Award-winning author Keely Walker asked me to illustrate her debut children’s book entitled ‘Jake the Sled Dog‘. Jake is a collie who spends his days herding sheep in the Yorkshire hills, but one day his owner decides to move to Alaska and Jake is like a fish out of water. There are no sheep-herding groups he can join at his new school, so he joins a sled-racing team instead. He has his work cut out, but with a lot of training and determination, he gets there in the end. More info here.
I loved illustrating this book, especially the rolling hills of Yorkshire. I’m right on the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire, so if I stick my head out of my loft window, I can see the Yorkshire hills on the horizon. The climates in Yorkshire and Alaska are quite different as you can see from some of the illustrations below. I used warmer colours for Yorkshire and colder colours for Alaska.
