Children’s Illustration

Indie Interviews – Vie Portland – Author

| Lottie Thomson

Indie authors are the lifeblood of what I do, creating illustrated character art, author portraits for their marketing and even full book covers. I work with authors who match my values and it’s time to shine a light on these wonderful people!

Please welcome Vie Portland!

Confidence creator, trainer, speaker and author of inclusive childrens book ‘Find your Fabulous’ illustrated by me, Lottie Thomson.

Hello Vie! Please introduce us to yourself and your books!

Hello! I’m Vie Portland and I help people Find Their Fabulous! One of the ways I do this is through my inclusive children’s picture books. In my first two books the main character goes on different imaginary adventures with her mum; Emily, the main character, has a limb difference but it’s not part of the story, as I wanted readers to see we all have far more in common than what makes us different.

My third children’s book doesn’t have a main character, as there’s lots of gorgeous children on every page; this book, called ‘Find Your Fabulous!’ is a confidence boosting, mindfulness encouraging, book, where many children will see them and their friends represented.

The book cover of Find Your Fabulous. it has a yellow background and the words 'Find Your Fabulous' in large brightly coloured letters. Children who are smiling and wearing brightly coloured clothes are interacting with the letters by peeking through them & hanging off them. There are also tiny hearts and stars around the letters.

What will make people fall in love with your main characters?

They fall in love because they see children like them and their friends in the book; representation matters! We all deserve to feel seen.

What will surprise people most about your books?

Probably the inclusion. My third book is the most inclusive of the three, but the first two are still more inclusive than most. All of my books are written in a large print, suitable for the majority of visually impaired readers; my third book also has a BSL signed version, and a Braille edition available. As well as the representation across the books.

An illustration from the book Find Your Fabulous by Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson. The illustration shows ways people can be kind to other people and themselves. It shows a street scene with a charity shop and community centre. People are donating toys and food, putting litter in the bin, practicing self care by listening to music and picking up dog poop!

What is your favourite thing about being an indie, self-published author?

I love that I have final say in things, that I don’t have to follow trends, or limit anything, because every choice is mine.

What has been your biggest challenge or barrier to publishing your books?

Costs. I want to work with illustrators whose work I love, and not have to go for ‘cheap’ or AI, and those illustrators deserve to be paid well. I also choose to publish outside of Amazon, so people have more choice from where they buy the book, and that costs more. But I am very proud of all of my books, and they are all beautiful, so I wouldn’t want to do it any other way.

What has been your biggest challenge commissioning artwork in the past?

Thankfully, the illustrator of my first two books, I have known for years, and she is a friend, and I have followed the illustrator for the third book for a very long time and really wanted to work with her, so I haven’t had a problem commissioning artwork at all, as I know some fabulous artists.

How did you discover my work?

Through the burlesque community! I bought one of your prints a very long time ago, that still makes me smile, and I knew your style would really suit what I wanted for Find Your Fabulous! I also knew that you are as passionate about inclusion and representation as I am, and that really matters to me.

An illustration from the book Find Your Fabulous by Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson. The illustration shows a street scene with a grassy area in the foreground with a tree, people are practicing ways they can be kind by feeding a hedgehog, picking up litter, fixing a bike wheel, feeding the birds, offering cookies and helping others to cross the road.

What appealed to you most about working with me and how was your overall experience?

I loved working with Lottie, and would love to work with her again. She understood what I wanted and created such beautiful images. After following her and her art for many years, and loving what I saw, I am so pleased that she exceeded the high expectations I had for her.

What does having appealing character art/book cover/author portrait mean to your marketing and to your readers?

It’s wonderful to be able to share beautiful images that so many children can feel represented by.

Are there any other professionals that you’ve worked with that you’d like to recommend to other authors?

I worked with the brilliant Dr Jennifer Jones, who is the reason why I started writing again, and she got me believing I could write a book (I’ve now written several!), and she also did the editing and formatting for my children’s books and my book for adults. And Donna Mcghie, who illustrated my first two children’s books, has a beautiful style reminiscent of Shirley Hughes, and is a joy to work with, too.

A portrait illustration of author Vie Portrland. She is a plus sized white woman with long grey hair, flowers in her hair, bold black and white glasses and a long dress covered in red love hearts. She is smiling and holding up her hands to make a heart shape.

Thank you for your time Vie! Where can people buy your books and follow you on social media?

My books are available on most online book stores, including Waterstones, Hive, and Amazon.

Visit www.vipempowerment.co.uk to learn more about Vie!

Now Available! Find Your Fabulous Book!

The book cover of Find Your Fabulous. it has a yellow background and the words 'Find Your Fabulous' in large brightly coloured letters. Children who are smiling and wearing brightly coloured clothes are interacting with the letters by peeking through them & hanging off them. There are also tiny hearts and stars around the letters.
| Lottie Thomson

Find Your Fabulous By Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson is now available to buy in the UK and USA!

