Billy Goat with a Backhoe coming 2026!
Written by: David Passarelli // Illustrated by: Kirby Rader
8x10” soft cover
Step 1 - Find the character
The first task at hand, when I’m illustrating a children’s book, is to find the character. And I do mean “find.” I have found that illustrating feels a lot like a game of hide and seek. I can see what I’m looking for tucked away in my mind. It takes my hands quite awhile to search out what I’m looking for!
To find Billy Goat, I looked at plenty of pictures of real goats, and studied a few pictures of my dad (the real life Billy Goat with a Backhoe).
Step 2 & 3- Thumbnail sketches/Color Story
Once I find the characters, or maybe at the same time I’m in the hunt, I sketch out 1”x2” boxes and begin to imagine the page layout. This is where I get the first idea of how the characters interact with their surroundings.
Then, I love hunting through my art supplies to find just the right colors for each piece of the book. I primarily use tubes of watercolor paint and watercolor brush pens to add the overall color. Once dry, I can go back in with the watercolor brush pens or acrylic pens to add the final details.
Silly me forgot to take photos of Billy Goat’s thumbnail sketches before adding color; here you can see both!
Billy Goat is out and about with his neighbors for most of his book. He is the only animal in this book with characteristics of a person, just to make him stand out. At the end of the book, you’ll find Billy Goat in his brown recliner, with his feet propped up; just like my own dad does at the end of a day’s work.
Step 4 - Large Sketches
Before I begin final drawings, I want to make sure I have a better sense of the real space I’ll be working in. For this, I use 11”x17” paper. I tend to find there’s more space to fill than I realized, or find new difficulties in the drawings.
In the case of the Billy Goat, I found out it was going to be tricky to get a good view of him while he drove down the road for some of the drawings.
Step 5 - Final Drawings
Things start to feel pretty exciting right now. The lines I draw at this point are the lines that will make the final product. Like most of my artwork, the final drawings are done on my iPad in procreate, and then printed.
It’s at this step that my daughters come in; they are the best (and most honest) critics I could come by. These are the final drawings for the first page of the story.
This is my favorite part of the process, and the step I find the most natural- adding color! Once final drawings have been printed from my iPad onto cold press watercolor paper, color is added and the characters finally come to life.
Check back soon; I’m nearly to this step.
Step 6 - Color
Step 7 - Typesetting
After the pages have been illustrated, printed, and painted, the pages are scanned to my computer so I can add in the copy digitally. This includes formatting a book cover, so it’s prepared for publishing!
Come back soon to see this page in color.