Illustrating Love You From Right Here

This past year I had the amazing opportunity to work with foster-mom and author Jamie Sandefer, illustrating her book Love You From Right Here, published by Lucid Books in May. Love You From Right Here is a sweet story about a foster daughter and mother relationship and all the different emotions a child experiences in foster care or adoption. I felt so honored to work on this project because of the lack of picture books out there for foster kids, and the need that families have for this kind of book. It has already made such a huge impact on this community (we've sold 1,300 books so far!) and I hope it continues!

Purchase your copy on Amazon, 

or buy a signed copy from me the illustrator, here on my website

Here's a peek into my process with some early storyboards, sketches, and finished artwork. The total time it took to complete the illustrations from start to finish was 8 months!

character studies of the two main characters exploring their gestures and size relationship 

this set of sketches is called a turn-around showing the main character from different angles

some initial storyboard thumbnail sketches to get ideas down

initial rough sketch

Then I refine the drawing in more detail with any necessary changes. I had to move the Mom over to the right since she was falling into the center gutter.

The finished artwork! Watercolor and colored pencil on Strathmore 500 Illustration board.

rough sketch

refined drawing with changes

finished artwork

Cover art in progress. I use a light tack/ washi tape for clean borders, then start with watercolor washes over my drawing.

The finished cover illustration!

I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of my process creating the illustrations for Love You From Right Here! For more daily updates of what I'm working on follow me on instagram @pamelagoodmanart.