The first evening will include an introduction to Felicita’s work and the path which led her to become an illustrator.

There will be a Q and A and a discussion on what it means to illustrate picture books (the why, the how, the audience, the type of stories) and about finding one’s style.

Throughout the weekend there will be practical demonstrations using the mediums most used by Felicita: watercolour, gouache, coloured pencils.

There will be set exercises using mixed media to loosen up and explore techniques. We will talk about how to plan an image for a picture book, the preliminary work that goes before it and how to best use one’s unique skills to plan and execute an illustration.

Participants will then be given a choice between two texts and will select a moment or scene to illustrate. AT the end of the course we will observe the images together and discuss the various ways to envision a narrative.

Recommended Materials:

300g hot pressed watercolour paper like Fabriano or Arches, A4 or A3 approximate size (a few sheets or a block)

a sketchbook with thick-ish paper, about 150g in A4 size

pencil, eraser, watercolours of your choice,

a few gouache tubes (black, white and primary colours, or a few colours you like best),

paintbrushes in various sizes (a large flat or slightly rounded one in size 20 or 30, round brushes in size 3, 6, 8, 12)

a few oil pastels in the colours you prefer

coloured pencils (not water colour ones) like caran d’ache luminance or faber castell polychromos

a piece of thick cardboard larger than A3 to paste your illustration

paper scotch tape