Rachael Saunders illustrates the expressive adventurer, "Fidget the Wonder Dog"

Rachael Saunders has illustrated the debut picture book by author Patricia Forde; an epic tale of love, loss, reunion and adventure on the high seas, told through the friendship of a girl and her dog, Fidget.

Rachael describes how, like Fidget, she also went on an adventure with this project, striving to

Along with the characters, I also went on an adventure while illustrating this book;

“I strived to create a more sophisticated look, while maintaining my recognisable style. I worked a huge amount on loosening up my mark making in order to generate more richness and movement: this allowed more scope for creating a variety of emotions and moods within my characters and scenes.”

Rachael put a lot of thought into the kind of dog Fidget would be, figuring out exactly which breed best suited the expressive adventurer! You can see from her sketches how her loosened style accentuates Fidget’s hair as we bounds from one scene to the next.

Her favourite spread, however is still the one that shows off Fidget’s heroism;

“The storm scene is my favourite spread as there is so much energy and layering of texture. I wanted this page to consume the reader in a mixture of fear and fight for Fidget as he battles through the waves.”

We can’t wait to see what Fidget gets up to when the book is published, and are always excited to see Rachael experimenting with the forms her signature style can take!

“Fidget the Wonder Dog” will published by Puffin Books on 30th April 2020.