Video transcript
NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2024 - Guided illustration with Sami Bayly

[intro music]

SAMI BAYLY: Hi. It's Sami Bayly again. Now, I'm super excited because, as you can see, I'm set up. I'm ready to go. We're going to be doing some drawing together. I am an author and an illustrator, and I created this exciting poster you see behind me. And we're going to be recreating a different element from this particular poster. So, I'm going to be guiding you through the process. We're going to be doing this together. So, grab a piece of paper. A4 is fine. I'm working on A3 paper so it's just a bit bigger so you can see it.

I want you to grab a pencil as well, maybe an eraser, maybe a sharpener. But I'm going to be drawing with a pen, so I can't undo my mistakes. But I want you to grab a pencil and a piece of paper and an eraser.

Now, what we're going to do, once you've got all of those materials and all of those tools, I want you to first turn your paper, so it is portrait. So, portrait is upright. And if we were to do landscape, that would be sideways. So, make sure it is in portrait.

Now, as you can see around me as well, I have a few different reference materials. So, when you are creating an artwork, there is no set of rules or regulations. You can do whatever you'd like.

But for me, I really like to rely on reference materials. And I really like to have a look at what I'm drawing before I draw it. And especially as a scientific illustrator, it's very important for me to look at the detailed piece in front of me so that I'm making sure that it's going to look as realistic as possible.

So, you can see here, this here actually is the real artwork that I created. So, this is the actual one, the watercolour painting that is used in the elements behind me for the poster. And so, this is the actual size that I painted everything out.

But what I decided was that I would-- and we incorporated the coloured sky. That was with a separate watercolour illustration, and then I layered them in Photoshop. But what I decided to do is actually leave this here, so I have it as a bit of a backup if I need to get nice and close.

But I've taken different parts of this artwork, and I'm going to zoom in because we're going to be focusing more so on just the tree and adding some different things in. So, this is what I'll be referring to when you see me kind of looking and knowing what to draw.

I want you guys, though, to be looking at how I'm doing it rather than looking at the reference material and trying to speed through because it can be a bit tricky. But if you're feeling really confident, you can see behind me. You're more than welcome to go ahead and to go at your own pace.

So, grab your pencils. Grab your paper, and let's go. Now, the first things first is I'm going to draw the tree trunks. This is a beautiful eucalyptus tree. And we're going to be starting at the trunk here towards this base part. And so, what we're going to be doing, going along and across. We're going to be going up. Don't worry if it's got some wobbles. Trees are usually a bit wobbly. But I'm going to stop about halfway.

Now, the reason that I'm going to stop halfway is because I'm going to add something here soon. Now, because I can't erase my pen, I'm going to leave a gap. Pick it back up maybe around here, and then I'm going to follow along.

If you have a pencil, you're more than welcome to continue straight up because you can erase that later. Now, the next thing I'm going to do is the same on the other side. I'm going to go across, down.

But I'm going to stop similar kind of distance because I'm going to draw something else on this side. Leave a bit of a gap, and then continue back down, and then go off the page. Beautiful. Looks kind of like a road, like a street.

This will change quite a bit, so don't feel any kind of sense of worry or concern that yours is looking a bit strange because it's going to look strange for a while. So, the next thing is I'm going to start to draw the fork of the tree. So, I'm going to go about halfway in the middle here, going to go up, follow it along, and then continue that direction.

[gentle music playing]

I'm going to go back down here now, actually, because I'm going to be drawing this part in the tree down the base. And this where the echidna will appear. So, I'm going to go down here. I'm going to go up. Turn around.

Wobble. Wobble. I want the wobbles to be in there, and then back down. It's like a big triangle. Beautiful. So, give yourself a rest for a minute. Take a few seconds.

If you're feeling a bit nervous, shake out your hands. Get rid of all of those drawing nerves. It can be really stressful at the start, but you'll build your confidence, I promise.

Next step, we're going to go and add some details around this kind of little hollow. Going to go up. You can have some gaps in there at the top. Maybe some more gaps. Follow it back down.

We want it to look nice and loose and natural. Cross here too because these are the roots, essentially, of this tree. Maybe another one here. I'm going to leave that for now because I will revisit it later.

