Rob Ryan

The Invincible Kingdom

Rob has now started work on the third book in his trilogy! The Invincible Kingdom will follow the two previous books The Invisible Kingdom and The Kingdom Revealed.

This time round Rob began working by drawing the pages that he could visualise. Rob is drawing each page layer by layer which makes each page easier for Libby to work with. Rob and Libby have so much experience having worked on the two previous books together that they have now perfected this way of working.

Once drawn, Libby will scan Rob’s drawings and fill the lines to make them into silhouettes. Libby will then initially colour the page to give a starting point when we come to look at colours. The page is then pinned to our book wall. It’s a great way to see the story develop, the white pages start to disappear and we see the book starting to take shape!

Last week Rob sat down and wrote out the entire plot, getting the whole story planned out and in order is maybe the hardest part! Once Rob had the plot down he could then allocate a part of the story to each page. From here Rob has a really clear idea of what he needs to draw for each page.

For the previous book, The Kingdom Revealed, Rob spent a month writing the book away from the studio which was a very intense way of working. Rob plans to work slightly differently this time round, spending a morning writing from home (where he can fully concentrate away from the studio in the peace and quiet!!) and then he will come into the studio in the afternoon to draw. We still have a very intense six months ahead but hopefully after all the experience we have working with the first two books this will be the best one yet!! We can’t wait to read how the young, runaway King’s story turns out!

The Invincible Kingdom will be published in October, in the meantime we’ll keep you updated with the book’s progress.

Sarah McPhee
Studio Assistant