Leonie and the Lion was the first picture book I had published. The brownish tinge to the illustrations was the result of an accident: I did the drawing in sepia calligraphy rather than drawing ink. Calligraphy ink is not waterproof, as I found out as soon as I sloshed some clean water over the paper prior to adding watercolour. After the first heart-stopping minutes, the seepage settled down and stabilised. I quite liked the effect, and it was possible at that stage to continue with the watercolour as I had initially planned.

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