Real Diary Entries
The joys of looking through my diaries yet again! Sometimes this process is incredibly painful and cringe worthy, but other times there are small gems of entries like these:
No sign off, no nothing. All the important details of the day right there.
A bit of drama that day! I was eating a sandwich and then this happens…
Dear WHATEVER, I can’t even call you my DIARY today because I am so hot and bothered.
There are so many more funny entries embedded into those pages, but at the moment I am looking for anything redeemable from 2002-2004 - CRAZY teenage times. Most of those diary entries just need to be set on fire, but I hope to share some of the good ones with you in my next book.
Until next time…
Inscape Tributes 2021
Creating tribute pieces for Inscape Tasmania is pretty much one of the best gigs ever. It is so special to listen and learn from patients in the Royal Hobart Hospital — all with unique stories to tell! Here are some recent ones:
When people reflect on the special moments in their lives it’s always something simple but profound. For Sandra, it was the sound of bagpipes at her wedding, roses, the colour yellow, researching her family tree and a funny moment with her husband and a seal. It’s so fun to put these together in just a few hours and special to see their reaction to it when it’s done.
Ingrid generously shared some of the things that bring joy to her life and we immediately clicked. Sometimes that connection leads to an even more special illustration. This is the fabric of Ingrid’s life and it’s one of my favourite tribute pieces to date.
I created a tribute piece for Elizabeth- a patient at the Royal who loves nature, animals, crafts and fossicking for gemstones. It was wonderful to hear some of her favourite memories and turn them into art for her to keep.
For Colleen, it was a quilt representing her love of sewing and the fabric of her life which involved so many special things. She also had the best smile.
Rock Climbing Models
Tasmania is chock full of climbing culture - so many different types of rocks and climbing for all of the varied climbers. I am married to an enthusiast so naturally, I am embedded into this world now too. Sometimes I get on the wall myself (top rope only) or try to learn less strenuous parts of the challenge like belaying. I have to protect my drawing hands after all, haha!
Going along for the ride can be pretty spectacular in itself though, with so many of the climbing locations being in remote and beautiful areas of Tasmania. This past weekend we travelled 4.5 hours north to Sister’s Beach.
The Tasmanian coastline is insanely beautiful all around.
After walking in to this area of national park, everyone got setup and the ink pens came out!
It’s kind of amazing how good this is for an illustrator - always trying to capture the essence of humans. I’ve attended life drawing classes/sessions of some sort since I was a teenager, so I am used to drawing fast. You kind of get to know the repeated moves that climbers make on the wall ( I still don’t know all of the lingo for it though).
This one is probably my favourite drawing of the weekend.
Dynamic posing in pristine natural environments - what could be better?! I was also obsessed with all of the amazing quartz rocks EVERYWHERE.
Closer to home, I tagged along on another climbing afternoon on kunanyi/Mt. Wellington. This spot didn’t offer the best drawing views so the results are mostly butts from me having to look straight up.
Well I won’t be sendin’ anything big anytime soon, but I will certainly enjoy drawing others who do! Stay safe!
The Freelance Transition
I was recently checking out Emma Kisstina/Kristina Hultkrantz’s Skillshare classes and freelance life pie charts and decided to share a bit of my journey with this as well. Going full-time freelance was not something that happened overnight. It’s been a gradual transition over a few years to change the slices of pie in order to suit and support the vision that I have.
Here is what two years of semi-full Freelance life has looked like for me:
Australia does their financial and tax year from July to June, so that is why these charts start and begin from those dates. It’s the only data I have. It’s a bit tricky to get a real sense for 2020 because I had two months of freelance gigs lined up in China and Japan which were cancelled. In-person teaching was cancelled for a few months as well as hospital visits with Inscape Tasmania. I was extremely lucky to have other options.
Here is a little bit more about each category:
Supportive Income/Keshet: I worked at Keshet Design in Hobart for several years. I started with about 4 days a week and gradually reduced my days and hours as I gained traction in other areas. At the end of 2019, I officially resigned. It’s important to have a supportive income while on the journey towards freelance so some of the financial pressure is reduced. I was lucky enough to have a supportive income as a creative art director so I used my skills in that area of my life too.
