My name is Ainsley Bloomfield, and I am a student in the Illustrating Children’s Books course. Since I’ve been enrolled, I have gained tremendous confidence and illustrated, written, or self-published several children’s books. My latest book is My Country, ‘Tis of Thee: An Old Song Re-sung for America 250. This book recreates an American patriotic song from 1831 (famously set to the same tune as Britain’s God Save the King.) It is intended to celebrate my country’s 250th anniversary in a joyful, childlike manner.
My vision for the book came to me suddenly in the shower at the end of last summer. While I had wanted to create a patriotic children’s book for a while, I now had a vision of artwork to go with each line. Since the book has a historical theme it touches on a few difficult topics, and rendering them in a kid-appropriate way proved a fascinating challenge [see the painting of the grieving pilgrims below].
I started by creating a dummy so the text lined up with the envisioned artwork. I did not actually begin drawing finals until January 14, 2026. There are 12 full-spread ink and watercolor paintings, 4 single-page paintings, 5 facing vignettes, and the cover. Each painting evokes some aspect of American history, culture, or landscape. The project took roughly 250 hours to complete. The final week I did 45 hours of artwork and 10 hours of setup.
I use Arches Hot Press paper on pre-stretched blocks so as not to worry about wrinkling. My brushes are fine-pointed rounds, a mixture of sable and synthetic, my inks are Winsor and Newton, and my watercolors are Winsor and Newton (various grades) or Daniel Smith. I like painting wet-on-dry for accuracy, but use wet-on-wet for skies, backgrounds, and special effects.
Once finished, I sent the paintings off to my graphic designer, Becca, who expedited scanning and formatting to get the project to the printer on time (May 13th). The books ship on June 17th, to arrive with time to spare before US Independence Day.
Looking back, this project was a lesson in both trusting my personal vision and working under extreme pressure. I accepted that the idea was good enough to act on, then planned the best route to uncertain success. Given the choice, I would never work under such pressure again. But the confidence I have gained from knowing I was able to do it and delight in it has been entirely worth the pain.
My favorite piece of art for this project was hard to choose. It is either the grieving pilgrims, Washington, D.C.’s iconic cathedral (which I visited in preparation), or this peaceful scene of rocks and a mountain goat.
The book will be free on Amazon Kindle between June 24th and June 29th. Afterwards, a beautiful high-quality paperback edition will be available. $1 of proceeds from each paperback will be donated to homeless veterans through the Tunnels to Towers Foundation.
Ainsley Bloomfield
If you would like to receive a roundup of all of our blog posts once a week to keep you inspired in your inbox, why not sign up to our newsletter. You can access our sign up at the top of our page. If you are a London Art College student and you would like your artwork featured here, drop us a line at any time.
