How a simple cold email led to years of creating illustration for magical fairy tales? Follow along as I share my creative process, challenges, and growth while illustrating classic tales like Beauty and the Beast, Blue Beard, Hua Mulan and other classical stories for Editora Wish.
Back in 2018 I was a newbie freelancer. In an impulse of bravery, I sent an email for Editora Wish (Darkside Books group), a book publisher with a stunning catalog from Brazil. I knew I wanted to work with them creating illustrations: fantasy, old tales, fairies… it’s everything I love. And they have a tasteful graphic design!
I had hopes, but I tried to lower my expectations, because: 1) I was new in the industry and was still figuring things out, and 2) I had a very few acceptable projects in my portfolio. I just started freelancing full-time and I had cold emailed a lot of publishers earlier that year and I never heard back from them. It would be another unanswered email.
To my surprise, Marina from Editora Wish replied to me – she said she liked my work! 😀
Project Overview
About six months after this first contact, I was working with her to create an illustration for a book tag, the first of a series, a republishing of their Best Fairy Tales collection.
“Contos de fadas em suas versões originais” (rough translation: “Fairy Tales original versions”) was the first one from the series.
Each book recalls many folkloric tales from around the world, carefully curated and translated into Portuguese. They were published through crowdfunding campaigns and the illustrated stationery is one of the rewards.
After its first publication, it was followed by the Northern tales book, the Celtic Tales book, the Asian tales book, the Dark tales book, and the Slavic tales book campaigns.
This project allowed me to explore my style and sharpen my skills while doing what I love: making fantasy illustration!
I am forever grateful for the trust and opportunity I received from Marina.
I’m excited to share with you how it went.
The first briefing: The Beauty and the Beast
Marina proposed that I create an illustration for The Beauty and the Beast tale. She pointed out the artworks she liked from my (now old) portfolio and gave me enough freedom to illustrate the story. They needed one artwork for a book tag for their crowdfunding campaign rewards.
The Creative Process
Research & Inspiration
Before starting the sketch, I read the original tale of The Beauty and the Beast, provided by the client. The story was different from the Disney movies, so I decided to create my own concept for the Beast.
For Belle, I collected some inspiration from old paintings’ satin dresses. I learned to paint satin from this artwork!
Illustration’s First Concepts
The first move was, definitely, not what I would do today.
I sent an audacious proposal! I was too excited.
I started the artwork and finished it in one go.
Yes, I didn’t wait for prior approvals before finishing the illustration. I am not proud of that.
It was a shot in the dark, because if the client didn’t like it, I would have to spend my time working on it again. I knew it was not the ideal, so I offered to redo the process and show some preliminary exploration before finishing it.
The process
I had A LOT of fun in the process. Here’s what I used:
- Photoshop CS
- Regular Round Brushes
- Textured Mixer-brushes, to try to replicate the traditional media brushwork. If I remember correctly, it was Grzegorz Rutkowsky’s free brushes – I was obsessed with it (it’s a great package, go check it out if you like traditional media style and textures in your digital art).
The most challenging aspect was the texturing (render) and materials. I learned a bit about the Mixer Brush tool (to be honest, I still don’t understand it completely) and used a lot of references for the clothing and roses.
Differently from the main media depictions of Belle, I decided to go with the green color on the dress to pop up the red of the Roses, so the main color composition for this was red and green with bits of gold colors. I prefer limiting my palette so it can turn out cohesive easily.
The process lasted about a month, from the briefing to deliverables.
The Outcome
Remember I rendered all of it before the approval?
This artwork helped me level up my skills in many ways. At the same time, I was very apprehensive about the piece’s approval.
But to my luck, Marina approved it right on the spot. Such relief!
And right after this illustration, I was asked to make a new artwork for the campaign’s door hanger!
This time the tale depicted was The Mighty Mikko.
These artworks mark the beginning of my journey in the editorial world. The feedback about my artwork has always been positive among the team from Wish and the buyers, and I am always thrilled to contribute to such amazing and beautiful projects.
The start of a Collaboration
Working with Marina on the Original Fairy Tales project has been delightful, her direction and feedback were always helpful in describing the mood of the pieces. Communication with her and her team was always easy and welcoming.
I had to get the real thing, haha. It’s always amusing to see digital art in real life!
The other illustrations for the fairy tale book series we did together were:
Jan/2020: Os melhores Contos de Fadas Celtas (Celtic tales book)
“The Reluctant Dragon” book tag
Jan/2022: Os melhores Contos de Fadas Asiáticos (Asian tales book)
“Hua Mulan” book tag
Nov/2022: Os melhores contos de fadas sombrios (Dark tales book)
“Blue Beard book” tag
“Hansel and Gretel” / “The Singing Bone” door hanger
And the most recent collaboration was….
The newest booktag, 2024: Os Melhores Contos de Fadas Eslavos (Slavic tales book)
Marya Morevna was the main figure for the booktag!
I also worked on covers for “Sociedade das Relíquias Literárias”, a monthly literary membership featuring old tales; and created fantasy writer’s portraits for postal cards, Lord Dunsany, Caio Collodi and Emilia Freitas, all projects from Editora Wish.
If you want to know more of the process and thoughts from other artworks, let me know in the comments 🙂
What I learned
Not only did leveling up my technical skills, this project shaped my approach to professional communication:
I learned that making bold decisions before asking the client is very risky. Always ask for approval. Being a better professional is also about communicating and respecting deadlines.
It also taught me to trust in my own ideas. I think I needed a nudge of validation to gain confidence in my work and enjoy the process, since it was one of my first gigs as a freelancer. The client’s support was great and everything worked very well since the beginning.
I am very happy with the artwork we’ve made so far.
Looking Forward
These first artworks for Editora Wish are still my favorites from my portfolio. With time, I eventually expanded my work to other specializations, different than Editorial – nowadays I work with game art. But I still take freelance gigs as a book illustrator because I truly enjoy working with books, authors, and fantasy stories.
Doing these illustrations for fairy tales was a great opportunity to improve my skills and learn aspects of freelancing, while working in things and themes I enjoy. I’m glad I was daring to send that first email!
Interested in working together? Feel free to message me at marimorganart@gmail.com
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