“I swim, even though sometimes I don’t want to. Because afterwards, I always feel better.”
This simple poetic sequence of a lady walking to her local river and going for a cold swim came to life from my Sequential Image project on my MA Children’s Book Illustration. A very flowy process saw the project initially take form as a single image concertina, evolving over 2 years into a not so traditional picture book. This journey took me to the DPictus Unpublished Picturebook Showcase in Bologna this year showing me how our passion projects can propel us to magical places.
And here’s how it came together.
Choosing the project - what lights me up?
My tutors encouraged me to choose a topic that interested me, where I could explore making images in sequence.
The fabulous Pam Smy gave a talk about her practice and how she has a list of ‘requirements’ for each project, for her this was local observational drawing, spooky stuff, and monochrome art. This inspired me to make a list of all the things I love to do: like swimming and surfing. And how I love to make work: in colour, with texture, with joy, and playing with the format of the book.
I landed on wild swimming as I’d spent a lot of time enjoying this during the pandemic. It was an easily accessible activity for gathering visual references. And I liked the idea of a simple sequence of swimming down a river.
Immerse myself in swimming.
We started the module in January 2022 and I’d wanted an excuse to get me back into the water in the middle of winter. So I visited some prestigious wild swimming spots to immerse myself fully in the wild swimming world:
Hamstead Heath swimming ponds
Vobster Quarry, Somerset
Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset
Henleaze Swimming Club, Bristol
Claverton Weir, Bath
Clifton Lido, Bristol
And watched a brilliant documentary, ‘The Ponds’, about the swimming community at Hamstead Heath (highly recommend this heart-filling watch, made me feel good about humanity).
Draw swimmers.
I’m lucky, as a female, that I can get away with drawing women as they get ready to swim, and submerge or emerge from the water. I love drawing women’s bodies, especially wild swimmers as they tend to be larger women with beautiful round shapes. The way we contort ourselves to get in or out of wetsuits under a dryrobe is highly amusing.
Beautiful swimmers in cossies and bobble hats
And the people watching associated with observational drawing is great for eavesdropping on highly intimate conversations taking place between bobble hat swimmers (women who don’t get their faces wet).
I drew on location or after I’d been swimming as much as possible, to channel all that chilly energy into my sketchbook.
Make a draft book.
To play with the format of the book I decided to make a double-sided 2.5-meter-long concertina (as you do). This depicted a swimmer walking to the river, getting ready to go in, and paddling downstream.
I enjoyed the challenge of making a book that worked as a single continuous image (of 5 meters!), as well as multiple spreads so the project could be read as a regular book as well.
Make more artwork about swimming.
In summer 2022 I was inspired to pick up the project again and make it more of a normal booky book. Whilst I’d loved making the concertina, I felt I could capture more emotion in my artwork if released from the design restrictions of this format. And I’d had some useful tutor feedback about getting more of the joyful feeling of swimming in the second half of the book.
I hopped in the Jesus Green lido in Cambridge each morning before getting to work in the print room. The residual chilliness was embodied into the prints, and I loved making work with the colours of the water fresh in my mind.
With no deadline I just made images that I enjoyed making. I thought of something I liked about wild swimming and made a print about it, embodying as much emotion onto the page as possible.
Share my love of swimming
I felt super good about the resulting book and entered ‘Why I Swim’ into a few illustration competitions. In December 2023 it was selected for the DPictus Unpublished Picturebook Showcase 5, for which I was invited to participate in their stand at the Bologna Book Fair last month, one of the highlights of my book life so far.
The DPictus stand at Bologna Children's Book Fair - what a dream come true
I had so much insightful feedback from publishers across the globe, and am inspired to develop ‘Why I Swim’ into a series about empowering and enjoyable outdoor sports for women e.g. Why I Surf, Why I Skate, Why I Run….
Why I Swim is currently paddling about looking for a publishing home. Please get in touch if you’re interested in working together to bring this book to life. And take a peek in my portfolio for more yummy swimming pics.
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