by Brenda Scott Royce

While the parchment in Eori Tokunaga’s illustration is blank, the scene is bursting with possibility. From the mouse hefting pen to paper to the caterpillar munching an impressionistic pattern to the ants marching in to make their own mark, each critter seems poised to create in its own way. So, it’s no surprise that this illustration was selected as the winning entry in the contest to create the theme art for SCBWI-L.A.’s upcoming Writers & Illustrators Day.

Read on to learn more about Eori, her process, and what inspired her winning entry… 

For this year’s Writers & Illustrators Day event, we invited members to submit artwork to illustrate the theme “The Pen & the Palette.” We’re excited to announce Los Angeles-based author-illustrator Eori Tokunaga as our winner! 

“I am so honored and humbled to be receiving this award,” says Eori. “It feels great to be recognized and know that the work I’ve been doing as part of my long publishing journey is taking me in the right direction. Obviously, there is still a lot of work that I have to do and so many stories/illustrations that I want to create, but for now, I’m thrilled to just sit in the present moment feeling nothing but gratitude.”

Given the lighthearted whimsy of this piece, it may surprise readers to learn that Eori’s inspiration came from one of her biggest fears … bugs.  “My friend pranks me from time to time by putting fake centipedes and slugs in my cubby at work, so I guess you could say that I created this piece as a way to reclaim that fear into something positive,” Eori explains.  “Additionally, as artists, we’re always pulling from our own experiences, so I do have to admit that my desk is just as messy (probably even messier) as the illustration.” 

When asked to describe her process and tools, Eori said, “Most of the time, I’ll start doing thumbnail sketches on paper using a mechanical pencil. Once I’m satisfied, I will then do a larger sketch to get a better idea of what characters might be in the scene. Once that’s done, I’ll take a photo and bring it into Procreate so that I can get an accurate size of the canvas and adjust the scene accordingly. From there, I’ll do a rough and then do the line art. I’ll also work on adding colors so I can test what colors look good next to each other and determine where I need to add more value or saturation.

“After doing all of that, I save the line art as a PDF and then send it to my computer to be printed to the exact size that I want the canvas to be. This means that if my canvas is bigger than 8.5 x 11 (which it almost always is), it will print out the line art on several pieces of paper. I then trace the line art on the canvas above a light table and begin using traditional mediums on the canvas. I like using watercolor, gouache, ink, and colored pencil right now. After I have rendered the piece traditionally, I will then scan it into Adobe Photoshop to do some slight color correction. Finally, I transfer the illustration from my desktop to my iPad into Procreate for final details and adjustments that need to be made.”

Be sure to congratulate Eori at Writers & Illustrators Day on May 31. Registration is open now.

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Brenda Scott Royce is the Contest Coordinator for SCBWI-L.A.  She has authored more than 30 books for children. Her book Angela & Lulling: Two Gorillas, A World Apart (Blue Sneaker Press) won best children’s educational picture book at the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and was a 2024 silver Nautilus Award (Books for a Better World) winner in the category of best middle grade nonfiction.

Images courtesy of Eori Tokunaga and SCBWI-L.A.