Te Ngahere i te Pō by Kiri Lightfoot - Design & Illustration process

Allen & Unwin NZ
Jul 18
3 min read

Read a piece penned by Pippa Keel Situ, illustrator of Te Ngahere i te Pō by Kiri Lightfoot.

Te ngahere i te pō by Kiri Lightfoot, illustrated by Pippa Keel Situ

My first thoughts when I read the manuscript for Te Ngahere i te Pō were centred around what an absolutely charming story it was! So when it came to a starting point for this project, I knew I wanted to capture that feeling first of all, from our kaitiaki Ruru (morepork) watching over everything, to the wee titiwai (glow worms) hiding in their caves.

Secondly, I was so excited as it felt like such a great fit for my interests, as I love getting outdoors to tramp and explore! So once I’d gotten a feel for the mood of the book from Kiri’s lovely writing, I delved into my photo archives from various trips to find the juicy details I’d need to bring the unique bush of Aotearoa to life. Tramping trips to places which have really old forest, like Pureora Forest Park, were especially helpful for photo reference (my partner is a photographer who also loves to get outside, so he was very useful here). I also got outside in my own backyard (Upper Hutt, in Wellington) for inspiration - people don’t realise we have glow worms right here, along Te Awa Kairangi (the Hutt river)!

Images from various trips by useful husband Ricky Situ https://www.instagram.com/rickysitu_/

After this research phase, I began forming pictures in my mind, so I transitioned to pencil and paper to sketch and let the ideas flow. Once I was happy with the overall ‘shapes’ for the composition of each page, I scanned everything in and began working digitally. At this stage I also checked in with author Kiri, designer Kate Barraclough, and the lovely editing team, to make sure everyone was aware of how things are coming together! Kate then had a play to figure out where the text was going to sit on each page so I could progress to final art. I absolutely love what she did with the text in this book - the swooping letters are so playful, and interact so well with the story and illustrations.

To create the final art, it took a while to be happy with the look + feel of each new critter! Once I had sketched up some cohesive linework, I’d progress to colour, keeping mostly to the rough colour guide we’d made over the drafts. The idea was to have it feel like it started and ended with the gorgeous glow of the end and beginning of the day - dawn and dusk - but also to not have it too dark in between. Bringing out the vibrant colours of these nocturnal creatures, rather than simply bathing everything in blue and black, was a crucial element of the design. I also used a lot of scanned textures and pastels - to me, this added depth to the nighttime feel of the illustrations.

This colour note also applied to the cover, as the team wanted it to stand out from other ‘night time’ books on the shelf. Instead of sticking with the expected bluey-blacks, we went with a vibrant sunset, and a wide array of creatures (not just the nocturnal ones, either)! The final cover is actually a combination of two different ideas, which ended up working much better together.

Te Ngahere i te Pō was such a rewarding project to work on. It’s been an absolute joy to give this one to friends and family with little ones around me - it’s such a lovely bedtime story. I’m so proud of what Kiri, Kate, myself and the Allen & Unwin team ended up creating together!

You can find Pippa on Instagram here!