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Drawing Fantasy Chibi by Tessa Creative Art and me was such a fun project to work on!
This book is perfect for kids who already love to draw or those who want to learn how to make chibi-style fantasy creatures. There are 30 designs included in the book, such as Godzilla, fairies, oni, Cerberus, elves, Medusa and many more.
The illustrations are by the amazing Canadian designer Tessa Creative Art, and I wrote the step-by-step tutorials to guide you to drawing these fun creatures.
How I Got Involved
I’m not actually that good at drawing (though my daughter is amazing) but I do have long experience writing tutorials for people who are new to various crafts/projects.
Tessa Creative Art had created these fun drawing projects, but not the text. The publisher of the book (Bloom Books for Young Readers) put out a call in a Facebook group I’m in looking for someone who could take the illustrations and write brief instructions to go with them, as well as little introductions to the characters (fancy publishing term: head notes) to be included in the book.
I applied, citing my experience as a craft writer and ability to break down projects into easy-to-follow steps. It didn’t hurt that I have an expert artist in the house who is basically exactly the target market for the book.
I had about a month to write all the tutorials, which I did earlier this year. Compared to my knitting books (and even my ebooks!) this was warp speed publishing.
It was also just so much fun. A complete departure from the books I’ve done before and yet familiar.
Getting Back Into It
The best thing for me was that I haven’t had a book published in several years (the last one, Colorwork Knitting, came out in 2015, which feels about a million years ago).
This was a really great way for me to get back in the game, so to speak.
It was a great reminder to me that I don’t have to just write knitting books, that I have a lot of other interests and things I want to say and share and I can do that with books. Whether I am publishing them myself or working with traditional publishers, I love longer projects and deep dives and just sharing my interests, passions and skills with other people.
I have about five more books I’m suddenly super interested in writing again. Most of them are ideas I’ve had for a while (one I had while on vacation earlier this summer) and all of them are things I’d like to see out in the world.
So here’s to many more book announcements in the future!
Drawing Fantasy Chibi is available as a book or an ebook. If you get a copy for your kiddo — or yourself; these would be fun for anyone to draw! — I’d love to see your creations.
