A Pirate’s Life For Me: The Making of a Children’s Book

Illustrator Heiner Hertling poses with author (and pirate model) Robert Sams

The more creative projects I work on, the more I appreciate collaborating with talented friends. For instance, when we at Sisbro had the idea for our picture book A Pirate’s Quest, we turned to our friend Heiner Hertling for help. You don’t have to be a great artist to be a children’s picture book author. You just have to know a great artist, and Heiner is a great artist. With his help, we created 50 original oil paintings over the course of a year, and I modeled as the pirate. The process was the same every time: sketch, photo, painting.

An example of how Robert Sams posed for the children’s book A Pirate’s Quest

Every page in our book began as a simple sketch on paper. We would look at the story and imagine what should be on each page. Then Heiner would sketch out the scene with notes about the the setting, the pirate’s position and especially the lighting. Using that simple sketch as a guide, I would pose for a photograph that Heiner could use as reference, so that he could see how the lighting played on the pirate’s clothing. Then after a day or three, Heiner would churn out an incredible work of art.

If you haven’t seen our book A Pirate’s Quest, you really should check it out. It look’s like a pirate book, but really it’s a story about water – specifically, the idea that water connects all life on earth. If you spend any time with young children, then it’s a perfect one to have around on International Talk Like a Pirate Day. You can read more about it here, or watch the video clip that inspired it here.

Cover of the children’s book A Pirate’s Quest, by Heiner Hertling, Laura Sams and Robert Sams