What I tend to do is I like to go and do different parts of an artwork at a time, whatever I feel is most comfortable for me to draw at and the different angles, and maybe sometimes what excites me or interests me most about the elements. So, that might be a bit strange for you to be changing where you're drawing, so see if you enjoy it. Maybe you don't.

The other thing as well, make sure that you are rotating your paper rather than feeling like you really need to rotate your arms and get in funny, awkward, uncomfortable positions to draw. Because that's not going to feel very natural, and you might make a mistake. So, it's really good for you to move the paper with you. Sometimes I even turn the paper upside down when I'm drawing and painting.

Now, next, we're going to be drawing this really cute koala. So, I'll get him in frame here. So, we're going to be drawing this little fellow, and he's going to be clinging onto the side of the tree here. So, what I'm going to be starting first is I'm going to actually start with the nose. I'm going to start with the nose. I'm going to build out.

So, I'm going to keep in mind his head's probably going to be about this big. So, I'm going to draw his nose. He's got a really cute little nose around here, and it's a strange shape. It's kind of like a little door. A little window for a cottage or something like that.

Now, because I have a really cool pen, I have a double-sided pen. So, for all of the smaller details, I'm going to use my thin pen because I'm using quite a thick texture for the rest of it. But you are more than welcome to just use the same pencil.

I'm going to put 2-- they almost look like little commas on an angle in the nose. Now, underneath, it's like an upside-down flying bird. Two little curves. This is a really happy little koala.

Have a think while we're drawing this koala, what books do you know that have a koala character in them? I've added some little scratchy details over the top because we don't want this koala to be really smooth and perfect. We want it to have some texture because it's really fluffy.

I'm going to add a curve underneath for his mouth. And then I'm going to go and add an eye. So, I'm going to start with the left eye first. And I want it to be kind of in line with the top of the nose.

I don't want it to be much higher. I don't want it to be any lower. Somewhere around here. So, I want you to start with a little circle. And you can draw one on the other side too. Two little circles.

Now, koala irises, so, the eyes and their little pupils, the little black part, it's more of a line, actually, rather than a circle. So, I want you to draw a little straight line. It looks a bit funny at the moment, and that's OK.

Breaking up the lines to go around it, because we want to show that it's kind of got some details. Some little dashes to show some bits of fur. It's looking very funny.

Now, I'm going to change back to my thicker pen, because I'm going to start to work on the face around it and the head. So, I'm going to start with the cheek. And I'm going to sort of scratch around with my pen, finding the best kind of guidelines. Rather than committing to a proper circle, I'm able to slowly sketch in so I can change my mind if I decide I don't like the way that shape's going.

And I'll continue back up. Go in. The other side, and the top. So, we have a face starting to come together. Some little more fluffy details.

I'm then going to work on the ear. Now, the koala ear is a big kind of round, curvy. They're also really fluffy. So, make sure you're trying to get a nice, big, curvy shape. Got one that side.

[gentle music continues]

We've got some fluff for the inside as well. I'm going to try and do the same on the other side, but it's OK if they don't look perfectly similar, perfectly precise on each side because they're going to be a little different, aren't they? It's a different angle as well. There we go.

They look nice and fluffy. I'm going to be working-- actually, now, I'm up here, and I see, oh, I've got plenty of room now. So, I'm going to draw my line up and match where the tree left.

It might be a bit trickier. I might have realised, oh no, I actually have not much room here to fit this koala's body in. So, I might go over this line. We'll see.

But what I'm going to do first, I'm going to start with the hand because that will help me figure out just how big that body needs to be. So, we're going to go under the chin, and I'm going to sketch this curved arm.

It's going up this way. And then suddenly, we have one little finger, 2, 3, 4. Then I'm going to sketch back. We're going to see an elbow, so it's going to change direction. Go like this.

I'm going to change my pen because I need to add some sharp claws. It's going to help this koala stay connected to the tree.

[gentle music continues]

Add some little scratchy lines like we were doing. I'm going to go back. I'm going to go down the neck here. And now, I'm going to start to draw their body. I'm going to sketch as I go to see just how big I think it should be. And I'm going to go past this line, and that's OK. I've decided that that's what I want to do. But if you have a pencil, you can erase this part here. But I'm going to go through it.

