The story of the picturebook and its author-illustrator
Welcome to the in-depth backstory to the 32-page “quest” plot-type picturebook, ‘Looking for My Eye’, and its author-illustrator, Jeff West. This page covers both the imagined tale and the real product.
The dummy book is available for an agent
The PDF dummy book of Looking for My Eye by Jeff West is ready for agents who are open to queries. It is available to view/download on a password-protected web page.
If you are interested, please contact me for access.
Otherwise, if this isn’t you (yet) and you don’t mind spoilers, this is the skyscraper elevator pitch. Read on …
If you want to see pictures before more words, my picturebook portfolio is further down, but please jump back to continue this story.
Story summary (blurb)
One seemingly normal morning, Yggy becomes aware that he is different. He searches inside and out for a fix, fearful that his family and friends won’t feel the same about him. Can Yggy find what he is looking for or will his day end in a why?
Book classification (genre)
Looking for My Eye is a funny, quirky picturebook for early readers, aged 7+, about friendship, diversity, self-esteem and self-acceptance. It is visually rich, rendered in a digitally produced watercolour style, aimed at children who may themselves become artists or creatives in their adult life. Pens, coloured pencils and paints are fundamental tools to learn artistic skills and the style of this book is intended to feel attainable and inspirational. The book is also strongly tailored to the adult reader (or knowing child), encouraging re-reading for themselves and the children they are reading it with. On an educational bookshelf, older kids who may struggle with reading, or have less time to dedicate will enjoy the pictures. The illustrations are layered with visual gags and reward observation by young and old alike, the author-illustrator wears a hat that reads ‘Art for kids and kids at heart’—which would need a very small font or a very big hat.
The star and his quest
Introducing Yggy
Yggy is a multi-textured soft toy—and family member! He is fundamentally pink with blue stitching and multicoloured nails and other quirky details. He has a gender and life-form neutrality and universal appeal. That’s why he has so many friends!
He wakes one morning, as normal, to find he is different, one of his eyes is missing. This is the wake-up call for Yggy to start his quest to find his eye.
Supporting characters
We meet the other “differently-eyed” toys living in the household and we are introduced to the people and pets through a family portrait. We will encounter references to these characters soon.
Best BFF
Yggy’s constant companion on each page of his journey is Missy Kitty. She appears on each spread (can you spot her?), observing, exhibiting cat behaviour, and providing support for her best friend.
The humans do not appear (in real life) in the story, except for two body parts of one. We do meet the two pets, Goldy and Cheeky, as we search in their humans’ rooms—the children, Lizzy and Lenny. All the characters’ names end in a “y”, except for one.
The 'quest' story arc
Beginning
We meet Yggy at the start of the day, he and Missy Kitty awake to the shining sun … but something is different! His friends can see it and once he is made aware, we turn the page and we start looking … for his eye. It’s Yggy, you and me, and Missy Kitty together on this quest.
Repetition with variation
Once the quest is up and running, the text and pictures use repetition for each spread. Education and observation—the reader’s own treasure hunt—add interactive elements to the storytelling.
Yggy hunts for his eye around the house, room by room, inside and out. He enters a location where he maybe, possibly, perhaps might find it, and where he and the children were doing something the day before—bathing, reading, dancing, preparing school lunches. We encourage him to look somewhere specific—over, under, high, low, behind, near, up (and many more prepositions!). With our help, he finds something that could be what he’s looking for, but every object turns out to be something else that is glowing, shiny, glittery, sparkly or twinkly. He finds a ring, a coin, a lightbulb and even a cupcake with glinting decorative glitter balls. Except, however, though, yet, still, but ” … it wasn’t my eye”, he tells us—looking straight at us out of the page.
Despair and mild peril
By the page 24-25 spread, Yggy is quite despondent—despite having fun searching and discovering a host of delightfully gleaming, glowing and glimmering potential eyes. As the day ends, he fears that he has failed. He turns to Missy Kitty for help ….
Spoiler alert!
Missy Kitty sings a sphinx-like rhyming, riddle clue. She gently reminds Yggy what it is that makes him the friend he is and the “life-form” he is—not anything simply sewn onto his face!
… You’ll always sparkle and shine in our eyes,
The puuurrrfect colour, shape and size,
But … on reflection, you may just find,
What you never lost, if you look behind.Missy Kitty (pages 26-27)
A happy ending
After Yggy’s journey, frustration and ordeal, his goal is in sight (in the mirror). He discovers his eye has been with him all the time—stuck to his bottom! He realises what he thought he was missing is with him all the time—himself.
