Little Lion Girl #1

My new book with Olivia Hope

Little Lion Girl written by Olivia Hope and illustrated by me has been out in the UK for a week now. Turns out there’s a lot I’d like to tell you about it, so I think I’m going to break it down into manageable posts. This first one looks at the role of the city in the book.

Little Lion Girl is about Leonie and her mother taking a train to the big city. Olivia Hope’s story is inspired by her childhood trips from rural Ireland up to Dublin. Similarly, my own childhood memories are of bus rides with my mum into Leicester and occasional family trips to London. And as someone who now lives on the outskirts of the city, I still get incredibly inspired when I go into central London. So it’s not such a big leap to put myself in the mindset of little Leonie.

Olivia Hope (top) and me, both when we were little in Trafalgar Square, London.

When I first read Olivia’s story I couldn’t resist the challenge of bringing the imaginative character of Leonie the little lion girl to life, but I also liked the idea of thinking about the city in a new way visually. Previously I’ve depicted a monochrome city in my book Poppy and the Blooms. In that story the city was in harsh contrast to nature and the wild flowers that populated it. Whereas the story of Little Lion Girl celebrates the vibrancy of the city and the rich variety of what it has to offer. I see it as a love letter to the city.

After a calm opening spread, I wanted to communicate the real bombardment to the senses that arriving in the city brings. Also I felt the boldness of Leonie’s energy and spirit called for strong imagery to match her personality and the hustle and bustle, shapes and sounds of the city.

I thought about how heat in a city can feel quite other worldly, it really transforms a familiar environment and can help transport you and help you see things differently. Especially when you’re more accustomed to it being cooler and grey.

Funnily enough I had a really heightened sense of this on publication day. Suddenly the British weather decided to put on a show for us as Olivia and I ran around sunny London leaving copies of the book with The Book Fairies. (They were also left all over the UK and you can see Olivia and me showing our best acting skills in this reel!)

Just like in the story we quickly moved from gallery to pigeon-filled square and then to a park. I like to know it all realistically could work sequentially. (And that they’re all free for everyone to experience). But that combination of environments is found in brilliant cities all over the world. Olivia was telling me about similar experiences in Dublin and I was also thinking about other European cities and my latest trip to New York, where I spent all my spare time going between galleries and Central Park.

I concluded that I’m happy in a city if it’s got a good gallery and a good park. A patch of nature in an urban environment really helps to change the pace of a day and it offers that in the book too.

I thought of St Mark’s Square in Venice when I was doing this piece and included some pigeons from a self-initiated Venice illustration from years ago. (And also added a character from earlier in the book to spot. And snuck in Olivia photographing her three sons by the fountain. )

I sketched people from above at Waterloo station as reference for the busy scene and then cut out stencils to create the shapes of colour. I like that the process of cutting the little stencils helps simplify the figures.

The very fine South Bank Lion.

I worked really closely with Designer Jenny Stephenson on all stages of the book making process. A huge thank you to Jenny for caring about every aspect and decision involved with making Little Lion Girl. Also a big thank you to the other members of our Bloomsbury Little Lion Girl team - Al Ritchie and Lara Hancock, Pari Thomson and Strawberrie Donnelly. And Emma Blackburn for originally pairing us together many years ago.

And of course the hugest thank you to Olivia for providing such an inspiring text that allowed for so much variety, exploration and fun!

Little Lion Girl written by Olivia Hope and illustrated by me, is out now!

fionawoodcock

A post shared by @fionawoodcock

Make sure you check out this Leonie animation loop by my pal Maki Yoshikura.

More soonish! : )

---

-P.S - More pics here of our very lovely book launch at Gower Street Waterstones. : )