I'm going to now go, and we're going to do the bottom leg. I'm going to go up. Found the knee. We're going to turn back. It's almost like doing lots of little dots. We're going to piece them together later.

Maybe I can make it work. We'll see. Now, we've got the little feet. You're just going to see 2. They have more than 2 toes, but we're just going to see the 2 here. Some sharp nails. Claws.

Beautiful. I'm going to go back and add some textures in. But I'm going to see-- for this tree, I need to add him back in because you'll see him now. So, I'm going to try and piece together the tree in those gaps. So, you see now, koala clinging to the tree.

Going to add some texture. Koalas are a little bit wrinkly. They're covered in fur. We see lots of folds of the skin. All of these little lines really do make a difference at the end.

You might be going, oh, so many drawings, so many tiny little dots and scribbles. But I promise you, they really do make a big difference. There we go. So, now, we have a koala.

[gentle music continues]

Very happy. Now, if you were to colour this in, we're not going to be doing colouring today. But you can see here, when I coloured this koala in-- see how much smaller I did initially. Very small.

His nose is almost the darkest thing on him. So, I would maybe get my pencil and shade in the nose. That might really help him stand out.

So, next, we are going to-- I might go down, and I might visit this echidna part. I think he looks really fun. So, we're going to go down here.

Now, I'm going to work from this side, the left side of the echidna. And I'm going to go down, whereas some people might go the other way. But I'm going to go down this way because I want to make sure that he has plenty of space here.

Now, echidnas are very different texture to koalas. So, we're going to be making this really sharp and spiky. So, as we're drawing this, I want you to make them really sharp, spiky lines.

All the way across, and we're angling down. We'll add to them later. But suddenly, we're going to get to about here, and then I'm going to stop because this is where its face is going to be around here.

Going to curve it down a little bit. Going to draw the little nose, mouth part. There it is. Go back. Incorporate the little leg. Lots of spikes, and then we'll add some spikes going back here.

So, it looks a bit funny at the moment, as they all do. So, what I'm going to do is add a teeny, tiny, little dot-- that's the teeniest tiny dot I've ever seen-- on the very tip there, because that's a little nostril.

A curve because we want to show that the beak is separate to the face. Maybe a little line if you'd like. Now, this is one of my favourite parts is drawing the tongue.

So, you can have this as long as you'd like. Echidnas can have really long tongues. It's going to be poking out, going bluuhhhh. Going all the way back. And we're going to draw some teeny, tiny ants. So, you can draw ants however you'd like, but maybe they're 2 little blobs connected-- 1, 2, 3, 4. Maybe try and add as many legs as you can. Well, not too many. We want to add maybe 4 to 6 if you can squeeze them in.

[gentle music continues]

Little squiggle with some sticks pointing out, and that will look something like an ant. So, what we're going to do is go back here to the claws. And I can see 1, 2, 3. So, I'm going to draw 1, 2, 3 big claws for this echidna.

Now, we're going to add the textures. Spiky textures. On their feet, the spikes are a little different. So, they're going to be sort of softer and smoother. They're not going to be as harsh, and they're going to curve with the way that the foot is moving as well.

So, we've got that. Now, I might go up, and I might add a little eye, making sure-- because I'm using a texture, and I'm using a pen, I don't want to be smudging my work. So, I'm making sure, when I'm working on this part, I give it a few seconds before I'm putting my palm on it. Or I'm really moving the angle of things to make that comfy.

So, I'm going to aim around here for an eye. Little circle. It's more of a squished egg shape, but on the side. Smaller circle inside of that. And if you're working on some small pieces of paper, this will be quite tricky.

So, now, I'm going to get my other side of the pen, the thicker pen. I'm going to start to add some spikes around the face. Maybe some little ones around the face so they don't just abruptly end and look a bit funny.

We're working our way back. Looking at the angles that your spikes are going in. The ones down here are going to be pointing down. The ones up top are going to be facing more up. So, they're going to be going together, curving around. Because if they're all facing in the one direction, it's going to look a bit silly.

