Q&A with illustrator Tamlyn Teow!

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Welcome to children's book illustrator TAMLYN TEOW! She kindly agreed to stop by my blog to speak about her picture book MY PET ARCHIE, written by Karyn Savage, and published by Riveted Press in August 2025. 

1. Tam, how did you come onboard to illustrate MY PET ARCHIE and what made you agree to illustrate the manuscript?

Rowena Beresford was generous to have sent me a draft of My Pet Archie to do concepts for before determining if I was right for the job. I instantly fell in love because I‘m endlessly fascinated with animals/creatures and have always wanted to work on a book about a misunderstood fantastical creature - like a dragon! Most dragons in the fantasy realm are beautiful, majestic, fierce and fiery but I wanted Archie to be an outlier who breaks that mold. I imagined him to be a cross between a bulldog and toad, a little clumsy and not at all classy!

​Rowena and I discussed how the idea of using alphabets to push the story along is so clever and fun. I think kids will learn a lot from identifying things, with letters they start with, across the pages! I reckon the book will get them interested in learning their alphabets too. I’m a big fan of the How To Train Your Dragon animation franchise, so it was an instant yes to do this book! I was ecstatic when Rowena saw potential in my concepts and agreed to sign me on as the illustrator!

2. Do you have a favourite scene or line from the text?

Aw no, I love it all! I think every scene showcases a different personality quirk of Archie, his perspective of the world, as well as the bond between him and the other characters (in particular Cora). I’m honestly attached to all the spreads 

3. What was the process like of illustrating MY PET ARCHIE? Were there many drafts of the artwork? What were the most challenging, and the most fun, illustrations to do?

It was super fun! It went by very quick because we were all enjoying it so much. For the process, I did concepts, roughs, the line art, scanned and printed them on illustration paper. Then I used a mix of colour pencils and markers to colour them in, scanned them back into the computer and touched up using photoshop! 

I then did the text for spreads with dialogue, by handwriting them in colour pencils and placed them on a separate layer so that Rowena can move them around. It was her and Karyn’s brilliant idea to have any words that aren’t part of the main text/manuscript to be done in a handwritten font.

Challenges - I wouldn’t say it was a challenge, more of a fun puzzle that we had to come up with a solution for. It was the sneeze spread- which is arguably the most important in the book as it’s the climax of the story. We wanted it to be the loudest of the pages but couldn’t figure out the most effective way to present it. It was a matter of finding a harmonious balance between aspects to create an explosive energy and the wow factor.

We looked at using colours, subject matter/characters and placing elements in a way that is still clear to the readers- all while keeping in the humorous tone of the book. We arrived at the current spread after a few iterations, it was a little more knocked back in the earlier versions before I decided that maybe we shouldn’t hold back and went full on with the text.

Then Rowena and I had to figure out how to place it across the spread without jeopardising the other featured characters. We decided to move a couple of elements into a new image for the back endpapers and add further things to it, to create more of an epilogue/afterthought to My Pet Archie. 

4. Do you have a typical process? What is your illustrating space like? 

My illustration process starts with reading the text and recording first impressions/initial responses via sketches. This helps determine the tone and mood that I feel supports the narrative.
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Then it’s followed by research- looking at relevant imagery such as other artists’ work, historical depictions of the subject, references for how to draw certain elements and if there’s a way to warp/distort them for the story.

The next step for me is to do concepts to get a feel for the characters or key elements in the story, then quickly follow that with roughs to get the flow of how the story will unfold over 32 pages (including the cover and endpapers.) 

When all is approved by the publisher and author, I’ll move on to final pencils, line art and colour.

If the colouring stage was to take place in a traditional style, then it’d be determining the medium to use (acrylic paint, watercolour/gouache or markers and colour pencils) - it’s usually a combination of them but it’s important to determine the feel you’re trying to convey. Is it rough, abstract, child-like, clean, painterly, etc? 

If it’s digital - it involves picking the right digital brushes to use and having layers so that there is separation in the artwork- this helps in a few ways like adding on details without impacting the work you did prior, creating depth and being able to add between those layers such as back lighting etc. 

But in both methods, I’ll always touch up and edit in photoshop to ensure things like colour and lighting are right for the artworks especially before it goes to print!

My illustration space is similar to the micro apartment units (Kyosho Jutaku) in Japan, where they keep everything compact to save space. Eg- folding/unfolding out tables, rolling out equip when they need it only etc! 

One fine day, I will have an art space where I can display colour coded paints and markers, have brushes arranged by size and be able to make splats in a carefree manner rather than having an Alco-Wipe on hand to clean up immediately. So my illustration space is non existent if I’m not illustrating. It’s a bit like a travelling circus (just that it doesn’t go anywhere!)

5. What is in the pipeline? Can you share anything you are working on next?

There are a couple of picture books with Wombat Books for early next year but at the moment, I’m working on a picture book as author/illustrator with Rebecca Young at Scholastic! And a graphic novel about an isopod with Bethany Loveridge and Rochelle Stephens at Perentie Press 

6. Anything else you would like to add, at all? 
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Yes- CONGRATULATIONS to you, Brenton, for nailing two (!) contracts in one year, they will be amazing books and also thank you for these questions once again. And for always leaving good reviews for us! Please don’t forget me, and consider my work as a contender for your further projects when you get famous!!  

Illustrator Tamlyn Teow puts herself into her work in My Pet Archie!