The book cover of Find Your Fabulous. it has a yellow background and the words 'Find Your Fabulous' in large brightly coloured letters. Children who are smiling and wearing brightly coloured clothes are interacting with the letters by peeking through them & hanging off them. There are also tiny hearts and stars around the letters.

I’m thrilled to announce that Find Your Fabulous – a consciously inclusive book that teaches children about self-confidence, daily coping techniques and kindness to ourselves and others, is finally available to buy online!

Firstly, a thank you!

Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who pre-ordered and supported the crowd-funding campaign, supporting a book before it is even a book is a big commitment and I’m so grateful for your faith and support for this project! Thank you to Vie Portland for writing such a fabulous book, Jennifer Jones for designing the layout & Isobel Kent for editing.

An illustration showing four children holding up a handmade sign saying 'Find Our Fabulous' - there is bunting behind them and they are wearing party hats.
AN illustration from the book Find Your Fabulous by Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson. It shows three children holding hands and smiling against a blue background with a swirling rainbow through the middle. From left to right the children are am Asian boy with glasses in a power chair wearing a green hoodie, a black girl wearing ear defenders and a chewy necklace with a cuddly toy in a handbag over her shoulder, a white girl with brown hair, she has downs syndrome and a hearing aid and wears a pink dress with ruffles.
An illustration from the book Find Your Fabulous by Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson. The illustration shos a group of children against a pink background, they are wearing different animal costumes and are acting in ways similar to the animals they're pretending to be.
An illustration from the book Find Your Fabulous by Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson. The image shows two children dressed as lions roaring loudly with the word ROOOAR!! hand-lettered above their heads. The children are an Asian girl with her hair in two buns like cat ears holding a lion plushie and a white boy in a lion onesie in an orange wheelchair.
An illustration from the book Find Your Fabulous by Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson. The illustration shows ways people can be kind to other people and themselves. It shows a street scene with a charity shop and community centre. People are donating toys and food, putting litter in the bin, practicing self care by listening to music and picking up dog poop!
An illustration from the book Find Your Fabulous by Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson. The illustration shows a street scene with a grassy area in the foreground with a tree, people are practicing ways they can be kind by feeding a hedgehog, picking up litter, fixing a bike wheel, feeding the birds, offering cookies and helping others to cross the road.
A few pages from the book Find Your Fabulous!

What will you find in this book?

  • Songs, practical things to do and discuss! Vie’s years of experience working in schools as a confidence speaker for children are brought together into fun things to act out, songs and questions to discuss together.
  • Real children! Some of the children in this book are real and very fabulous people! At the end of the book they share a little bit about what makes them fabulous.
  • Disability representation. As an illustrator who lives with chronic illness and neurodiversity and an author with multiple disabilities, we wanted to make a real effort to make children with disabilities, visible differences and hidden disabilities feel seen and represented.
  • Accessibility! The book has been designed with dyslexia and visual impairment in mind. There is an audio version and British Sign Language version of the book, and a braille version in the works.

Where can I buy it?

Buy Find your Fabulous by Vie Portland, illustrated by Lottie Thomson

In the UK

From the Author Direct!

Waterstones

Amazon

In the USA

Skylight Books

Barnes and Noble

In Australia

Booktopia

In Newzealand

Mightyape.co.nz

In Nordic countries

Adlibris

The rest of Europe via Amazon

This list will be updated as more booksellers become available, remember to shop independent if you can!

An illustration from the book of a girl with brown skin and long wavy hair, she has her arms raised above her head and a happy face. She is wearing a long sleeves striped tshirt and green dungarees and a rainbow autism infinity symbol bracelet.

3 ways parents can support their arty kids

A photo of a child being creative at a big desk covered in art materials
| Lottie Thomson

So you have a kid who loves painting and drawing but you’re not creative yourself. You know you want to support them but you don’t know where to start! (This is not an ad, all equipment recommendations are my own and I’ve received no incentives to recommend brands)

Here’s my top tips for parents of creative kids!

Tip 1 – if you can, give them somewhere to create.

We all struggle for space in our busy homes, but if you can give them a little desk in their room where they can keep all their arty things and sit comfortably to create, you’ll be really supporting their creative journey.

If you’re really pushed for space you can buy lap-desks and fold away drawing boards which have storage space inside for all their art equipment.

A photo of a child being creative at a big desk covered in art materials
Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

Tip 2 – buy the best art equipment you can afford.

This may sound obvious but it’s often where parents can slip up. Kids over 8 don’t need ‘kids art equipment’…(maybe an apron though!)


