Bringing the Lotus Princess to Life

Creating illustrations was the next step in the process.  First we decided that, although some of Bethany's illustrations were amazing, the quality was not consistent enough for publishing (and Rebecca's scanning skills were not adequate for publishing quality).  So Word Alive Press provided a team of illustrators to take Bethany's concepts and re-create them in professional quality.  Bethany and Rebecca looked at examples of Word Alive's children's books and thought about the style of illustration they were interested in.  They wanted simple illustrations that nevertheless reflected both a Chinese style and the personality of Bethany's originals.

The illustrators began by providing character sketches of Mei Lien and the Emperor.  Here are Bethany's originals, the first version from the illustrators, and the final version.  You can see how the characters stayed the same, but the final quality was much better than Bethany and Rebecca could have achieved at that time.

Mei Lien on her balcony

First character sketch -- so exciting to see!

Final character sketch

Bethany's "Confrontation with Emperor"

Final version