[gentle music continues]

Lots and lots of spikes. Some of you might find this a really fun process, a really therapeutic process, drawing the same thing over and over again. But some of you might not. There we go. Covered in spikes.

Going to draw a hint-- a hint of some claws on the other side as well, I think. There we go. Maybe the ground in the background. So, we're going to give that a few seconds.

Stretch your arms. Get comfy. Oh, I'm cracking my bones. Get comfy. OK, we're going to move on to the next thing. And I'm thinking, hm, if I'm looking at this, you know what I would really love to draw next? Cicada.

So, the cicada on my artwork, my original artwork, is all the way up here. But I'm going to draw him down here. I'm going to change some things up. So, what I'm going to do is I want to incorporate the cicada around here. I think maybe around here because I'm going to eventually draw something here too.

So, the cicada-- I'm going to change my pen so I can make him-- because he's quite small compared to these other creatures especially. I'm going to start here in this part of this tree. And I'm going to draw the shape of a wing. It's a bit of an odd shape to describe. So, give that a really good crack. It's a bit tricky. A little point at the end.

And then, I'm going to try my best to mirror that. So, flip it and do the same on the other side. But if it looks not identical, that's OK. These are the cicada's wings. So, we're going to draw some veins, so, little lines.

The other side. Little broken lines. Next time you hear or see a cicada, go have a look. See what they look like up close. Some curves going up, 2 little lines on each side. And we're going to do a curve underneath here. Might do one a little lower, actually. But this is going to have a segmented body, so it's OK if you're drawing a second one there. Curved head.

Looks like a little necklace. Some other shapes as we go. Some bands as it goes down the body. Two eyes. Might make them even bigger, sitting off the face a bit more.

Two little legs. Some little antennae. It also looks a bit like a fly. And that's OK because I'm sure there are plenty of books on flies, too. Some little details, and there is our cicada.

So, I'm going to leave him for a bit because we're going to do some things around him as well. But I'll leave that for a bit. I'm going to go up the top here, actually. And see how I'm changing the angle of my paper here?

Because this is going to be more comfortable for me as I'm going up here and drawing this. So, I want you to change the angle. Because I'm going to be drawing some things drooping down because this is a beautiful tree. It's going to have some beautiful leaves.

So, how I will be doing that is a long, thin line, 2 lines, going from the top. Not too far down. And then I'm going to be drawing a leaf shape

Now, here, this might be a good one for me to reference. Beautiful gum leaf. I'm going to go out, curve it back in, and on the other side too. OK, there's one leaf.

But maybe I'd like to do another leaf. Maybe on this side, too. I'm going to revisit the details inside of the leaf soon, but I'm going to get the shape and the structure for all of them done and ready to go.

These little gumnuts. Smaller now. Smaller little stem for them to be emerging from. Big curve, one on each side. Then a curve on the end.

Going to close that curve. Just like that. A little stem, and maybe some texture as well. OK, so, we have a gumnut. And I'm going to do a similar thing for the leaf. The leaf is going to have a vein running all the way through the centre. So, you can keep that as one line, but I'm going to do 2 lines. And it's going to get thinner the closer to the end I get for both of these.

You can add some more details, or you can leave them as is. Little dots, blemishes. Beautiful. And we have some gum leaves. So, I'll leave that for now because now we're going to go somewhere else entirely. We're moving around this paper like nothing else, and that's OK.

We are going to go over here. Because as I go over here, we're going to be working on the possum. So, when the possum is complete, I'm going to be able to continue this branch a bit easier because I'll know where the gaps needed to be left.

Now, the possum is pretty tricky. So, we're going to see how we go. Possums have a bit of an unusual shaped kind of face. It comes to a point, but they're not too pointy. And they have a bit of a round, and they're still fluffy. So, this is probably the most tricky element on the paper, for me anyway.

So, I'm going to start-- hmm. Because I want this to go down here, too. So, I might start with this leg here. This is where I'm going to start, actually.

Going to go around here. You can go up and down because you'll have a pencil, of course. I'm going to go right about here. I'm going to draw a curve. Some little scratchy marks too.

