Every year during Advent I read Ann Voskamp’s devotional, The Greatest Gift. It’s one of my favorite traditions. I’ve read all her books and love each and every one. So when I was asked to do the illustrations for her children’s book, Your Brave Song, I was thrilled. Ann was envisioning old fashioned illustration style similar to my book, Lucilla and the Snarly Skein. Again, I was so excited! I read the manuscript and loved it, just as I knew I would. 

My only concern: The story began with fog and I’d never painted fog before. I knew I wanted the artwork to be my very best so I got started thinking about how to paint that fog. I began as I always do—with research. I looked at loads of photos of fog, paintings of fog, and drawings of fog. I paid extra special attention every foggy morning, noticing the way the trees and mountains disappeared in the distance. My daughters would text me some mornings saying, “Hey mom, you should look outside right now—it’s foggy.” I made a folder on my phone labeled, “Fog” and you could find me flipping through it all the time, dreaming about the various ways I could paint those illustrations. 

Fog can look gloomy, but Ann’s story is joyful and brimming with hope. Fog tints everything blue and grey and white. Beautiful. But each time I read Your Brave Song, my imagination danced in colors that reminded me of candy—red, pink, and sunshine yellow. Crisp white and lollipop green. I wondered, what if the fog looked something like cotton candy? Friendly fog. Mysterious fog. Downy soft, pillowy fog. That’s the beauty of illustration. It doesn’t have to mirror real life; It can do more. It can create a mood that helps the story come alive. It must do that or else it isn’t doing it’s job. 

I experimented with three small paintings, trying out various foggy techniques. My favorite reminded me very much of cotton candy. I could almost taste it. 

I knew that once I’d painted one foggy illustration for the book, there would be no going back. Each foggy scene would need to feel consistent. As I painted those illustrations, I set them up around me for reference as I began painting the next. And finally they were all finished! Thanks to Your Brave Song I now know how to paint billowy, whipped cream, cotton candy fog!

Ann based the main character in Your Brave Song, on her youngest daughter, Shiloh. In the book she’s called, Una Rayne. Looking at photos of Shiloh, I loved how her sweet expression, sparkly eyes and long dark hair already looked like a children’s book illustration. I printed out two photos her and taped them to my easel for references. 

Years ago, before I began illustrating, I was a portrait artist. I’ve always loved capturing people’s expressions. For this book, I wanted to capture Shiloh’s wonderfully expressive face in vintage storybook style. Every time I painted her I looked back at those photos taped to my easel, making sure each illustration looked like her. And as I painted her I prayed for her and for Ann and their family. That experience made the joy of illustrating the book even greater.

Just like with the foggy scenes, Una Rayne’s character design needed to be consistent throughout the storybook. So when I decided to paint her wearing a faded calico dress, striped socks, polka dotted boots and a red jacket with white buttons, I knew I’d created a big challenge for myself! I even added trim to the bottom of the dress—I just couldn’t resist. I love colors and patterns. I love dresses because they show so much movement.  I love yellow polka dotted boots because, who wouldn’t? I was careful to paint the same number of buttons on Una’s jacket every time. And to paint the colorful stripes on her socks in the same order on each page. It definitely would’ve been easier to paint her in blue jeans and a white t-shirt but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun. I don’t regret a thing! 

My very favorite scenes in Your Brave Song are the two that take place in Una Rayne’s room. It was so fun dreaming up what sort of room she would have! A handmade quilt, sewn by Grandma I imagine—and a jumble of cheerful hand-me-down furniture. Children’s rooms are such special spaces—such a collaborative effort to welcome a child into the world. I loved painting the blue and white lamp and imagined that it must have been borrowed from some other part of the house and maybe placed in Una’s room for the time being, until mom and dad could get her a lamp of her own.

But, then I imagined, as it sat there and the room filled with one item and another, it came to look so at home that it became Una’s lamp and no one ever considered moving it back to it’s old place in the living room or kitchen. I loved painting the patterns on the wallpaper and the gingham curtains trimmed with pom-pom fringe. When I was little (my cousin can attest) I loved pom-pom fringe! My grandmother was a wonderful seamstress and she had boxes of fringe and ribbon and quilting fabric in her sewing room. Those memories show up all over Una Rayne’s room.

From looking at Una’s room you can see what she’s been playing with and working on. I loved including her doll and teddy bear, dollhouse, crayon drawings scattered on the floor and the chest at the end of her bed, surely filled with dress-up clothes and crafts. Another fanciful detail is the oval shaped painting above Una’s bed. It features a mouse in a fancy dress reading a book. Each and every item was fun to dream up!  When I was little I delighted in those kinds of details and looked for them in my favorite picture books. That’s why I made sure to include them in Your Brave Song.

