Magia - The Littlest Woodland Witch

This is Magia (it means “magic” in Polish), the littlest woodland witch who likes to think big and always has even bigger magic in her back pocket to help anyone in need, be it woodland kin or any creature. Magia spreads wonder wherever she goes. Although she may be small in stature, she’s no match for any problem she encounters, because her true source of magic is all the wisdom she’s gleaned from making mistakes in her 1,348 years of lived experiences. Not to mention she’s out-of-this-world strong and is not afraid to keep making mistakes and learning from them for the next millennia to come.

Magia is the protagonist from a children’s picture book I’m currently working on. I have always loved magic, mysticism and the natural world. My influences come greatly from the wonders of the unexplained and natural phenomena. As a kid’s book illustrator and author I always try and connect to my kid-self and practice looking through that lens in my creative practice and daily life. I also draw immense inspiration from my Polish heritage of storytellers, artists, traditional folklore, fairytales and my personal lived experiences.

For this project I used an Apple iPad and Apple Pencil with Procreate. However, it’s really important to me that before getting started on digital illustration, that I play with the traditional tools first and explore their potential before diving into their digital forms. Using traditional tools is really helpful for our brains to think creatively and generating those connections, so I highly recommend making time for play and getting your hands messy and just making some marks on paper.

For the traditional tools I used: medium weight sketch paper, pencil crayons, graphite powder, graphite paste, various graphite sticks, a traditional eraser, a fine batter operated eraser, a smudge stick and a cotton ball.

When I have an idea for an illustration or I have a story waiting to be illustrated, my first step is always to look in a book. This is my favorite part of the process as I get to sift through all the books I have collected over the years. Re-discovering all the wonderful work of artists/illustrators that really light me up is such a great way to remind myself why I love the illustration and publishing world. It’s energizing and it’s also a way to give myself permission to pause and get lost in other creative’s imagination stations.

I love sketching and first drafts. It’s when I get to take my list of visual inspiration and tell myself the story first. It’s like trying on clothes and seeing what feels right without any judgements, just putting down those initial ideas that have formed in my mind onto paper and seeing what shakes out. Then I get to pick what I like from my sketches and funnel it into a more defined draft…be it an entire imagined world or a single character. What’s so wonderful about this is what shakes out is always in your own voice.

This stage of illustrating is where I feel I really get to know my character even better through their movements. What’s more is I really get to flex my creative muscles asking questions such as: what does their day look like? what kinds of activities do they like/dislike? what is their temperament and how does that guide their decisions and ultimately their movements? All these questions really lead me to imagine my character come to life and what poses to illustrate them in.

Experimenting with a color palette and texture tools is what all the work that came before it takes shape into one beautiful Frankenstein. I sometimes have a really hard time remembering to still keep a relaxed mindset rooted in play because I’m so close to the finish line. So I usually take a break and come back to it when I’ve had a chance to unplug a little and I’m ready to play again, because this is the awesome step of adding depth to your character with your technique and tools of choice. It’s kind of like solving a puzzle for me and similar to step 2 in the way that I’m testing, but I’ve already told myself the story and know what I want it to look like.

I am slightly obsessed with all things stamps and stencils. I also tend to really lean into illustrations that have an element of sketch to them. Often times I like prefer sketches over the finished illustrations so this and the above is the technique I aimed for executing digitally. You can see the process in the images below.

This is where I take a literal step back and say hoorah! before diving into creating a world for my character to exist in. I repeat the same process of steps 1-5 for world building as I did for the character. It’s really important to find a formula that works for you personally because this will make approaching any project feel streamlined and less daunting, ultimately saving you time and stress, which makes for even more room to play in your imagination station.

Thank you for visiting with me and I hope this has inspired you in your own unique work. Stay magical!