A little foot. All I see are 2 little toes for now. Some sharp claws. This also needs some sharp claws to climb up those trees. Curve up there as well, and I'm going to actually draw the tail next. So, the tail is going to be going down this way, all the way down. Now, I'm going to go through this tree line, so, don't worry.

I'm going to go past that. I'm going to go all the way down, and it's going to curve in. And suddenly, when I'm on my way back, it's going to be a lot scratchier on the way back.

Piece together some of those. Going to get my finer pen, because you can see it has a little line going all the way up. Just like that.

You can add some little fluffy details. This is similar to the koala, similar kind of texture. OK. So, I'm going to go with the body up here. I'm going to go up, and then we'll draw the face in.

Curving it around. Trying my best to leave it the right shape, but it is tricky. So, they're going to be really close to each other, and that's OK. They might be best friends. Who knows?

I'm going to draw the ear in next. It's like a triangle. Some furry kind of wrinkles. And the details in the ear are also pretty cool, too.

They have some kind of ridges. Just like that. Now, if you find that I'm rushing through this and this is going a bit too quick to what you're used to, you're more than welcome-- you can pause this as you go, catch up, and then continue as I go.

But because I've had lots of practice drawing, I've been drawing since I was a kid, so, I'm a little bit quicker than maybe some others who are just beginning. Going to come draw the top of the head, and we're going to go down.

While I'm over here, I'll draw the other ear. There we go. It's a bit of a triangle as well. But this triangle, the perspective and the angle of this ear is a little different. And I'm still going to draw a hint of those ridges inside. I'm going to go back and visit the eye now. I'm going to keep my little pen for that part. Like an almond shape with a small circle inside.

You can colour it in. Or if you colour in most of it, and you leave a tiny, little gap that's not coloured in, it'll look like a glisten in the eye, and it allows for a lot of personality to shine through in that creature. Curves around it. Details.

As we're over the other side, we've got a hint of the other eye. You don't see the full thing. That's OK. And the little nose, it's a really cute little shape. It's almost a triangle. Kind of is. Kind of 2 little commas like we did with the koala's nose, little nostrils. And as we curve under, it's going to go up. Another one underneath. We're going to curve it back.

[gentle music continues]

We're going to add some dots-- 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 6. 3 on top. 3 underneath. Maybe some teeny, little whiskers. Little straight lines poking out, and a hint of some on the other side, too.

But something really important that I see on this possum is some patterns that goes from the top of its little snout-- curve-- all the way up through the centre till it reaches up in there. I think that's a really important little detail that I see of that possum. And same down here for the tail. I'm not going to colour the entire tail in, but I do see that it does get darker as it goes down. So, that's important to know for when you are colouring yours in. That will really help it shine.

Now, the only thing I'm missing now for this little possum is its front paw, its front arm. I'm going to go down. Draw 1, 2, 3, 4. Continue back up. And it's going to curve around.

Can draw a little belly in there and up the top there so you can see that they're connected. Beautiful. So, I'll give you a few seconds to catch up if you're still working on this while I add some fun, little details.

He looks cheeky, this one. So, I'm going to continue the tree down. Because now, I know where I can leave that-- where I could have left the gap. And I want the fork of this tree to kind of be around here. So, I'm going to change the direction a bit. It's going down here, but I'm going to draw a little fork down here. There might be a ridge in the tree, and then back up.

So, you can see now, there's a branch here, and it's gone down. It's gone up. And now, I can add a little hint of the other limb of this little possum. Add some tiny, sharp claws.

[gentle music continues]

Going to find where the trunk is for this side. So, I'm following it here. So, I want to make sure, if I'm drawing it coming from this side, it needs to be emerging out here as well. So, following it along.

I'm not drawing through my creature. Waiting till I meet the other side. I'm going to go up, and I'm going to go this way, actually, because they're kind of interlocked, interwoven, these branches. And then this one up here is going to be broken into even smaller ones.

You'll see there, they're starting to come together. But this one's poking out, so I need to make sure that I continue it. So, I'm going to draw an imaginary line till-- oop-- I come out the other side. So, they're kind of all crossing paths.

One of my favourite bits is coming up, and that is adding the details to the tree as well. So, I might start adding some details to the tree. Give us a bit of a break from the stressful part of the animals.

