· 12 August 2026
Illustrating while I write: when drawing solves the plot
I am a writer and an illustrator, and the two help each other more than you would think. How I use drawing to unblock scenes.
When a scene will not move forward, it is almost never a problem of words. It is that I am not seeing it.
Drawing to understand
When I get stuck, I close the document and draw. Not finished illustration — quick scribbles of space and posture. Where is each character? Who has their back to whom? Who is closest to the door?
Nine times out of ten, the answer to the plot was in the composition.
Illustrating a book that is not mine
Illustrating En mi nube hay sitio para dos taught me something I now apply to my own novels: an illustration does not repeat the text, it completes it. If the text already says she is sad, the drawing tells you something else.
My hybrid routine
- Writing mornings, drawing afternoons (my analytical brain tires before my visual one).
- Sketches always in the same notebook, nothing erased.
- One folder per project, with the colour palette decided before I start.
You can see the projects with sketches and process in the illustration portfolio.