Previous and next quests
The prequel will be Looking For My Home (a quest for belonging) and the sequel, Looking For Missy Kitty (dealing with loss).
NOTE: No hamster or goldfish were harmed in the drawing of this book. Cheeky and Goldy were willingly contained for artistic purposes as required for their roles.
Artwork, illustrations and visual style
Looking for My Eye is digitally illustrated in watercolour with ink line, rendered in Photoshop from scanned, hand-drawn pencil sketches.
The colour-rendered spread is Yggy’s search in the garage. We meet Biggy and Classie and the repeated cues here are; would my eye be in here where we were fixing things, looking low and a shining headlamp bulb, which is still not his eye.
Looking at you—in 3D
The book’s artwork is in a classic picturebook style; line and watercolour, reflecting the ‘Golden Age of Illustration’ look. This style is textured and comforting and easily replicated by any child that may pick up a paintbrush, coloured pencil or crayon.
In each of the ‘looking everywhere’ spreads, we see Yggy on a mini-quest in one location searching and finding something to give him hope. Something that could be his eye.
At this point—at the bottom of the recto page—he holds the find up to his missing eye’s position and tells the reader that it isn’t his eye.
Here, Yggy looks directly at us, breaking the 4th wall. He is rendered in a more detailed, solid 3D style. The richer colours and three-dimensionality pop out from the page as our hero engages with us. This evolution of style will resonate with the 21st-century child, living in a world where bright graphics and animation are part of their daily lives—digital devices, brilliant animations and colourful imagery is everywhere—engaging and influencing emerging artists of the future, in entertainment, education and every imaginable environment.
We turn the page to continue the quest.
Who is Jeff West?
Jeff West is a [mature and experienced] professional author, digital media and content creator on the ‘Marketing’ shelf in his time away from his FayJay art studio / music studio in Brighton. He is working hard to be more of the latter.
Here is a picture, looking over his shoulder at some WIP artwork:
What does he do and did he do?
He is a creative for himself and clients needing someone to bring their visions to reality. This includes picturebook illustration, cover art and design, photography optimisation, typography, and proof-editing for authors. Previously, he was a car design engineer.
Bullet points? Fire away!
- Distinction in Digital Illustration, London Art College
- Professional technical author for print, web and social media
- Book designer, proof-reader, editor and typesetter
- Engineering degree / Computer-Aided Design background
- Song lyricist and much more ….
Why did he create this book?
I am particularly qualified to land the role to author-illustrate this book having lived with toys that conversed with me and lived with furry, feathery and scaly quasi-siblings since early childhood. I was inspired to draw by picturebooks, cartoons, and even illustrated encyclopædias (there are six dinosaurs to be discovered in the book) which communicated a uniqueness or intrigue that I found irresistible. As an adult, I have been owned by several cats.
Yggy’s story is also somewhat autobiographical (being a patchwork anthropomorphic soft toy myself) and reflects my own LGBTQ+ journey, looking for my “I”.
The creative process
The initial spark for LFME was the ‘pun-tastic’ title and the final silly visual joke. From that point, my love of the picturebook and cartoon influences kicked in and the rough story flowed quickly. Then the professional writer, editor (and engineer) went to work in finessing the product to incorporate the levels and artistic details, the unique picturebook touch points of visual richness, ‘show not tell’ compositions, strategic page turns and diversity of language. The character design evolution and cyclic process of planning the scenes and text layout for the dummy ensured I hit the markers for a saleable marketable book, taking care to preserve the heart and humour.
Much of my professional career and passionate hobbyist activities have revolved around communication and the production of materials that combine the written, spoken (or sung) word and associated visuals. The creation of training materials, magazine articles, website content and business social media requires a coordinated approach to the words and image interaction, a task I enjoy. Having control of all elements means my approach to the picturebook layout is self-contained, so the challenges and compromises are resolved with minimum conflict.
Jeff West's author-illustrator picturebook portfolio
This portfolio collects my artwork with a picture-book focus. This may be an artistic style or characters that would come alive in the pages of a child’s imagination. I have curated a selection of styles—watercolour and line, bold and bright saturated designs, crisp vector images, realistic gradients and 3-dimensionality. My love of digital pivots on the ability to extract what is in my mind and place it in front of my audience without compromise. A prime[val] example is photobashing illustrated fantasy creatures into photographed environments.
This collection includes work for clients’ manuscripts, book cover requests, challenges and creative briefs—which I enjoy just as much.
The greatest compliment I could receive from anyone viewing my work would be “Well that’s just silly!”.