Because sometimes that can be a bit scary, drawing the details of the animals. We'll give ourselves a break, and then we'll add some details to the tree.

Now, these trees have lots of creases and folds, especially where they meet, where they kind of meet as a bit of a fork. So, make sure you're drawing some little wrinkles there. And next time you see a tree, have a good look at it. See that they also have little folds and wrinkles.

So, I've added some here, some here, some there. A circle up here. Now, this is like a bit of a knot in the tree. So, there's a half circle inside. Some little scribbly details around the outside.

[gentle music continues]

I'm then going to add these strange shapes. So, some of you might have looked at this tree and gone, what are these weird little squiggles? So, when you're looking here, you can see that there are these strange little directional-- there's some lines. And they go this way, and then they change, and they go that way and that way. You might be thinking, what is that?

They are cool things. In my opinion, one of the coolest things. They're called-- so, usually, a scribbly gum will have this. And they are tiny little patterns made by moths and by the grub stage. And so, you'll see these little strange directions.

So, next time you're looking at trees, have a good look. And if you see squiggles and scribbles, it could be a little scribbly gum. So, I'm going to do that. I'm going to go down here to a good spot for them. And I'm just going to go, 'Oh, add some here.' Don't overthink them. I want them to be nice and natural. Maybe one here. Oh, oh, oh. Come up here.

You might see some little scratchy marks from the animals climbing up to get to where they are. Usually, if you see big scratch marks up a tree, it's usually from possums and from koalas have made their path up and down, up and down. Some other lines on the tree.

They are covered in different lines and shapes, and it's very beautiful. As we get to this part down here, you might find you want it to go sideways, these curves.

This would be a great part in here to shade because we want to see that this is the hollow of this tree. So, it's going to be darker in there. So, if you would like, you can kind of shade that in, especially darker on this side. And it would get lighter as you get to this side.

Maybe some little squiggles up here. Seeming a bit empty. Dashes. Lots of imperfections, which is great.

Now, I'm going to draw a sneaky little friend that's poking out. And I'll show you where he is over here. There's a tiny little owl, a really, really cute little owl that's sitting up here, and I'm going to draw him. So, I'm going to turn my paper round, pretty much landscape now. Because I want to draw this little creature poking out from the side here. He's going to be really poking out. It's going to be really cute.

So, what I'm going to do, I'm going to curve up. Draw a little spike. Curve across and a little spike and go down. It kind of looks like a pillow. I want you to draw a pillow poking out from the side of the tree.

But this pillow has 2 big eyes. It doesn't sound like a pillow anymore. There's one. A bit of a gap and another. Looks a bit silly at the moment. Two smaller circles inside, and if you can, I want you to-- when you colour these smaller circles, the inside circles, when you shade them in, I want you to see if you can leave a bit not shaded in. Remember that glisten in the eye we were talking about? See if you can do that.

Has a little wrinkly under-eye. So, the under part is kind of curving down. And over the top, it's got the opposite. Going down, going down.

It's looking a bit strange. So, what we need is a beak. It's like a little curve. You're not going to see the entire beak because it is kind of cut off. Two little nostrils, and some little feathers.

And here, we have our beautiful owl. Boobook or a morepork. There are different books, children's books based on both of these owls, so it can be either.

Now, we're not that far away from finishing. So, if you're feeling like, oh, this is a lot of drawing, we're nearly at the end. But if you're really loving this process, keep going. If you feel like you need a break, press pause. Have a drink. Get some food.

But what we're going to do is probably one of my favourite parts. And this is going to have a fun, little additional thing that we're going to include. Now, around here on our paper, I've got plenty of room around here. I also have room up here and maybe kind of in here.

So, perhaps you would like to draw yours further up, maybe further down. It's wherever you feel is going to be good. But we're going to draw a bird. So, I will bring across this bird here. So, it's the same one-- a yellow-tailed black cockatoo. And you can see that it's carrying a book. Now, this book is going to be important soon, so I'll revisit that soon. But I'm going to go about here. Now, I might not see the entire bird coming onto the page.

