Illustrator Jenni Goodman shares the research, experimentation, creativity, and love for the ocean that shaped her artwork in Flute, a picture book written by Kasey Whitelaw.

What do you love most about illustrating children’s books?

I really enjoy the story-telling aspect of creating picture book artworks – It’s fun to try to add to the narrative, rather than just putting nice things on a page. I also love creating sweet and wholesome images which, hopefully, will capture the imagination of young children and showcase some of the beauty our world has to offer. My favourite part of the artmaking process is colouring in the final artworks and seeing it all come together. And, of course, at the end of the project I get to have a wonderful time sharing my books with kids and seeing their joy and enthusiasm.

Do you have any favourite moments from Flute?

My favourite pages in the book are the final two spreads of the story: when Flute finds her mum and joins her dolphin party. I love the soft and cosy feel of these spreads. When making the illustrations, I think I had the most fun creating the page where Flute is resting at the surface and a fish, crab and tiger shark watch from below, as this had some lovely detail which was fun to draw and colour in. I also really enjoyed making the wavy patterns in the swirling water and seagrass throughout the book.

What is your process for creating and perfecting your illustrations?

I made the artworks for Flute with watercolour paint and coloured pencil, plus the occasional use of gel pens, chalk markers, acrylic paint and digital techniques for some additional extras. It’s a long process, and I usually have about four or five final artworks on the go. Here are the steps I took:

PLANNING

The first step of illustrating a picture book is planning. In order to authentically capture the local landscape and wildlife included in this book I decided to take a trip to the place where the book is set: Monkey Mia in Western Australia. My trip was invaluable! I spent five days taking in the environment, learning about dolphins, and photographing and sketching the wildlife in the area. The lovely dolphin research team took me out on their boat, and I got to see heaps of exciting animals (including a dugong, flying fish, rays, sea snakes and, of course, the dolphins!) and got to chat with them about their research, and watch them work. My trip gave me plenty of ideas about what to include, and how to showcase the beautiful landscape. 

DIGITAL SKETCHES/PAGE DESIGNS

Following my research, I created my character and page designs with my iPad and Apple Pencil, using a program called Procreate.

TRACING ONTO WATERCOLOUR PAPER

I then printed out these line drawings and traced them on to my watercolour paper using a lightbox.

STRETCH THE PAPER

Next, I soaked my paper in the bath and secured it to my gatorboard with gum tape. This step is to prevent my paper warping under the wet paint.

MASKING FLUID

Once dry, I painted masking fluid onto the areas of the paper I intended to keep paint-free. This leaves the covered areas of the paper nice and white which is helpful to avoid muddying colours when I add the pencil on top.

WATERCOLOUR PAINT

I chose to use watercolour paint for my backgrounds because of its beautiful blending capabilities and because I feel its transparent look is perfect for underwater scenes. Each page took many layers of painting – lots of waiting for paint to dry in this process!

COLOURED PENCILS

Once the painting was finished and the paper had completely dried, I finished off my illustrations with coloured pencils using various techniques such as scumbling, and blending the pencil with a solvent called Zest-it to get a smooth and polished finish. I used many vibrant reds, oranges and blues to capture the incredible colours of Monkey Mia. I used gel pens and chalk markers for a few extras such as the whites on the jellyfish featured on page 18-19.

 DIGITAL

I created the digital files for printing by scanning the finished artworks and making some adjustments in photoshop. I had drawn a number of the illustration elements for the book at a larger scale so as to include more details. These had to be scanned, cut out digitally and added to the files. After that, the publishing team at Wombat Books did their text and design-work magic to create the files ready to go to the printers!

You’ve said that you love to illustrate nature. Is there a particular scene or aspect of nature that you find yourself coming back to often?

I’m lucky enough to live at the beach and it’s safe to say the ocean is very close to my heart! It’s been really wonderful to have the opportunity to capture the sea and its creatures in two picture books recently! I also adore spending time in my garden, and love drawing flowers, birds, and cute, furry mammals.

Did you find anything challenging or particularly rewarding about this project?

Probably the most challenging part of this project was knowing that the story’s setting is a real place and that the events in the story are based on real animal behaviours. Even though my illustration style in this book isn’t complete realism, I still needed to make sure my sea creatures were true to form and had the correct markings and behaviours. This took a lot of research, effort and care.

What was it like to work with the author, Kasey Whitelaw, on this project?

It was wonderful to work with Kasey! Throughout the project her feedback was invaluable – her marine biologist expertise and advice helped me to increase the accuracy of the animals, behaviours and plant life depicted in my illustrations. She gave me really helpful notes on my draft sketches, such as adding spots to the adult dolphin’s bellies, and having the whistle sound coming from the dolphins blow hole – I originally had it coming from the mouth – whoops! Plus, when I decided to go to Monkey Mia for my research trip, Kasey was the one who connected me with the rangers and the dolphin researchers, which was just so amazing!

Do you have any other projects in the works?

I have a number of new project ideas up my sleeve, and a contract in negotiations at the moment. I’m hoping it will result in a new book arriving in 2026!