Behind the Scenes; Making Hello, London!

My new book Hello, London! is almost here, and I wanted to share a little bit more of the process behind making it. I’ve written a few other posts over the years about the other books in the series, but this time I did things a little bit differently — trying out some new methods and some new technology!

The timeline for working on Hello, London! was quite a bit shorter than previous titles, putting in a lot of hours over holiday periods and whilst working on other projects. In previous years, I’ve created the artwork for the books on big A2 sheets of paper, and a very specific 0.4 pen to keep the consistency of the ink lines the same all the way through the book (and the other books in the series too). My normal process when working like this is to sketch on A3 paper roughs, sketch again onto A2 sheets, scan the work using a giant scanning machine that I have to go off-site to do, and then take the scanned files into the computer to colour digitally. With a shorter timeline, and lots of tricky dates to work around, I had to get a little creative with how I worked on this one, finding alternatives that would still maintain the quality and consistency across the book, as well as fitting with the continuity of the rest of the series.

For Hello, London! I tried out the iPad for sketching and working up the rough drafts and layouts — a great challenge for me to learn a new piece of technology, and with the added benefit of being able to draw on the couch while watching Netflix. I could then print out my roughs from the iPad, and use these as my base sketches to start inking, only this time I was inking at A3 size, rather than A2, because I only had access to a flatbed scanner in A3. Complicated, right!? To compensate for the different sized paper (and potential loss of detail as it wouldn’t be shrunk down as far as normal) I worked with a thinner 0.2 pen, to give the same sort of scale in the line weights when it was all condensed down for print.

Working digitally was much the same as previous books, bringing the finished line art into the computer to colour digitally, keeping a bright and colourful consistent palette throughout the book. Finding the right balance of colours that felt ‘British’ but not grey or murky was a fun challenge, and the finished result is one that I’m so proud of — and I hope all Brits and London-lovers will be just as enamoured with!

Hello London! arrives in Australian bookstores on February 01, and in the UK from February 13. If you’d like to pre-order a copy you can do so from Booktopia or The Book Depository (who offer free worldwide shipping) and you’ll be first in line when it’s released! It’s also a wonderful opportunity to support your local bookstore, by purchasing in person or expressing interest in your favourite local spot stocking my books. It’s such a thrill for me every time I see my books on shelves, and I can’t wait to see Hello, London! in-store internationally this year. Hello, London! is available all around the UK from Waterstones and other good book stores for pre-order now, and I’m posting all London related things under the hashtag #HelloLondonbyMeganMcKean on Instagram.