We'll see how much space I have. So, don't worry if you feel like you're drawing and you're not going to fit this entire thin on, because it's going to be flying into the page and into the artwork, you see. So, I'm going to go about-- actually, I'm going to go a bit here, a bit further up.

How I'm going to start is by curving up, and then suddenly changing direction, and then drawing strange fingertips. Perhaps they're not fingertips. There's a few, plenty more than 5.

They're wings. They're feathers. Lots of curves because these feathers are getting smaller. And then when I'm going across this way, I'm going to draw a little curve for the head. But while I'm over here, I'm going to go across up and do the same thing I did for the other wing.

[gentle music continues]

Now, I'm going to swap to my thinner pen here and draw some lines through the centre of those feathers. It's like a central vein, similar to the leaf. Really similar. Right through the centre.

I'm going to keep my smaller pen because I'm actually going to draw a beak. So, the beak for this bird. Now, this is a bit of a tricky shape to explain for the bird's beak but see how you go.

It does a big curve down, like a big hook. And then it's going to have a sharp little tip there at the tip of its beak. And then it's going to curve back and go up. You can draw some tiny little details in that if you have space. But this is going to be really small, especially if you're using smaller paper.

Going to draw a little circle nearby, and colour it in. We'll colour a smaller circle in, and then maybe a broken line around it.

Now, this beautiful bird has a cheek patch here. So, I want you to draw a little circle, broken up. Because this is going to be yellow, but you could turn this into a red-tailed cockatoo, and you would just do that by changing the colours here. Instead of where you see the yellow, you can change it to red.

I'm going to go and change my pen so it's matching. So, I'm trying to keep it cohesive, and I'm going to go and line up on the other side now. So, the head's here. Wing's here. So, the head is going to continue down to the rest of the body down here.

Now, I'm going to have the very tip of this bird's tail off the page, and I like that. I think that'll be nice. But I'm coming back onto the paper, and it's carrying across.

But now, I need to make room for the belly. Just going across all the way back up until I'm almost at the face and the beak again. But I don't want to rush this process.

So, I'm going to stop there. I'm going to leave a gap because we're going to draw a book in its mouth. A hint of some feathers. And a really great way of doing that is lots of curves, almost like scales.

It's a really good shortcut instead of having to draw every single feather, every single scale. Little curves. It allows your brain to fill in the gaps. Some lines for that beautiful tail. Just like that.

Now, this book that you can see that this bird is carrying is open. So, what we're going to do, instead of having an open book where you just see the internal side of this book, and the inside pages, I want you to change this a bit in your brain.

So, we're going to draw it the same. But the way that you are looking at it will change, and I will explain as we go. So, we've drawn a big curve going up this way. It's then going to go down.

Similar length because this is going to be roughly a square book. But if you want your book to be more rectangular, that's OK. You would just draw it longer. And then we're going to curve back. The same again. Curve out. Go up and then curve back.

Going to divide this with 1, 2 lines. And I'm going to draw some pages on the other side. So, at the very top, I've drawn a line that goes across and then down, and then across and then down. Same for the other side, if you have space.

Because this will hopefully show that this is actually the front cover and the back cover of this book. The bird's just carrying it in a different way. Instead of it carrying open this side, it's turned it around, and we're going to see the front cover and the back cover.

Because I want you to draw maybe the cover of one of your favourite books, maybe a book that you loved as a kid. Maybe it'll be a book that you want to read during this beautiful program and what you're going to do. Perhaps it's one of the goals that you have.

Maybe it's a book that you want to make one day. Who knows? You can draw whatever you'd like. But I'm going to draw one of my favourites. So, before I do that, I'm going to finish off the little bird's beak. Little hint of it there.

Now, one of my favourites is 'Grug', and luckily for me, Grug is quite easy to draw. Let's see if I can remember what he looks like, though. Curve. OK. It's a big curve, like a big rock or a big mountain. And maybe he's got a little kind of jagged edge at the base. I remember he had a couple little funny hairs poking out. That sounds right.

He has an eye over here, and a nose that droops down, and a happy face. But then he had some cool patterns going across. So, add those in. He had some cool legs, too.

