At Post Industrial Design in West Footscray on the weekend, designer Sean Hogan, with author and illustrator Jessica Dean, launched a children’s book about a sparrow named Gertrude. 74590 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By Alesha Capone
A LITTLE sparrow named Gertrude is the star of a new children’s book, created by writers and illustrators from West Footscray.
The book was launched on the weekend at Post Industrial Design in West Footscray, by writer and illustrator Jessica Dean, illustrator Marc Eiden, designer Sean Hogan and collaborator Kim Aleksandrowicz.
The idea for the ‘Gertrude’ story came about while Ms Dean and Mr Eiden were preparing a pitch for an animated music video.
After the clip fell through, Ms Dean instead wrote the first draft of the book.
“Seeing my characters come to life through the illustrations was a big buzz,” Ms Dean said.
“I feel very privileged that everyone was willing to give huge amounts of their time to my story and take it beyond me and make it something that belongs to all of us.
“We all created it. It’s a very rare and powerful thing and I’m very humbled.
“I really wanted this book to be full of amazing art and a rollicking and engaging story that children would enjoy exploring and reading on their own but parents could also read to their children.
“I love reading and reading to kids. There’s nothing better than disappearing into that magical world of story.”
Ms Dean said ‘Gertrude’ was “an adventure story with heart”.
“It is a story about a little sparrow that has to overcome many challenges to find what’s really important to her – family, good friends and a place where she truly belongs,” she said.
She said the biggest challenge of creating the book was the time taken over its illustrations.
“Marc designed and hand drew all the pictures in pencil,” she said.
“We then scanned every image and imported them into computer, traced each image and then finished the images in Photoshop.”
