Globally acclaimed, best-selling illustrator, Johanna Basford's from Ellon succeeded this week in her attempt to smash the current Guinness World Record for the largest drawing by an individual.

Her target was to complete the drawing in less than 12 hours to beat the record which was held by Aman Singh Gulati.

Preparations started on Sunday in Ellon Community Campus as the paper was laid out in the school's gym hall, which in itself proved a challenge.

She explained: "We laid out all the paper on Sunday evening but by the time we came in on Monday morning the paper had started to curl up as it had been cold in here overnight."

Drawing from 9am to 9pm using pencils and marker pens, to create a mammoth floral artwork measuring 420 square meters (4520square feet) the effort proved challenging: "I'd worked to scale up a template that I had created but by the time I was about halfway through drawing it, I realised that it wouldn't work, so there ended up being a lot of freehand work in the final creation.

“It is certainly very different to anything I’ve done before.

“I wouldn’t normally advocate creativity with a time limit but sometimes you do need the deadline or that restriction to get the best out of your work and often we do our best creative work when up against it.

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“It is a huge relief to have completed the drawing and have beaten the world record because I was behind schedule for a lot of the time.

“It has been my mission to inspire others, as often people are scared to pick up a pencil and tackle a blank sheet of paper.

"I have filled the world’s largest blank sheet and hopefully others will see this and be inspired to be creative as well.”

Her first colouring book entitled Secret Garden was launched in 2013 and has been at the forefront of the creative colouring movement in the intervening years.

A panel of local volunteer witnesses stayed in the hall to observe every moment of her work to ensure it was up to world record standard and which also involved the work being filmed.

As Johanna said: "I could have chosen to do this over a 24 hour period but the criteria for the record in that time becomes quite onerous and you need a lot more people involved.

"I certainly wouldn't have thought about doing this outdoors, especially in the north-east, so I am also eternally grateful to one of my former teachers for helping this happen here in Ellon."

Handing over the certificate of recognition of the new world record was adjudicator Jack Brockbank from Guinness World Records which confirmed the largest drawing by an individual was achieved in Ellon on Monday, November 18.

For more information on her illustrations visit www.johannabasford.com

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