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In the Forbidden Forest with Ole Könnecke

Gecko Press
Ole Konnecke

Ole Könnecke is one of Germany’s leading children’s book illustrators and authors. He has published numerous books with Gecko Press including The Big Book of Words and Pictures, The Big Book of Animals of the World, You Can Do It, Bert and Sports Are Fantastic Fun.

For the release his book Dulcinea in the Forbidden Forest, Ole took over the Gecko Press Instagram account to show behind the scenes of creating the story and characters.

Hi, I’m Ole Könnecke. I live in Hamburg, Germany. Normally, I don’t sit on the dining table.

Here are some of the drawings I did for Dulcinea in the Forbidden Forest.

And these are the tools I used: coloured pencil for the sketches, marker for the outlines, a cheap brush for the colours, black ink and burnt siena. 

But before the drawing comes the story

Once I have an idea for a new story, I take a large sheet of paper and write and scribble. For some reason, I usually start in the middle of the paper, not on the left side.

When I have decided how many pages the book is going to have, I do rough sketches of the double pages (I notice I seem to have used a pencil here. Add that to the tools.)

After a while, it looks like this.

Final steps

The sketch is put on a light box, a sheet of watercolour paper (Waterford Saunders hot pressed, 190 g, in case somebody is interested) is put on top of the sketch and with the marker I make the line drawing. 

Then I add the colours.

     
              

And, voilá, the book is finished…

…and can be sent to the publisher.

Dulcinea in the Forbidden Forest is available now from wherever you buy or consume your books and on our website. Other books available by Ole Könnecke include The Big Book of Words and Pictures, The Big Book of Animals of the World, You Can Do It, Bert and Sports Are Fantastic Fun.

 

Follow Gecko Press on Instagram @geckopress for more illustration takeovers.

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