Graphic Novels
I often see myself in Ella and this was pretty much how I felt the entire three and a half years while illustrating Ella Forever!
My Journey Creating Ella Forever
Creating Ella Forever was unlike anything I had experienced before. It was exciting, joyful, challenging, and at times, it felt like climbing a mammoth creative mountain!
I grew up reading comics, which became my bridge into reading. As a reluctant reader, I struggled with pages of heavy text but found comfort in following a story through pictures. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I naturally connected with visual storytelling. It makes sense that so much of my work today is about supporting visual literacy and helping children express themselves through illustration.
Graphic novels aren’t an easier or lesser form of reading. Readers interpret the words and images together, noticing facial expressions, body language, colour, composition, pacing and what happens between the panels. They are reading the story on multiple levels.
Research also shows that graphic novels can strengthen vocabulary, comprehension, critical thinking, confidence and reading stamina, particularly for reluctant or developing readers. You can read more through Monash University, Reading Rockets and Scholastic.
Beginning Ella’s Story
When I began Ella Forever, I had never written a graphic novel before, and this one would be 140 pages long! I was also stepping into the much-loved world of Ella Diaries and Ella and Olivia. A great deal of research went into understanding Ella’s history, friendships and personality so her new story would feel true to the world readers already knew and loved.
Pacing a story across 140 illustrated pages was a huge learning curve. I began by writing and drawing my roughs by hand, something I still love to do. I discovered that my characters’ voices often emerged as I drew them. Rather than writing every conversation first, the dialogue developed alongside their expressions and body language, allowing the story to flow more naturally for me.
After several months of writing, drawing, revising and gaining approval, I began laying out the panels and placing my rough sketches onto each page. The final linework and colour were created digitally on my iPad using Procreate.
The sheer scale of the project also made it a true team effort. I had wonderful people helping me colour characters and backgrounds so we could bring Ella’s world to life.
Here you’ll find some of the struggles, surprises and joyful moments behind Ella Forever. I hope it offers a glimpse into how much storytelling happens beyond the words, and reminds young readers and their families that when they read a graphic novel, they are doing something wonderfully rich and complex.
