FEATURED ILLUSTRATOR Alina Manolache

 

Alina Manolache's love for fairy tales, watercolor painting, and animals is readily apparent in her first book "Little Red is making friends", which she wrote, illustrated, and self published. In her debut work, the visually stunning illustrations combined with her storytelling evoke undeniable feelings of joy and compassion.

I’m a children’s book illustrator from Bucharest, Romania and I enjoy painting colorful images that tell a story, and lately I’ve been trying to add more humor to my illustrations as well.

I found my love for illustration quite late in my life, when I was around 32 years old, but I’m happy I did find it eventually. I started out slowly, trying to see if drawing and painting was something I liked doing. The objective and the catalyst for the decision to start was actually a video game idea me and my husband had at the time. He was going to write the code needed, I would create the art, and together we would create the game mechanics. We didn’t have a clear idea of what the game would be like, so while we sorted that out, I decided to start getting the skills required to be able to create game art.

I started out by seeking drawing resources online and found a variety of ways in which this subject was taught, but as time passed, I discovered that I was drawn more to structured learning, so after a few months of waffling about I found Drawabox. Their course was very well structured and offered the option to get feedback at the end of each lesson, and since getting feedback was super important to me, and it still is, I decided to dive in. About two years later I completed Drawabox and I started to diversify my art education.

The first step was to attend an in-person drawing and painting workshop in which I explored a variety of mediums.

 

The pinnacle of my work in that class was the painting I did on a 50x70 cm canvas for a student gallery.

The entire experience was eye-opening and deepened my desire to continue painting, however, I did not know in what direction I wanted to take my art. I continued by taking classes with School of Visual Storytelling and New Masters Academy while being mindful of the art I was engaging with as well as the work I did, so that I could understand what kind of art resonated with me.

Over time I discovered that I was drawn to cute characters and positive playful illustrations, so pursuing children’s book illustration made a lot of sense to me. I started digging more into this subject and I was super excited to attend a class with feedback called “Picture Book Illustration with Larissa Marantz” hosted by New Masters Academy.

As part of that class, we needed to illustrate a fairy tale, and I chose Little Red Riding Hood, but I quickly realized I didn’t like the ending at all, and I started tinkering with the story to make it more positive and light-hearted. After a lot of iteration on the story I settled on something I really liked, and I had a picture book dummy by the end of the class. Larissa’s feedback was amazing, and I feel lucky to have been part of that class.

Larissa’s feedback was amazing, and I feel lucky to have been part of that class.

The experience made me realize that I wanted to both illustrate and write picture books that have a positive message, so I continued by researching the craft of writing picture books to see if my ideas would hold up for a modern audience.

I decided to take the dummy created in the picture book illustration class to finish and self-publish it. I went through the whole process of writing, illustrating and publishing a picture book, and after 1 year and a half of work I was able to hold the first copy of Little Red is Making Friends in my hands. While the experience had its ups and downs, I realized I want to create more picture books in the future.

While I was getting the book ready for self-publishing, I realized that I missed an important thing that you need to have before you publish a book: an online presence. I dove into creating a website, and social media, and all the things you’re supposed to do before you publish a book, things I had ignored until that point.

Once everything was ready I self-published Little Red is Making Friends through Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark and redirected my efforts into creating a more cohesive illustration portfolio. 

When looking back at the classes I took and the work I did for the past couple of years, one thing remained constant, my love for structure, which is something I built my illustration process around.  For each illustration I start with thumbnails that capture the story, the action and composition at a high level. After I settle on a thumbnail that I feel works best I move on to create value thumbnails. Once I’m happy with the values, I explore color thumbnails, followed by more detailed sketches. At this point I have a clear idea about how I want the illustration to look, and I start the final painting.

 I still leave room for adjustments as things evolve but I like having a clear plan laid out in front of me. 

These days I work mostly digitally in Rebelle 7, which I settled on as the best painting software for me after trying many other drawing and painting programs. Rebelle’s watercolors are amazing, they simulate water flow and color mingling similar to traditional watercolors. The digital papers used by the program are also great as it feels like I’m drawing on real paper, and the textures you get look so natural.

Moving forward I want to continue to create books that are positive and upbeat and maybe have a bit of humor in them if I can make that work. The humor part didn’t come through in the first book, but I think the second has a much higher chance of success from that standpoint. The book I’m currently working on is loosely inspired by Sleeping Beauty, but you probably would not be able to tell by the end of it; I am diving deep into making it a sillier book than the first while keeping a positive and light-hearted outlook on the story.

I’m also spending more time learning about writing and illustrating picture books and I think this will be something that will always be part of my life – the learning – it’s quite addictive and satisfying to see myself improve and better understand the needs of the story and the illustrations.

I couldn’t have done any of this without the support of my husband, he’s been with me every step of the way, helping me with everything from the story of Little Red to creating my website and mailing list.

Gallery images

*All images: Alina Manolache

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For a look at more of Alina’s work:

Alina’s website: https://www.alpacasbookshelf.com/

Alina’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alpacasbookshelf/

Alina’s BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/alpacasbookshelf.bsky.social

 

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Ell Rose is the Illustration Features Editor of Words & Pictures.

Find their work at fourfooteleven.com

Follow them on Instagram and X/Twitter

Contact them at illustrators@britishscbwi.org