Now, I'm running out of room for the title, but I'm going to try it really, really small to write. 'Gr-- uh-- g'. So, this is the cover of my book here. Did he have a little hand? I think he had a little hand down here, too. It's down there. And then the back of the book-- if you can't remember what the back of a book looks like, usually, they have some writing. So, you can draw some squiggles. Usually, it says what the book is about. Maybe some good recommendations, and then maybe a little bar code to scan the book in. And then maybe some writing down the spine. So, you don't have to draw all of the details of this book, especially if it's nice and small. You can draw a little hint.

Now, there's only one more thing that I want to add. And that is what Grug was based on-- a really cool tree down here. So, what we're going to do, it actually looks like this. This one here.

I have plenty of room here, and I've left enough space to go up so it can be pretty big. But if you feel like your bird is a little bit lower, you can decide that you might not want to include this, and that's OK.

I'm going to start by drawing a curve like that. Inside kind of little almost like choc chip cookies. Just like that.

Now, you can see there's lots of palms poking out from this burrawang tree. So, I'm going to go one out here. One over here. This way. They're kind of changing direction.

There's no rhyme or reason. You can have yours going any way you want. Now, if you're feeling like, oh, it's a bit hard to go that angle, turn your paper around, maybe upside down, and go all the way.

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Beautiful. So, it looks a bit wild at the moment. Looks a bit silly. What we're going to do is turn each of those lines into-- and pair it with another line. So, I'll show you what I mean. They're coming to a point.

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Turn upside down again. Do the same thing.

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One more. Or 2 more. A curly one over here.

Looks very strange. But I'm hoping that when we add all the individual little lines here, it's going to make it look more like a tree. I think it will. So, what I'm going to do is start drawing lots and lots of lines.

They're all facing upwards. So, I want you to do that too. They're like lots of whiskers. You can speed this process up. Make it nice and fast, or you can really take your time and carefully draw every single one.

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Turning the paper as you go.

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Now, this artwork that I've done for the poster, so, the original one you see here, this one took me a few days to do. And I think maybe after this process of watching how it comes together, you might be able to understand why it sometimes takes artists quite a while to finish a piece and to draw or to paint.

You have to take your time. And especially, this is just to draw it. You have to add colour, which can take a really, really long time. And if you're using watercolours, you have to wait for things to dry.

So, everyone has a different process. But you might really enjoy this, and you might decide that you'd like to be an illustrator one day, too.

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OK, I'm on to the last one. Make it perfect. OK, I'm going to turn it back around and make sure-- beautiful. He looks a little less strange now. But Grug is based on it, so, it's OK if it looks a bit strange.

Now, I'm going to make sure I draw the horizon around it, so we see that it's sitting on something. And I'll make sure I line it up to the other side. Draw the horizon there.

Some little marks, little divots to show that it's grassy. Maybe you can add some little blades of grass. And then what I'd like to do, because I want to show that it's a beautiful day, I'm going to get my thin pen. And I'm going to add some little clouds or some hints of some clouds.

Really fluffy clouds. There's one up here. Maybe around here. I'm going to go, making sure I'm not smudging my work. Beautiful. Fluffy clouds. I turn it upside down. Make sure I don't draw my cloud upside down. One here. Because there's a gap between the trees, I can show that by drawing a little hint. Maybe one down here. And I think that's enough clouds.

Now, I'm looking at this, and this is a massive artwork that we've done together. Oh, my goodness. I'm really impressed. If you've stuck along, even if you just started with the first part and you added a few of the animals, well done.

This is very impressive. This is a tricky thing to do. So, be very proud of yourselves. Give yourselves a pat on the back. Give yourselves a clap. Smashed it.

The last thing that we have to add, and I think the most important thing, is our signature. So, I see there's lots of great spots for me to add a signature. But I see down here, there's a little part waiting for me to add my name. So, I'm going to hold on to the paper and add my signature. If you don't have a signature yet, you can write your name on an angle, nice and fast and suddenly, you have a signature. Who knows? But we are done.

Well done for sticking around. Well done for doing this. Well done for giving it a crack. I hope you enjoyed this process. Make sure-- you can see mine here, and you followed me along. But I want to see your artwork. So, make sure you send them to us, and we can have a look. I can't wait. But well done, and thanks for joining me. Bye.

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