and colour samples to my editor, art director and Josh. They gave me the thumbs up. That’s how the project started!

Sample images

After reading a text, character design is the first thing I usually do. There was no physical description of Albert in the text and I was given free rein to design him. Beca…