At the start of this year our small team completed the third book in the Examberry Children’s Classics series: Treasure Island. Holding this gorgeous bundle of books in my hands brings to life the hard work we have committed to over the past year and the addition of this third title makes our series feel more established and very real indeed.
A lot of the time throughout this project I was wrestling with an ugly phase of self-doubt and so reservations about my abilities did begin to arise. (But only within myself.) Thankfully I have a super supportive team around me and where I see silly doodles, oddly-proportioned figures and skewed perspectives, my lovely colleagues never fail to celebrate individuality and an ‘all parts are of equal measure’ attitude. Doubts aside, I surprised myself during this project with how much I enjoyed creating the illustrations. I was nervous about how I would handle creating a range of characters, partly because they were pirates, which was brand new to me, and also because of the amount of drawing it would take to fill the requirements, however the challenge was all the more rewarding in the end. In addition, from the moment we finished the cover I was so excited to see how the colours we chose would turn out, and if you will allow me a moment to blow my own trumpet, they are absolutely beautiful! They elevate so much joy in me whenever I see them.
When you spend a long time looking at designs and illustrations and text on a screen, finally seeing your work published into a book is absolutely magical; our time with these books is nowhere near to ending. I’m incredibly proud to be part of this publishing journey and, already having started work on the next title, look forward to seeing the next classic book we create!
Hannah Maggie 