Teaching: Before moving to Hobart I was a full-time teacher in a school. My pie chart was about 90% teaching and 10% freelance and gigs during the Summer vacation. When I moved to Hobart with the intention of eventually going freelance, I serendipitously found an opening at The Nolan Gallery where a former teacher of theirs had just moved to New York City. I initially taught three sessions per week with some workshops and things here and there. I still teach there with reduced classes and love the students that I get to interact with regularly. It’s an important part of my pie because it is SOCIAL. Freelance life does not often incorporate dealing with people face to face.
Inscape Tasmania: I could categorize this as a freelance gig, but I feel like it deserves a category of its own, especially because I have regularly worked for this organisation for a few years. This work feeds my soul and is an important part of the pie chart. It’s also important to recognise that this is a paid job and not volunteer work. I only do this once or twice a month and it’s just the most wonderful job an illustrator could ever have.
Books/Advances/Royalties: This includes anything involving books from work for hire situations, advances for book contracts, and royalties for published books of the past. It’s certainly hard to predict this category each year, but it’s the one I’ve been focused on growing. I work with a wonderful agent, Claire at Painted Words, and without her, I would not have received such wonderful offers. This piece of the pie significantly grew when we sold my graphic novels in a three-book deal. Not only does it grow the chart, but it means that this pie piece will stay for a few years as I create the rest of them.
Things that are so insignificant that I wouldn’t include in a chart: Sales from my website, Redbubble, Society6 and Spoonflower where people can buy work of mine on various surfaces and objects.
Anyway, thanks to Emma Kisstina Illustration/Kristina Hultkrantz for inspiring me to do this. Anyone else out there pie charting their freelance life? I would love to see it.
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard!
Today I got some really great news! Big Apple Diaries is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. That means they have placed a big fat order in advance and my book will be in the hands of so many more library readers across the US.
Today, JLG is the leading book review and collection development service that helps thousands of K12 school and public libraries acquire the best new children’s and young adult books. Our mission still follows editorial board member Eleanor Roosevelt’s mantra to put the right book in the hands of every reader–fostering the love of reading and learning as a path to lifelong success. https://www.juniorlibraryguild.com/about-us/
New Surface Pattern Designs and Products!
It’s been a while since I’ve drawn for fun. Since I work as an illustrator full time, I am usually only drawing for commissions — which is the dream of course. It’s the dream, but it does mean that I don’t often have the time or interest in drawing just for indulgence. Most people have their go-to subject for “fun drawing” - doodling cats, eyes, flowers, squiggle animals etc. When I was little I always drew shoes. I probably had a drawing eyes and faces phase too.
Nowadays I love creating patterns. There is something so satisfying about a successful repeat design. The Edit Colour > Recolour Artwork panel in Adobe Illustrator is one of my favourite things to play with. You can just shuffle through colour schemes in different placements until it feels right.
Websites like Redbubble and Society6 make it so EASY to upload designs and see how they might look in real life. Spoonflower gives designers the option of printing their own fabric or selling it to the unique fabric loving community worldwide. It’s certainly not about making money, it’s about seeing something you had a hand in the creation of existing in the world. Maybe even someone out there will love it!
Here are some recent favourites uploaded to Redbubble —
Click through each image to see it available on over 40 products:
And for those of you who love to SEW:
You can click through below to see repeat fabrics of mine available for purchase with Spoonflower:
Hang in there, everyone! Keep creating.
We Laugh Alike Juntos Nos Reimos Peek!
This week I received my sample copy of We Laugh Alike Juntos Nos Reimos in the mail from the publisher, Charlesbridge. I was so excited to see it in person! A lot of love went into creating these pictures and I hope future readers will enjoy them.
This book debuts April 2021 and is available for pre-orders anywhere books are sold! I can’t wait to hear what you think!
If you’d like to see a bit more of the illustration process for We Laugh Alike, check out this other video:
Self Motivating During a Global Pandemic...
2020… The year I went FULL-TIME freelance. Wow, what timing!
The pandemic has changed my life completely, but not in the most visible ways. At the end of 2019, I was transitioning into full-time freelance work, so typical office life was already gradually disappearing. I was riding on the high of starting to work on my dream project, a graphic novel that would take up most of 2020. I moved into a local co-working space in February 2020 as I’ve learned in the past that I don’t do my best work at home. By mid-March, I was back in my home studio where all of the reasons that working from home doesn’t work for me escalated. Feeling isolated, stuck, and separated from my mom was of course never the plan.
