Olivia Kidney

Philomel Press approached me with this wonderfully quirky book project. I was touched by the spiritual aspect of the book, which was handled in a very unique way. While Judy Moody is an extrovert, Olivia has a lot of her spirit tucked safely inside – and wouldn’t you if you lived in a very odd corner of the New York universe?

My favorite part of these projects is conjuring up what the character looks like. When I read, my mind “films” scenes, but often my camera is the view from the eyes of the main character. So, I have to “switch cameras” and really take a good look at the character so that I can draw him or her. Or it!

After quite a few rounds of sketches, I settled in on the final Olivia and set to work on the illustrations. I e-mailed Ellen Potter, the author, to ask her what kind of apartment building she had in mind when she was writing the story. She told me the building was based on the one she grew up in – a high-rise in New York city. She asked her parents to snap some pictures, and then she e-mailed me them to help inspire me. I was intrigued by how it must feel to be little in such a big building. I played with this idea of size on the cover – making Olivia 15 stories high – peering out of the top of the building. I added spotlights criss-crossing the sky to give a feeling of drama and spectacle.

Behind the scenes notes:

• On page 126, Madame Brenda is screaming at the site of a lizard. On the shopping bags, I snuck in nods to Bill Norris, a friend, and Cecilia Yung, the editor at Philomel.
• I created all the art using Macromedia Flash, my trusty Mac and my Wacom graphics tablet and pen.

Olivia Kidney was recently named as Book of the Year by Child Magazine. I’d recommend it for any 4th grader and older.

Here are some early “studies” for the book art. Click on each thumbnail image to learn more about it!

- Peter