Today, Grit City Emotobooks Illustrator Zach Revale (Grit City, Swing Zone): 

 Being an illustrator for Grit City is an exhilarating experience. Illustrating Emotobooks brings about a really fun creative streak in me that I was not always aware of. Our editors do an excellent job of finding stories that work well with this unique style of illustration. Working with the creative team at Grit City makes my job as an illustrator almost easy. If I have a problem or get stuck with an illustration, there are many people who can help me out and support me within our community.

Emotobook illustrations operate in the abstract realm. Coming from a background of comic book and graphic illustration, this initially took some adjusting for me. Eventually, I began to realize that it was okay to “push” whatever emotion I was trying to display. After I figured this out I found myself becoming totally engulfed within my work, which is always good!

Illustrating emotions within a story is, at first, tasking. I want every picture to have diversity. Sometimes, I have three illustrations that produce the same type of feelings. This is where the job gets both stressful and fun. Just when I think it’s impossible to differentiate between depicted emotions, I make a line here or adjust the light there and I am back in business because I’ve just changed the mood completely.

Doing the covers of Emotobooks is especially stressful. Covers are, without a doubt, the most important aspect of an illustrator’s job. They are what everyone’s going to see first. Creating a poor cover automatically sets our authors, who work immensely hard on their stories, in a hole. So a lot of pressure builds up!

Everything comes out the way it does because of the flow between creative, hardworking people who continuously give advice and words of encouragement to help make everything look as good as possible. When it is finally time to release an Emotobook, are plenty of kind words and pats on the back because, as a team, we finally get a chance to collectively breathe a sigh of relief an accomplishment.