I think everyone went through some kind of baking phase. I busted out Lucy Knisley’s book, Relish, and tested out the “Best Chocolate Chip Cookies” recipe among many others.
I was also scheduled to go on tour with Terrapin for all of April and May in China and Japan for the children’s theater show that I was a part of in October 2019. I would be working on my graphic novel during the day and drawing live in the children’s show in the evenings. With all travel and shows being cancelled worldwide, it was, fortunately, the only big financial hit for me.
During the lowest times in the pandemic, my life still looked the same from the outside. I was still working on my huge graphic novel project and a picture book which I felt extremely lucky to have been contracted for in 2020. The huge project, Big Apple Diaries, takes place in New York City before and after September 11, 2001. It was surreal to try and capture the essence of the city recovering from that shock at the same time the city was suffering again two decades later. A lot of the same themes were there - fear of the unknown, lost loved ones, and the strange mutual understanding that everyone has. Somehow the diaries I wrote when I was twelve have financially supported me twenty years later when the world is in crisis.
Small panel in Big Apple Diaries that suits the mood, watching the world crumble.
Self soothing activities during lockdown included Animal Crossing and an ongoing Catan tournament with our housemates who live downstairs. (My score has greatly improved since this photo was taken.)
I honestly don’t know how I would deal with 2020 without dogs…
Starting full-time freelance in 2020 has been intense because it feels impossible at times to self motivate when the world and everyone you know is hurting in some way. I somehow found myself in 2020 with a contracted job to do, without kids to worry about, with universal healthcare, extreme covid restrictions which led to zero covid around me, food on the table and much more to be extremely grateful for. It’s the non-visible stuff that has changed - the wondering, worrying, news refreshing, social activism-ing, and more. I started collecting some images in a “Pandemic” folder as a form of memory keeping in hopes that one day I can come back to make something out of it. At the moment it is still too ongoing and raw. My mom is still in New York in her own covid fatigue chaos.
My sketchbook reserved for “travel only” had to be used at some point this year when we were finally able to “travel” within Tasmania again. We drove four hours north to Derby, a mountain biking haven. Living on an island closed off to the rest of the country and world has been a blessing and a bit scary… mostly a blessing though.
A pretty great place to be isolated.
Binalong Bay Area, Tasmania - another pretty amazing place to be isolated.
In many ways, living in Australia this year has also put me in an incredible advantageous point to self-motivating for book work. In June I was able to move back into my co-working space and life has mostly resumed to relatively normal capacity. The worries and fatigue are still there as I look to all of my friends and family in the US. I am honestly not sure if either of my books would have been completed if I was still stuck at home and worried at the same time. For all of the other sensitive artistic souls teetering on the edges of poor mental health in the best of times, I don’t know how you do it!
Behind the Scenes - Graphic Novels
Hey friends! If you are interested in knowing what goes on behind the scenes of graphic novel making, my friend Josh and I have you covered! Below you can see our combined discussion and then underneath that the full conversation. Everyone works differently, but the storytelling is at the heart of it all!
Here is the full chat:
Back to work, folks!
Art & Fashion Event Recap
First Art & Fashion event was a success!
In the Founder’s Room of the Salamanca Arts Centre, we had an absolute ball - sipping wine, nibbling cheese and drawing and painting the lovely models. Everyone warmed up with 2 and 5 minute poses, and then moved on to 10s and a 20. It was amazing to see everyone’s work, including those who weren’t used to drawing in that way before. There was a common thread amongst all of the participants - letting go and loosening up towards the 10 and 20 min pose. Everyone seemed to accept that there wasn’t one right or wrong way to do it and that the point was to have fun and try something new.
Participants frocked up and ready to create!
One of the unique parts of this event was that everyone could see what I was doing live on the screen. I drew and painted under a live camera feed and offered some tips for anyone who needed a little push.
The night also ended with prizes and a silly photoshoot on the chaise lounge.
Art & Fashion
As some people may know, I originally studied Fashion Illustration in college. If we go further back, I also wanted to be a shoe designer when I was a kid and I declared I would go to fashion school in New York from age 8. While I didn’t become a shoe designer, I did study figure drawing for fashion which has influenced my stylizing and technique. At the time Fashion Illustration/Lifestyle Illustration wasn’t being used as often and photography was more of the trend. A decade later I am seeing SO MUCH fashion and lifestyle illustration being bought again and I love it!