[Jump back to the top.]
This picturebook as a product
#Funny #Quirky #VisualHumour
Looking for My Eye is primarily funny and quirky in both its words and pictures. The international humour/humor (delete as applicable for the market) is zany in parts, subtle in others, with an emphasis on rewarding observation in the artwork. The text is witty and punchy, with fun wordplay and educational value—the repeated search spreads follow a theme, but with different synonyms, adjectives and prepositions to encourage varied vocabulary and colourful language. I write song lyrics and consider not only every word’s meaning but how it sounds and sits within its surroundings. It’s a “life sentence” for each word and it has to be happy there!
The illustrations have visual gags and details which reference other parts of the story or characters we have met (or not) or are just silly for the joy of it. Visually, there is a mix of cartoon, graphic novel and a touch of the cinematic still—interesting compositions and fun perspectives add to the immersive experience. Parents and children will discover visual treats on re-reading or returning to the book.
The tale is, at first glance, an upbeat and energetic quest to find an important object—Yggy’s eye—and the narrative engages the reader to help him spot household objects that (at first glance) could be what he is looking for. The book can be enjoyed just on this level.
#SelfEsteem #Diversity #OwnVoices
The underlying theme of self-esteem slowly becomes apparent as Yggy reaches a point of despair, wondering if friends and family will feel the same about him. This subject matter is being talked and written about more today, refreshingly, in media for a younger audience, making this product at home on today’s bookshelves.
Missy Kitty’s supportive, poetic ‘riddle’ adds more developed prose to the text, but still clearly understood by the reader: your uniqueness is always there, everyone can see it and loves you for it.
Yggy’s family and friends represent a diversity of people and non-humans. Lenny’s room is pink and Lizzy’s is blue (or will be in the published work). Yggy himself is an androgynous mix of colours and features.
The reader and audience
I created this book for my younger self. It appeals to all readers but with additional appeal to those destined to be the artists and storytellers of the future.
From an age even younger than the 7 y/o target audience, I would pore over the art in children’s books of all varieties—non-fiction publications about animals and dinosaurs featured heavily. The way living (and extinct) animals looked and moved captured my imagination and I was compelled to pick up pencils, crayons or paintbrushes to copy the style, learn about light and shade and explore a developing fascination with fantasy and anthropomorphic creatures. For me, the art had to ‘add up’. Details had to be ‘correct’ even if the creature did not naturally have opposable thumbs or muscles to produce the myriad facial expressions I wanted to draw. In fictional situations where this was needed, the artwork needed to be believable. Children notice details and ask “Why?”
This book, I hope, brings that inspiration to like-minded kids of today, in a world of CGI, AI, apps and, thankfully, books!
Comparative books (comp titles)
Published picturebooks and illustration works that share some elements of Looking for My Eye‘s aesthetic, style and character:
- Dr Xargle’s Book of Earth Tiggers (Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross).
Laugh-out-loud intelligent silliness underpinned by solid facts and education in all things feline. - The Giant Jumperee (Julia Donaldson and Helen Oxenbury).
The illustrations; accurate, anatomically correct animal artwork uncompromised by what the character is doing. - Perfectly Norman (Tom Percival).
The story; sensitive subject matter, sensitively handled. - Once Upon An Alphabet (Oliver Jeffers).
The words; Witty, clever, challenging yet accessible fun that works on every level. Acknowledging children can handle complex and intelligent ideas even bordering on the surreal. - The Far Side (Gary Larson) and Peanuts (Charles Shulz) cartoons.
Funny, witty and sensitive in different ways, encapsulating a whole story in just one or only a few frames.
Appendix and further reading
Thank you for reading (or scrolling) to the end of this story of the story of Looking for My Eye. If you are an agent, I appreciate your resolve and interest in this ‘query bonus content’ and would relish the chance to discuss working together. To access the dummy book, please contact me! For further reading, start here:
- About Jeff West
- Looking for My Eye dummy book project blog post
- Yggy character development blog post
- Jack and the Beanstalk re-imagined dummy book blog post
- Inspiration blog posts, The Far Side and Snoopy
- All of Jeff’s blog posts
- All picture-book blog posts
- A different spin on my writing, song lyrics
I have aspirations to evolve to also be involved with non-fiction author-illustration. Dinosaurs, mythical beasts or car design would be the ideal start. My next picturebook series project will be ‘Kitten Mews’, which pretty much does what it says on the street sign.
Please explore the rest of FayJay World, and enjoy the ride!
THE END (of this chapter)