Ann wanted to have a secondary story weaving through the illustrations of Your Brave Song. I knew just what she meant. Some of my favorite stories have smaller stories inside. And in picture books the secondary stories often only show up in the illustrations. A great example of a secondary story is the mice in the animated version of Cinderella. I wondered if we could do something similar with animals in Ann’s story. Both Ann and Jackie (the wonderful art director at Tyndale House Publishers) liked that idea. Animals add so much! I make a habit of adding my cat, Ember, into every illustration I can, and you can find her in this book too. But the secondary story is mostly told with a family of robins. The baby robins are beginning to spread their wings and explore the world. And just as Una Rayne’s mama sings a song that stirs courage in Una Rayne, the mama robin is doing the same with her babies. 

Did you know that male and female robins differ slightly from one another in appearance? I’d always thought they looked the same. I learned about their subtle differences right after painting almost every single page of Your Brave Song. I do lots of research before even beginning illustrations and this time was no different. I’d looked at loads of pictures of robins, but somehow hadn’t noticed that male robins have a darker reddish chest and darker grey or black head than their female counterparts. I stood in my studio and looked at all the pages propped up here and there and everywhere. I’d painted the mama robin incorrectly on every single page! I had to laugh! I went back and edited every picture until mama robin looked just right. 

The baby robins in the story are supposed to be old enough to begin flying. As I looked through photos of robins at that age, I noticed they weren’t nearly as colorful or distictive as the adults and I was concerned that they wouldn’t show up very well, especially in the scenes where they were far away. I decided that these particular baby birds would look like smaller versions of their mama. Yay for creative license!

So often, the most challenging illustrations appear to be simple and the easiest ones look complicated. I don’t know why that is. I can imagine which pages of Your Brave Song people would likely imagine were the most difficult but those weren’t nearly as challenging as the pages where Una is sitting with her mom on the front porch, looking out into the fog. They look so simple but I had to repaint large parts of that spread three times! I’m not even sure why it was so challenging. And the scene at the very end of the book with all the children dancing and the houses and starry sky and sheep? That one was no problem at all. Isn’t that curious? That’s how life goes too sometimes, don’t you think? Scripture tells us not to worry about tomorrow. Maybe one reason God tells us that is because when we do worry, we often worry over the very things that work themselves out just fine. And the things we put our confidence in are often the very things we trip over. 

Have you ever wondered about the process of illustrating and then getting those illustrations into a book? I’m happy to share my process with you. It’s a bit unusual. But first I’ll mention that there are lots of wonderful ways to illustrate a book. Many books are illustrated digitally these days, at least in part. And there are still lots of artists who illustrate in the old fashioned ways, using pen and ink or paint, pencil, or charcoal. I usually work in acrylic paint on big canvases—twice the size of whatever book I’m illustrating. That way the pictures end up with especially crisp details. If you’ve ever drawn on Shrinky Dink paper and then put it in the oven and watched it shrink, you’ll understand why I like to create my illustrations on such a large scale. It’s amazing how beautiful the patterns and details look when they shrink down! Most people don’t illustrate on canvas because it’s easier to store and transport illustration board or digital files. But I still enjoy working on canvases. 

I started off as a portrait artist, working mostly in pencil and pen and ink and only later began creating “story paintings”—storybook style paintings accompanied by little bits of written stories to further the imaginative experience for observers. I sold my paintings in shows and to individual clients. It was a natural progression from that to illustrating actual storybooks and I just kept creating the artwork the same way I had for shows and clients. Although I love illustrating in pen and ink and watercolor and have recently begun doing digital illustrations, I knew that for Your Brave Song I wanted to use acrylic on canvas. Ann was surprised by how large the canvases were when I sent her a picture of me sitting next to one of the illustrations. Right now, I have most of them covering the walls of my art studio and a few others scattered throughout the house. 

After finishing all the illustrations, my husband, who is a professional graphic designer and photographer, takes a photograph of each one. Later he makes sure that all the colors from the original artwork match up with his photos. Then he sends those photos to the art director at the publishing company and they take it from there. 

As I painted the illustrations, I was so encouraged by the words Ann wrote in her story. I had them sitting on a chair next to me so that I could keep them in mind while creating around them. I especially loved the words of the song, “Jesus loves you, makes you strong, in Him you’re brave and you belong.” That’s really true and it’s encouraging to remember it at any age! Seeing Una Rayne feeling insecure at times and then finding courage as she remembers that Jesus is always where she belongs was a needed reminder for me again and again. 

On Ann’s blog you can read about the beautiful ideas that inspired her to write this book. It’s been a great joy collaborating with her to bring this hope-filled story to life! I hope you enjoy it!

~ Amy