During quarantine I was able to join the Society of Illustrators fashion drawing evening and it reminded me of how much I used to love this. So I decided to run an event here in Hobart with the gallery/school I work for - Nolan Art Gallery & School of Art. Pairing up with Tasmanian fashion brand, Keshet Design, is the icing on the cake!
The fabulous models, Stefi and Marlin.
The Magnolia dress is one of Keshet’s most popular designs - suitable for ALL shapes and sizes, one of their core ethics.
Hope to see you there next week if you are local!
Tickets at www.nolanart.com.au/events
Latinx Heritage Month- Sneak Peek!
With Latinx Heritage Month 2020 here, I wanted to share this special sequence in my forthcoming book, Big Apple Diaries, where Little A (me) is questioning her own identity with heritage. It’s based on a real trip to El Museo del Barrio that my dad and I took together. I still have the Taino hat he bought that day from the museum shop!
Winter Dance 2001
Almost twenty years ago… I was 12 and had a very big crush. Everyone knew I had a crush on him too including our teachers and families.
One of the scenes in my forthcoming graphic novel, Big Apple Diaries, takes place at the school dance. It is based on a real dance that took place all of those years ago. I did in fact write about it in my diary too.
The format is different here to the actual book. Stay tuned for Big Apple Diaries in 2021! - all of the BIG feelings included.
Here is an actual photo from that night— ::CRINGE::
Lucia The Luchadora Merchandise
Just dropped! Lucia The Luchadora Merchandise!
Lucia The Luchadora has been on so many reading lists this year, and I am thrilled that families around the world are still enjoying the story so much and sharing it with friends.
In addition to coloring pages, activity books and a DIY luchadora mask… I am excited to share some cute new products on Redbubble and Society6. (They are shipped from your closest shipping location, not here in Tasmania.)
Here are some of my favorites so far. Click below each set to see where you can buy them! Society6 has more of the cute furniture items and Redbubble has the better clothing options in my opinion.
Let me know which ones are your favorites!
Quarantine Art - DIY Colour Wheel!
So you’re quarantined with some acrylic or gouache paint you say?
So the whole world is suddenly thrown into social isolation or quarantine. Watching the news around the world and worrying about friends and family has left me emotionally and mentally dysfunctional. As of today, April 1st, I’ve already lost a friend and colleague to the virus and heard of many others in the hospital being treated for it. It’s easy to say that everything will be okay, but it’s hard to believe it. I am incredibly lucky to still have enough illustration projects to financially support me, and I am holding onto that gratitude dearly.
In a time like this, with many people at home, it’s an opportunity to put your art supplies to use. Many of you out there have random art supplies in boxes or sheds that never get touched. I have tons in my home studio, but many things such as my acrylic paints and coloured pencils are quarantined at the Nolan Gallery where I usually teach.
SO… I bring you these ideas to try — not for the sake of perfection or of becoming an artistic master. I bring them to you so you can find small pockets of joy and mindfulness in your quarantined days.
Here is a pile of the paints I currently have at home.
Why do we bother with colour wheels?
The colour wheel is a great way to introduce yourself to the magic of colour mixing. It also shows us the relationships between colours. For this one I have included shades, tones and tints as well to get the fuller scope of this relationship. With certain approaches to painting, you can also use it to create colour schemes for your future paintings. You could take it a step further and add tertiary colour segments.
When you use less tubes of paint and mix more, you not only save money, but you also have more unified colour. This is another reason why making your own colour wheel from primaries is a great idea. When you discover that you can make at least 24 distinctively different looks from just 3-4 tubes of paint, you will see the world with new eyes!
For this exercise you will need some primary colour paints! Red, yellow, blue and white (more on the specifics in a minute). I am using gouache for this because my acrylics are quarantined away. If you would like to follow along with acrylics, it is basically the same theory. Watercolour will be slightly different because you don’t use white- instead you use WATER.
You will also need a few other things - paper, pencil, a brush, water and paper towel/rags to wipe off excess water. I also like to have scrap paper nearby to test colour on before I make a mark on the final paper. I have included a plate to trace a circle onto the paper. Feel free to freehand yours!
