Flo Takes Flight

Written By Robin Boyden
Robin Boyden Illustration - Children's book designs of Flo, a small bird. She smiles and waves.

Last year I worked on a pitch for a new children’s book. Whilst it didn’t go anywhere, I enjoyed the process and learnt a bit more about writing for children. I found anthropomorphising birds a challenge. Whilst long-tailed tits look adorable in real life, I found their colouration a challenge in an illustration. I tweaked the black feathers to a range of rich browns and amplified the pink blush. Combining this with a simplified body shape (a bubbly ‘8’ from the front, a kidney from the side), I think I managed to inject some personality into her.

Robin Boyden Illustration - Sketches of long-tailed tit birds.

The story takes place on the edge of a woodland. Flo lives with her siblings who have all learned to fly. Flo is small and must wait her turn though. One evening her impatience gets the better of her and Flo makes an attempt at flight. She tumbles to the floor and far from home. Now Flo must find her way back and avoid the attention of the stalking fox. Will she survive and learn to fly? The only way is to try, try and try again.

Robin Boyden Illustration - Children's book picture of a bird and her family flying across a rural landscape. Other animals watch on, owls, badger, fox, squirrels and rabbits. Blue sky.

Coloured art was created using pencils (Tombow Mono 100 4B) and colouring in photoshop.

Robin Boyden Illustration - Children's book drawing, a fox lunges from the left hand side of the page. It tries to catch Flo, a small bird who is fleeing on the right. Her feathers fly everywhere.
Robin Boyden
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