These notes were supplied by Syliva Morris, illustrator of The Best Hiding Place, published by Affirm Press
Medium
The illustrations were created 100% digitally in Clip Studio Paint. I used a small selection of digital
brushes, primarily designed to mimic dry media: pencils for the line work, and pastels/chalk for
the colours. This selection allowed me both to blend tones, and to scrape one over another, to
create warm scenes of light and shadow.
For the in-cupboard scenes, I also used digital brushes designed to mimic watercolour to splash
down a few colours, before softening those splashes with the dry brushes.
The digital brushes were originally purchased from DAUB and Frenden, though I have made my
own modifications.
Technique
We were in lockdown for most of the research phase, so I relied on sketching from Old People’s
Home for 4 Year Olds to make sure I was getting the age and size of the characters right, and
made use of real estate websites to help me work out a plausible house design.
I spent time brainstorming potential hiding places, and sketching busy shelves/spaces, to ensure
the house felt like a good place to play hide and seek. As I went, I created a floorplan so that I
could provide glimpses of other rooms through doorways, and build a sense of the house as a
connected space.
I took inspiration from seek-and-find books and puzzles, using detailed black line art and high
viewpoints to evoke the game aspect of hide and seek. I added shimmering light and shadow to
convey intimacy and immediacy, and to set the stage for the dramatic light and shadow Archie
experiences in the cupboard.
I used simplified but fairly realistic character designs to reinforce this intimacy and familiarity, and
to give myself a lot of space for depicting emotions subtly.
I tended to work with one layer for the background lines, and another layer for the children lines.
For the colour, I generally kept the furniture separate from the walls and floor, and the children
separate again, so that I could blend colours in a looser manner without worrying about fiddly
outlines.
To capture the unreal, too-bright feeling of stepping from darkness into light, I first painted those
scenes in normal lighting conditions, and then added layers of pale yellow in varying translucency
over the top.
The unification of value and flattening of perspective on the cutaway page is designed to create a
sense of meditation, and oneness with the world, separate from the game.
The mottled rainbows in the cupboard were inspired by the weird colourful effects you can get by
pressing your hands into your closed eyes. They create an uncertain mood, in contrast with the
solidity of the house outside of the cupboard.
The Process (pdf)