The most important part of this is the colour. Because I found these random gouache paints at home, I wasn’t sure which ones were appropriate to make this colour wheel. You see, not all yellows, blues and reds are the same. I eyeballed my choices from the look of the tubes first, and then tested a few of them out.
The yellow I chose was a bright and light yellow. I eliminated the other one because it already had white mixed in to soften it. Not ideal…
Reds can be biased towards orange or purple. The red I chose was deep and a bit more purple in its bias. You’ll see why this matters later when you try to mix purple.
Blues can be biased towards green or purple and I chose the more purple one again. Ultramarine is always a safe bet.
I am happy to chat with anyone more about this, but don’t let it discourage you from getting started with whatever you have.
Once you’ve chosen your colours, it’s time to setup the layout. Don’t torture yourself over this part, the point is to mix colours, not have perfect pie pieces.
After you trace your circle onto the paper from a plate or freehand, draw a line to split it in half.
From there, find the middle and mark it with a dot. You will then connect that center dot to the outside of the circle at 2 points to create 3 even-ish sections on one side. Repeat on the other side until you have 6 pie pieces. If you want to make them exact, knock yourself out!
Then we are splitting up each pie piece to have small sections at the edge. We want 3 small sections. You can do these one pie piece at a time, or all at once. Whatever makes you happy! Haha
From there, label the pie pieces in this exact order (doesn’t matter which spot you start in): Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet. Use initials if you like. You want to end up with something closely resembling this:
Yay! Ready to go!
The first step is to paint directly from those tubes of red, yellow and blue paints into your inner circle layer as you labeled before. Don’t mix them with anything else, but you can water them down slightly to make it glide on the paper easier. Just don’t add so much water that it becomes transparent.
Then we start mixing! Using the same red and yellow, you are going to create an orange mixture. It’s not necessarily a 50/50 split, so gradually add small bits of red to some yellow until it’s not too red orange and not too yellow orange, but looks just right to you.
Then do the same mixing your yellow and blue to make a just in between green.
To make a violet, you’ll mix some of your red and blue. This one can be tricky depending on what red paint you found at home. If the only result you get is looking brown, it’s probably because your red is too orange. That’s okay, don’t torture yourself over it, haha!
Now you have a basic colour wheel, but we aren’t just basic people are we…
We are going to add more! Next is your SHADE layer. All colours have shadows in the absence of light. The next step is an extra challenge to your colour mixing if you don’t have burnt umber or black (yuck, don’t use black unless you have to)
What you’ll need to do is make BROWN. If you have burnt umber, feel free to use it. If you have never made brown, what are you waiting for?!
To make a neutral brown, you will need to mix some of your red, yellow AND blue together. This might take a bit of back and forth, but since you have the basic colour wheel already done, it can guide you!
For example if your brown is looking too purple, look at where purple sits on the colour wheel and put more of the OPPOSITE colour in (yellow). This will neutralise it.
Feel free to do this on another palette and spread out a bit.
If it’s too red, add a tiny touch of green.
You are going to use that brown colour (or burnt umber) to create a shade colour for each pie piece. Mix a tiny bit in at a time until it feels right to you. There is no such thing as going too dark, you’re doing this for fun, remember?
Voila! Shade
After that’s done, it’s a good time to refresh your water if you haven’t already. Using dirty water will potentially influence the colours you put on paper.
The next step is to create beautiful neutralised versions for each colour! I call these the tones.
To do this you want to add a bit of your brown AND white to each original colour.
We need toned down versions for most colours, otherwise our paintings would be too chaotic to look at! It’s also a good trick to create depth in paintings.
They should look like muted versions of your shadow. If you still have your shade mixed, you can try just mixing white to those. Or start each from scratch to really control the colour.
BAM! We have tones.
Definitely rinse your brushes off again, because our last layer needs to be bright and crispy! We don’t want any brown to tone it down.
It’s time for TINTS a.k.a. your light pastel pretty layer.
To do this, mix white with each of your original colours. My advice is to always add the colour gradually to a little bit of white instead of adding white to your dark colour. This just preserves the amount of white paint you will need to use. You just do you though!
Pastel pinks and blues, yes please.
And there you have it! Your very own colour wheel to use based on your own paints.
