My sister’s (Nancy Williams) book, Yoga Therapy for Every Special Child, is about to be released! Congratulations Nancy! I hope you reach out to many by sharing your program this year and in the years to come.
When Nancy began writing her book, she asked me to illustrate it. I drew and redrew to attempt to tailor my drawing skills to what she needed to best illustrate her text. This consisted of creating simple line drawings of yoga poses to go along with her approach to yoga therapy for special children. I learned that I needed to push back self-expression and “draw out” the excess lines so the poses would be revealed in an easy illustration for the reader to assimilate.
For more on illustration check out Curious Crow’s new post on the subject.
June Malone has also talked about illustration.
Thank-you to Jay Bastian for his careful tutelage in Photoshop. Without these skills, I would not have known how to submit my drawings digitally.
Leslie White 
43 Comments
Wow..the illustration looks very nice and you really captured the expression of those children. It’s nice to use our skill for a good cause. Wish you and your family a very Happy New Year.
Thank-you Francis. Happy New Year to you too! I’m coming over to take a look at the New Years painting you posted.
Congratulations Leslie and Nancy! I’ve only done illustration twice and it’s so different from drawing and painting. It’s quite a challenge. Good for you for getting out of your comfort zone. Yay for Photoshop. I couldn’t live without it.
Hi Heather! Yep, that’s exactly what it was. Outside the comfort zone. Thank-you for the comment.
Well you made an excellent job of these Leslie and I know from experience how hard it is to make simple, effortless looking drawings like these. I think they have a lovely balance between clear information and your personal style – it’s still there in the rhythm and flow – but like you say, it takes second place to information giving. Good grief I sound like I’m giving you a crit! My head’s still in academic mode after yesterday’s post.
Excellent job, congratulations to BOTH of you on the book and I wish you a happy, loving, fulfilling and creative New Year
I’m thankful for your praise, Sarah. It means a lot coming from you. I was so glad to see your post on illustration yeasterday. It covered a lot of what it felt like to illustrate. As you see, I couldn’t help but link to you. Happy New Year!
Congratulations to your sister Nancy and to you for your lovely illustrations! NOW YOU’RE BOTH FAMOUS!
Lovely drawings Leslie. You are so talented. And prolific. did I mention how prolific you are?
I will paint this weekend. You have inspired me.
Thank-you, Carol. Somehow all of you in blogland make me feel famous everyday. Thank-you also for the praise on the drawing. I have to paint starting tonite while I watch the New Year festivities. 5 days without picking up a brush and that is totally rare for me!
What a rare and wonderful opportunity to collaborate! You are both blessed. Best wishes on the success of the endeavor!
Thank-you, Yousei. It was definitely rare for me! This has been Nancy’s dream for quite some time, now.
Thanks Les,
I love your collage and of course all of your work.
I am grateful you were willing and enthusiastic to draw all of the children that have inspired me. You achieved the task with such dedication and skill.
You have given me a great gift!
Love, Nancy
Thanks Nan,You certainly deserved a post on this after all your hard work!
Great illustration,Leslie 🙂
Congratulations and good luck to your sister too 😉
Have fun!
Thank-you Alina! Happy New Year to You!
I commend you on a job well done. I love your drawing!
I am not good at painting children, but since two nieces gave birth this winter,I decided to practice with their sons. I’m hoping it will help me to not only paint babies, but help to put wonderful memories into a couple baby books.
I’m sure your drawings have made your sister’s book experience even better!
Thank-you, Beth. Your paintings and drawings of the boys will be treasured. Have fun with it. Happy New Year to YOU!
Your drawings of these kids are just precious. You are such a good draughtsman Leslie.
Thank-you, Jay. …and thank-you, again for your patience and instruction on all things computer!
Well done on the illustrations, the expressions are priceless, and congratulations to your sister, I wish her much success. Happy New Year.
Thank-you Paintedbrush! Happy New Year and stay COOL! 🙂
It certainly doesn’t show that you’re out of your comfort zone. This is a triumph Leslie – you’ve given up your own (precious)creative control in order to illustrate well – you put your sister’s lovely book first and yet it’s still possible to see ‘you’ in these finely drawn children, especially as you’ve conveyed their happy emotions into their faces as you always do.
I guess we have both learned that we need to be very in tune to the text we illustrate. Thank-you for the comment, June….and the pingback! 🙂
What lovely illustrations, as well as a terrific idea for a book. Thanks for sharing this information.
Thank-you, Jackie!
I love the line drawings Leslie – and the distinction between illustration and fine art is so clear from your note and the discussion with June. You are another egoless illustrator – I take my hat off to you – Stephen
Thank-you Stephen. I can assure you that I was not egoless. 😦 My sister is chuckling reading this. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done (with the title art attached to it) and commend all those illustrators who do this for a living. They are very special artists indeed! That is why I talked about that element of illustrating here.
ah! black-and-white. thats what i like, lots of lines.
oh and happy new year 🙂
I like black and white, also. Just don’t take a lot of time with it anymore. I make a light line drawing on my watercolor paper before I paint, so I am always doing a drawing first. 🙂 Happy New Year to you too, Otto!
i’m sure you can do anything artistic very well.
All evidence points that way.
happy new year
You flatter me, Kokot. Pastels turn into a mess and I struggle if I try to use oils. I guess you celebrated the New Year in! Happy! Happy! 🙂
To complete illustrating a book, congratulations! And it’s neat how different projects need different styles isn’t it? I like these drawings.
Thank-you K. I did struggle, at first, but I had guidelines to follow. I didn’t have to make a decision as you do with your novel. I think what you are trying to do is tougher. My illustrations only had to illustrate the text. Yours will carry the same weight as the text if I understand your vision that you have layed out. I’ve missed you.
Look at all these happy faces! You capture them so well!
Happy new year to you Leslie, such a good friend!
Hi Isabelle! Thank-you for the comment. I’m going to have to come back and look at the figure with spread wings again. That was cool.
LOL..congrats!! What a wonderful way to start the new year. Oh Leslie!!!
Thank-you, Eva. I am fortunate to be the “drawing” sister of a yoga therapist who wants to share her program.
Thank you for the links, someone asked me to illustrate a presentation for them and I was a little overwhelmed with the project because I had never seen myself as an illustrator.
I think that most of us view ourselves as artists in training. We forget that there are others who think we are fantastic for being capable of doing what we do. For them, whatever we do is welcomed. From my own experience, it is always more difficult to draw or paint for someone else. The best we can do is our best. I am finding that most are so appreciative of our efforts. It’s that old ogre, “self doubt”, that gets in the way if we let it. Glad you enjoyed the other links! 🙂
These are super! Congratulations.
I love how fluid the lines are and you’ve been able to show lovely expressions with such economical means of line.
K
Thank-you, Lookingforbeauty. I’m appreciative for your comment. That is exactly what my sister wanted them to look like. 🙂
your lucky sister, having you to illustrate her book, your drawings are marvellous. xPenx
Hi xPenx! Thank-you for looking through my blog. It was fun to share with my sister. Thank-you for the comment on the drawings! 🙂
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[…] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Update: Coincidentally, Leslie White has also written about letting go of artistic control in the name of good illustration. Possibly […]
[…] sister has recently joined our blogging community here on WordPress. I announced here, the release of her book on yoga for the special needs child in 2009. She has continued to offer […]