Kelsi Lees
Illustration 2024
Kelsi has spent her Final Major Project working on a 32-page, full-colour children’s picture book which she has fully written and illustrated herself. This picture book focuses on Dottie the duckling who is inspired by a duckling she rescued, rehabilitated, and re-released in 2020. The picture book highlights Kelsi’s design and illustration skills. Both traditional and digital methods were used during the process of creating ‘That’s My Dottie’ which allowed her illustrative skills to be showcased.
Throughout her time at university, Kelsi has explored a wide range of different illustration industries including editorial, advertising and children’s book illustration. Although she enjoyed the editorial work, children’s book illustration is ultimately what Kelsi loves the most. Towards the end of her second year of university, Kelsi worked on an original children’s book idea which then developed during her third year into a more developed, finalised picture book called ‘That’s My Dottie.’ Kelsi’s illustration skills have drastically improved throughout her time at university as she has pushed herself to develop her digital illustrations and explore her chosen specialism in depth.
A lot of inspiration comes from nature and wildlife with Kelsi’s key focus being on animals. Earlier in her career, Kelsi developed her black-and-white graphite realism style of artwork which continues to show in her current art business that she runs alongside her illustration work. This work is based on wildlife and pet portraits with occasional dabbles into human portraits. During her time at university, she has developed her traditional style into a digital style suitable for a younger target audience.
Photoshop is the main software used by Kelsi to complete her illustrations, once the roughs and final sketches have been completed traditionally in a sketchbook. The rough sketches then get turned into a dummy book which allows her to visualise the whole book and any changes that need making. Kelsi uses digital watercolour washes and lots of line-work detail to create her illustrations and keep a glimpse of her more traditional work. She is passionate about using muted colours and using easier to follow layouts within her picture book illustrations to make her work as inclusive for all children to read as possible. This follows her research for her dissertation, exploring whether children’s picture books are inclusive for children: specifically focusing on neurodivergent children, which uncovered how picture books can be made more inclusive for as many children as possible.
After graduation, Kelsi intends to apply for a Master’s course at The Northern School of Art in order to continue developing her illustration portfolio and style. She plans to finish her next book which she will self-publish along with ‘That’s My Dottie’ while working on her studies.