If you are obsessed with charting and have multiple types of paints, I would suggest making one for them all! ie: Watercolour wheel, acrylic wheel, gouache etc. Try ones with different versions of your primaries, but be sure to label which ones you used on each wheel so you know how you got that colour in the future!
You will be a colour mixing genius in no time!
Let me know which other art projects/exercises you’d like to try. Be sure to share your colour wheel and tag me on insta @bermudezbahama !
Fabrics & Fashion - Print Design for Keshet
As many of you know, I was the Art Director at Keshet Design for several years. In addition to working on many of the print designs in house, I also designed a few from scratch. The Keshet target audience loves BRIGHT colourful clothing and is not afraid to mix and match. Since it is a proudly Tasmanian company, we choose the dragonfly that I drew in Cradle Mountain to be the main feature for this cotton print. It was available in SO many fabulous outfits!
Images via Keshet’s Instagram | Photos by Amy Brown
Last Winter Season I designed another print which was inspired by Frida Kahlo!
Photo by Matt Palmer
Photo by Matt Palmer
Making a Theatrical Debut in China!
Wow, where to begin recapping my recent trip to China… 4 weeks, 4 cities, 24 shows performed, 5 or 6 workshops.
It all started when I was hired by Tasmania’s amazing Terrapin Puppet Theatre Company to be a part of their production of You And Me And The Space Between. This show is part play, part picture book/animation with a moving set controlled by a puppeteer. Terrapin describes it best:
“From the mind of Australia’s most accomplished children’s playwright, Finegan Kruckemeyer, comes a tale of wonder and invention that is brought to life in unexpected ways. Storytelling, choreographed projections and live drawn animation explore the plight of refugees fleeing environmental change through the eyes of a child.
Step inside a picture book with an artist and storyteller, amidst a paper set that is cut, ripped, patched and manipulated live to create a world of play.”
Live drawn animation - that’s where I came in!
Photo by Dean Stevenson right before we opened the first show of the tour.
The main cast was made up of four people on stage and some very important off stage characters:
Dean, the tour director, composer and live musician
Nicole, the amazing narrator from Shanghai
Rosie, the fabulous puppeteer controlling the set
Me, illustrating live from the ipad which is projected on stage
Simon (seen below) , the doer of all things including the very important stage lighting
Julien and Regina (seen below), our tour managers who we could not survive without
Celebrations in Zhengzhou above after opening night.
This photo was taken during the first show in Xi’an.
Considering I have never been on stage for anything since middle school (where I was a nameless role on stage with one line in Annie), it was pretty scary at first. Luckily we were performing for mostly children and hearing them laugh and gasp in the audience made this an extra special experience for me.
Performing this in China means that the entire show was in Mandarin! So literally all of our cues were in Mandarin too. Luckily I had an earpiece for other cues. It was pretty amazing to witness the poetry, humour and emotional side of the story translating seamlessly from the English version.
We performed in a diverse set of cities and venues! First we were in Zhengzhou’s Little Dreamer’s Theatre which hosts children’s performances from around the world for their regular members who are treated as family there. It was really a special venue and getting to know the staff and kids made us feel extra welcome.
Next, we traveled to Suzhou! It’s the Venice of China with artists sketching everywhere, a history of amazing embroidery work and much more! We got to explore a little bit on our days off. I really enjoyed that many people were wearing or renting traditional outfits from different time periods as they strolled around the museums and shopping areas. Nicole rocked her Tang dynasty outfit with us tagging along asking for translations every 5 minutes. One particularly special moment was when we stumbled into a Tea & Whiskey shop where the owner brewed us a special 20+ year old oolong tea. We watched him transfer the water from vessel to vessel until the tea finally made it into our tiny porcelain cups.
The venue we performed in was massive! There were museums, movie theatres, gigantic broadway show theatres and more inside. One of the small joys was having real coffee available right outside of our small theatre.
When we walked up to this the first time I think we were all in shock. Especially me, being an introvert accustomed to working in a silent solo cave.
Above photos inside and outside of the Suzhou venue.
Then we got on another train and went to Xi’an! It’s hard to decide which one was my favourite city on the trip, but Xi’an is definitely up there. On our days off we checked out some of the sights and ended up in artistic visual delight heaven! Ink brushes, calligraphy, handicraft galore! My eyes and brain hurt from absorbing it. Plus we went to see the Terracotta Warriors which was just unbelievable to process.
