Lily Leads the Way
Written by Margi Preus • Candlewick Press • Available May 17, 2022
After this little boat gets bossed around by the big ships, she saves the day by leading a fleet of sailing ships into harbor.
Making Waves
Water can be so peaceful and calming. Until you try to paint it! Things like rocks or trees or even boats pretty much look the same from one moment to the next. But waves are always changing shape and color, so the only way I can paint them is to move my brush just as fast. The best waves happen almost accidentally.
Ships are more fun. My favorites are sailing ships, but a rusty tanker is pretty great, too. By the way, all the ships in this book can be found on the Great Lakes from time to time, and the lift bridge Lily wants to pass under is the same one that still spans a harbor channel on Lake Superior. Not only that, but Margi, the author, once had a boat like Lily, so she knows what it’s like to have big ships honk at her!
I love adding little details in my art, so I thought it’d be fun to change up the signal flag Lily flies atop her mast, so each flag has a different meaning that fits her mood. Check out the flag code here.
Scroll down for early sketches and the paintings in progress. Click on any image to enlarge it.
Detail from Follow Me. When creating Lily, I wanted her eyes and mouth be parts of the boat, rather than just pasted on. So they’re windows with curtains, and her mouth follows the change in color on her hull.
Meeting the Tall Ships • Oil on illustration board. I really had to brush up on my nautical terms for this book. Here are a barque, barquentine, schooner, brig, and sloop. By the way, these are portraits of actual ships, all of which have actually traveled through this channel on Lake Superior.
MOOOOVE! • Oil on illustration board. This is my best water! I really like the choppy waves at the back of the ore ship. And that swell that’s lifting Lily is pretty swell too.
Raise the Bridge! • Oil on illustration board. I used a masthead (the carving of Neptune) to give the big ship some personality. And if you actually do check out the meanings of the signal flags Lily flies, you’ll spot my mistake here—the X is supposed to mean I require assistance, but I got the colors wrong, so it’s actually saying I have a doctor on board. Oops!
Follow Me • Oil on illustration board. Any tall-ship nuts out there will notice there isn’t nearly enough rigging (ropes) to control all those sails. Sometimes you have to simplify! Trivia question: What are lines and sheets on a sailing ship?
Blocked by the Bridge • Oil on illustration board. This is my favorite painting from the book, because of the big X shape that frames poor Lily.
Saltie • Oil on illustration board. BTW, a “saltie” is a nickname for a ship that can navigate both salt and fresh waters.
Bossy Tug • Oil on illustration board
Ore You Moving or What? • Oil on illustration board. Note the birds circling around the massive ship. Is anyone else thinking flies on a bull?
Original sketch for Saltie. Note that I drew eyes on the ship here, but in the final art I adapted them to become anchors.
Painting of Saltie, about 30% finished. I usually paint on a colored background, and chose blue here to fit the mood. Plus, it makes painting water a lot faster.
Original sketch for MOOOOVE! These ore ships really are this long, with big fat rumps.
The same art, roughed-out and finished.
Painting of Ore You Moving or What?, about 20% finished.
The first brush strokes of a seasick Lily.
Original sketch for Blocked by the Bridge.
One of the many sketches that didn’t become an illustration. Usually about half of my sketches find their way into the book, which is how it should be. It’s all part of experimenting with lots of ideas.