Spend money smartly on quality not quantity. That way they can start building a collection of semi-professional art materials which will take them through their teen years, to college and into professional creative work if they choose.

Paints and brushes

Shop the sales for well respected paint brands like Windsor & Newton and Daler Rowney. For under £20 you can get paint sets that will last for years and years and can be replaced individually when they run out.

I still use the Daler Rowney watercolour palette my parents bought me when I was 13.

For brushes look at multipacks of synthetic hair brushes designed for watercolour (it will usually say in the packaging!) Even cheap & cheerful ones are super useful and last for years is they’re looked after well!

A close up photo of brightly coloured messy paint palettes

Pens

If they love drawing with alcohol marker pens or paint pens, big brands like Copic and Posca are top dollar but they’re also refillable. Look out for refillable brands of pen in the sales as if they’re serious about art then it’ll save you money in the long run and mean less throwing away of old pens!

Pencils & erasers

Ditch the HB school pencils and get a cheap set of graded pencils. Soft ‘B’ pencils for shading, hard ‘H’ pencils for light sketching and fine details. Simple! Staedtler erasers are my go to, cheap, very effective, no graininess, smudging or ripped pages.

Coloured pencils aren’t my area of expertise as a professional artist but Prismacolour and Caran D’Ache have long been considered the ‘go to’ for artists. If that’s out of your price range you’d be surprised how much a budding artist can do with an ol’ faithful pack of Crayola. They’re by far my top pick of pencil crayons aimed at kids.

A children’s drawing of hairy monsters in pencil
A children’s drawing of a monster in blue and orange

Tip 3 – Get the right paper for the job!

Even if you can’t afford the best, getting paper that is designed for the materials your child is using will make a difference to the artwork they are making.

For example; buy watercolour paper if they’re using watercolours, marker paper if they’re using marker pens. The quality of paper makes a huge difference to the outcome of the art they make and when they see their art improving it will give them the boost to make more!

The Works has its own range of super cheap and cheerful beginners art paper pads. Also look out for Seawhite of Brighton watercolour pads sold online, they’re designed for students and they’re excellent for aspiring artists, I still use them a lot.

One of the best gifts I was even given was a pack of 100 sheets of good quality watercolour paper by the grandparents when I was a teenager. It seems like the most dreadful gift to a non-arty person, but to an arty kid it’s the freedom to create, experiment and get the ideas out of your head and onto the page without the fear of running out of paper, plus the paper made my watercolours look so much better!

I hope that helps you support your creative kid!

Find Your Fabulous – Children’s Non-Fiction Book on Self Confidence…coming soon!

| Lottie Thomson

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m the illustrator attached to the book ‘Find Your Fabulous’ by author, confidence educator and motivational speaker Vie Portland of Vieness CIC.

Vie has published several inclusive children’s books, but this will be her first non-fiction book, based on the inclusive confidence building workshops she runs in schools around the UK. It will be our first time working together and our shared values make this a really exciting project to be a part of.

It’s currently in the crowdfunding stage, with an early sketch shown above!

The book illustrations will consciously depict children with visible disabilities and neuro-diversity. You can also choose a funding option whereby your child’s likeness will be included in the book!

Support the Crowdfunder

Andy and the Odd Socks Official Tour Poster Illustration.

| Lottie Thomson

After creating a few pieces of Andy and the Odd Socks art for my son (who is a huge fan of their TV series Andy & the Band, and their live music), I was approached by their management to create a poster to be sold as merchandise during their 2023 ‘Dial it up to 11’ live tour.

The poster features cartoon versions of all of the band members, headed by children’s TV royalty Andy Day! It was designed to be sold as merchandise online and at their live gigs, as a fun and colourful poster for children to display on their bedroom walls. It was designed with the fact that the band would hand-sign/autograph the poster in mind, so features a clear section for each band member in their individual brand/costume colours.

From loose layout sketch, to neat sketch (shown to client) to final poster!

Andy and the Odd Socks are aimed at ages 3 – 9 (although lets face it, the parents love them as much as the kids!), so I had children’s literacy and early readers in mind when adding the text to the poster. I wanted to include introductory text for each of the band members, so their stage introductions were used and when hand-lettering the wording I used upper and lowercase writing in a style designed to be read by children just starting to read their first words.

The original sketch comic based on my sons first gig that caught the eye of the band and their management.

It was an absolute pleasure to create this poster for the Odd Socks, their message of celebrating uniqueness and individuality, plus them being ambassadors for the Anti-Bullying Alliance (and my son being a superfan) has made this a project that is very close to my heart.

Feedback on the poster has been great, with it being sold and given away as a signed VIP meet & greet gift at every date of the 2023 Dial it up to 11 UK tour, which was extensive as you can see!

You can still purchase one via the bands website Andyandtheoddsocks.com.