The venue we performed in Xi’an was spectacular. Walking up to it for the first time was definitely another shocking moment. Like are we performing in a palace?! China certainly knows how to light up an entire area with a million lights and this was one of them. The Shaanxi Opera House is just one of MANY buildings in this long strip of museums, theatres, shopping malls and more.
I had to grab some aerial views off of the internet because my photos just do not do it justice. Our hotel was in walking distance so it was wild to absorb this in between shows and do some people watching.
For week four we were sent to Urumqi, all the way in China’s northwest Xinjiang region. Although it ended up being a week of workshops instead of doing the show, it was an eye opening experience for all of us. Xinjiang borders many other countries/territories including Russia, Tibet, India, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. WHAT?! With all of the different ethnic groups it was definitely a different atmosphere. There was a lot to process and some difficult issues to witness, but putting that aside we had an amazing week.
The Helen O’Grady Drama School hosted us during the week, taking us to shows and amazing meals. (Scroll down for food highlights later.) We did workshops with kids loosely based on the show and it was wonderful meeting so many families and the super hospitable staff at the theatre school.
After a month in China we flew to Shanghai to begin the long journey home. Our one night in Shanghai just so happened to be on my birthday, so it was pretty special. It was hard to believe it was all over! There were a lot of laughs over the month to recap with funny translation fails, spa visits, different customs, interesting foods and more. Hopefully I can return to China one day and spend a bit more time in Shanghai!
Rolling in my 31st birthday in a spectacular way!
And now, a very quick recap on what I will miss most of all… the food. Oh the noodles and dumplings… and things I never knew of or tasted before. So cheap, so delicious…
Until next time, China!
Consistency in a series from an illustrator’s perspective.
As an illustrator, it is my job to create the images that help enrich books for children. When I first receive the text for a story, my initial process involves reading it over and over again. I sit, lay, walk and drive with the text in my mind for a period of time to start putting together a visual narrative. This visual narrative is inspired by the text of course, but it also goes beyond that. It is a non verbal language that adds another layer to the story that the text doesn’t explicitly say. This perfect combination of text and additional narrative is the great achievement than any children’s illustrator strives for.
After the initial stage, I start imagining the characters and the world they live in. For the Lucia The Luchadora series, their family heritage was front and centre for me as I began the process of their visual depiction. I set out to find cultural references and colours to inspire their world. For the Amelia Chamelia series, I tried to figure out how to make her stand out yet also be relatable to other eight year old Australian girls. Before any pencils hit paper, a lot of research and thought was involved. I feel as though I truly know the characters before I start to draw them.
To provide consistency to these characters across multiple pages and books is a unique challenge as well. While they need to look like the same person with the same proportions, their body language and emotional range needs to be as diverse as the readers themselves.
Amelia Chamelia faces a huge challenge of public speaking when her teacher assigns her the role of narrator in the school play. Her best friend Willow also faces a fear of heights during the school swimming test. Portraying these very real emotions in visual form can help engage early readers along the journey.
Creating consistency in style can be an interesting challenge too, especially when illustrating a series. Lucia the Luchadora set the style for the sequel, but I still tried to introduce new colours and characters into the culturally rich world they live in. Amelia Chamelia is simple black and white interior illustrations, so even though the artistic style doesn’t change throughout, the characters and expressions are diverse.
Each book is an exciting opportunity to explore style, consistency and nuance of character for visual storytelling. An illustrator’s work is never over! Stay tuned for more of my illustrated books coming soon including My Singing Nana!
ABC News Features Inscape Tasmania's Art & Music!
Art and music changing the lives of hospital patients.
Last week, the ABC Hobart team came to the Royal Hobart Hospital to see us in action!
Check out the full article here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-05/art-therapy-trial-helping-hospital-patients/11077120?fbclid=IwAR1KYFPSbB5LQlH14N0VeVIg8YFsm7b0HLx-PVX-rgDEocULcMiWfV3fQNo
A tribute for Alan!
Appearances & Events!
Upcoming Event in Hobart!
So much has happened this year and so many projects are coming! For now, the best way to hear about them all is on Instagram (@bermudezbahama) and Facebook (click here) OR if you are in Hobart, come to our SCBWI event. I will be talking about all of the projects, pathways and more.
