Sibling rivalry can be difficult to overcome but with love we can fix anything.
Míla Bug is a simple story of two sisters that have more in common than they think and with a little communication and a lot of love they over come their differences and have lots of fun together.
After spending a few days writing the story, scribbling out little rhymes about two very different sisters I began to imagine what they would look like as a children’s picture book.
This story was the first time I’d written and illustrated my own work. The original printed version was made as a gift for my best friend’s little girl Míla.
”It took a huge amount of work to complete but every step of the way I had great people offering their support and encouragement.”
From the start, I was aware that I wanted to make this story as environmentally friendly as I could. I was very lucky to find an on-demand print company with a fantastic green policy that shared my concerns about the environmental impact printing has. They were able to print each book with minimal waste and they used local printers based on the delivery location this cuts down on carbon emissions and pollution.
It took a huge amount of work to complete but every step of the way I had great people offering their support and encouragement.
After a few revisions and a lot of technical tweaks, I finally created a printed softcover picture book and a digital iBook ready for release.
”Writing this first story was a bit of divine inspiration”
Writing this first story was a bit of divine inspiration, at the time I was travelling around South East Asia working for a company in California. I had been helping to write small comic strips to accompany kids’ socks I had been designing. The stories were designed to help children to learn life lessons and integrate elements of S.T.E.M learning. I had been working with this company for over a year and I was beginning to feel that I needed to move on. I wanted to start my own company, but I was unsure of what to do, I had been a freelancer for a while but felt I needed a change.
“snug as a bug… “
One evening I was sitting with my partner and I remembered my best friend asking me to write a little story for her little girl Míla, she had nicknamed her Míla bug when she was very small because she looked so cute wrapped up in her little blanket, snug as a bug…
I don’t know where it came from but in about an hour I had the whole story down in my notebook and was reading it to my partner. I only made a handful of tweaks to the text before I set it down and started thinking about the illustrations. Out of nowhere, I began writing every day more and more. I started to feel that this was going to be what my company did. Children’s books with a purpose.
Frustratingly it was months later before I was able to begin the illustrations. We arrived back in Europe in March but I had not been able to come back to the UK until June. I had been imagining all different types of styles but the one that felt right for this story was pen and ink. I imagined a soft feel to the artwork and wanted it to look watery almost like a dream, I’m not sure why but all along I had been imagining the story of a family of ladybirds.
"I love to start with doodles."
The sketches all started out in my sketch book in pencil, they were quick and rough. I love to start with doodles. As I find this helps my work grow organically and helps me to feel the process of creating. I had a clear idea of what I wanted Míla Bug to look like.
Once I had made enough sketches I began going over the pencil drawings with an ink pen to clean up the drawing. This is one of my favourite parts of illustrating, the clean-up process.
Then I began the long task of importing the images into my computer. carefully scanning them in one by one until I had a complete set. Only then could the real work begin. Digital painting! My other favourite part of illustrating.
For Mila Bug I chose to use a programme called Sketches Pro on my Mac and was able to digitally paint in watercolours. Giving the images a hand finished feel with pen and ink all digitally created.
I was really happy with the end result of the story and the printed book made a very special gift for my best friend and her little girl. Mila Bug was the start of a very long journey that is still continuing to this day even with four more books now completed and several others on the way I still feel that this is what I am here to do. A strong gut feeling many years ago burns brighter and stronger now than ever before. Each of my stories tackles a different and difficult topic to help children build their emotional resilience. I now work with teachers and educators who work firsthand with troubled children every day and are needing quality resources to help them do their jobs.
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