THE ILLUSTRATOR AS AN ARTIST [OCTOBER 2012]
Are illustrators really such lowly artists? Why is it that creators of children’s books in general seem to be at the bottom end of the artistic spectrum? Certainly the Creative NZ funding rounds would confirm this for many children’s book authors and illustrators. This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair also seemed to seal our lowly status in the arts. With New Zealand the host nation and the focus of Frankfurt 2012 being children’s and young adult (CYA) books, it was hard not to feel snubbed when 60 New Zealand authors were sent – with only 4 being CYA authors. Not a single illustrator, even though we have greats such as Gavin Bishop and David Elliot among others. Also sent to the Frankfurt BOOK-fair were over 100 dancers, musicians, painters, winemakers, chefs and cultural groups. Hard sometimes not to feel like the lowest of the low.
But hang on ... our most popular, well loved, most read, biggest selling, and most internationally acclaimed New Zealand author would surely be – no not Katherine Mansfield or Keri Hulme – but the late great Margaret Mahy. A lowly children’s writer? Children’s illustrators are held in even less artist regard than their fellow writers. Yet I imagine, among the developed world, that the artwork of Eric Carle, Maurice Sendak, and Dr Suess would be as familiar as Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. This is because great children’s books touch people at a very formative age. They spark the imagination and stay there. For many, children’s books are the first connection with the visual and written arts.
Artistic snobbery is not limited to we lowly and far-flung antipodean illustrators. My hero, the great American painter Norman Rockwell, although beloved by millions during his life, was not rated by the arts community until after his death. Now 40 years later he is considered one of the great artists of the 20th century – and rightly so. But why are illustrators not seen as artists? It’s all the same thing isn’t it?
A touring exhibition of New Zealand children’s illustrator Graham Percy got me thinking about all this. Percy passed away in 2008 – so, like Rockwell, it is cynically natural for him to be considered an ‘artist’ now. Like a lot of New Zealand writers and illustrators Graham Percy got his start with that great institute The New Zealand School Journal. Other School Journal Alumni include Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley, David Hill, David Elliot, Dick Frizzell, several of Peter Jackson’s Weta artists, and myself). But back to Graham Percy ... I adore his artwork. His ‘illustrations’ show all the hallmarks of the great artists I admire: Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Degas, Rockwell. So what are these hallmarks?
A lot of illustrators come from a design background, their work shows a strong sense of colour, composition and technical skill – all of which are expressed supremely by Leonardo, Degas and Rockwell. Illustrators can’t resist a bit of humour (like Michaelangelo’s penile acorns on the Sistine Chapel, which say ‘actually I think the Pope is a bit of a dick’). Percy’s work as a children’s illustrator is embedded with a hilarious sense of fun. There is an ease with which illustrators communicate with the viewer – without having to explain their deeper meaning through a 1,000 word essay. Great children’s book illustrators have a particular skill with layers of meaning that sometimes take until adulthood to unravel – thus keeping the work alive for generations (and keeping parents engaged when reading books over and over and over). But most of all, an illustrator feels an overwhelming need to tell stories with pictures. Every image is a peek into a wider world which expands the viewer’s imagination beyond the frame.
I think almost every artist before the 20th century was a story-telling illustrator – but I guess that’s just not ‘art’ in the 21st century.
Check out Graham Percy’s exhibition if it comes to your town. It is currently in Taupo until November 14.
Below is Graham Percy’s “Kiwi Ophelia” and my “Imperial silverware foraging at the forest edge”. This is my first ever random works of art, froma series called "The Secret Lives of Teapots" which I'm working on for an upcoming exhibition at the Taupo Museum.
THE THREE BEARS AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THEM [OCTOBER 2012]
I've just finished work on one of the funniest manuscripts I ever had the pleasure to work on - "The Three Bears Sort Of" by Yvonne Morrison. It's taken me a year and half to complete (which is really long for me - see Old MacDonald in 16 days down below!) because it kept being put off by more and more Dinosaur Rescue books, but it has been one of the most challenging and rewarding illustration jobs I've ever done. In fact the publishers (Scholastic) didn't really know how on earth someone could illustrate it - and so paid me a huge compliment by trusting this job to me. The challenge is that the text leaps about with various voices as the true nature of the Three Bears is hammered out between a adult and a child. This book was perfect for me – and I decided to make it a visual journey from realism, to traditional storybook illustration, to 19thC woodcarvings, collage, children's drawings and finally some cartoon bears. Below is a sample of sketches from the endpapers, which didn't make it into the final book.
It was also most unusal in the fact that I didn't do any roughs. Instead I did some very vague stick figure drawings and sent Scholastic a long letter about what I was GOING to do with this very funny post-modern text. The challenge was, as often happens with good ideas, is that turning them into reality is often much harder than the vague foggy picture in your head. Normally I work out a whole book in advance, then the final illustrations are just a matter of knuckling down and making it happen - which can be a very technical process. For Three Bears I had a tremendous amount of fun the whole way through the process, because each page was trying to figure out a new style, technique, composition and way of interpreting the text AND make it fit together with the previous pages. All that problem solving is the most fun part of my work. I had plenty of moments of self doubt - wondering if the whole thing was just going to be a huge mish-mash of styles and disparate ideas - but the end result is one of my favourite works. I can't wait for it to come out, which will be Feb 2013.
The offical Dinosaur Rescue website is now up and running. You can check out all the characters, some amazing "facts" (that Kyle and I made up) about dinosaurs and stone age people. Also there are colour-ins to download, watch the trailers and read free samples chapters all the books. Check it out at Dinosaur-rescue.com and tell your friends.
I was drawn to Scott Westerfeld's "Leviathan" series by Keith Thompson's amazing illustrations in the books. After pressing them on the rest of the family the 3 books in the series have become a favourite in our household. Below is a review by my daughter Mina.
In books with cantankerous machines, fantastical beasts, awesome action scenes and crazy battles, sometimes it’s all a bit hard to understand and imagine. That’s where you need illustrations, and in the young adult steampunk “Leviathan” series, it works perfectly.
Leviathan is set in an alternate history World War One. There’s the Clankers, with their iron walkers shaped as elephants and other animals, and flying war machines armed with phosphorous flares. The Darwinists have genetically engineered war beasts to make up their army, with jellyfish hot air balloons, whale airships, message lizards, water krakens and more. Having trouble imagining these beasties and machines? Even with the descriptions in the books, it’s hard to picture. Luckily the series has the amazing illustrator Keith Thompson on board, who takes these ideas and turns them into fantastic illustrations spread throughout the story, at least fifty to each book.
The pictures add to the story, showing how the beasts and machines look, and adding to the environment and world of Leviathan. Keith Thompson’s illustrations not only look great with their cinematic angles and action, they show exactly how the machines and creatures would look in real life without being too strange to be unbelievable. They are entirely believable.
Having illustrations means that the author, Scott Westerfeld, doesn’t have to describe the things in the picture in too much detail. He gives a brief description and the picture does the rest, and more. Illustrations are the key to an awesome book!
REVIEWED BY MINA BIXLEY
In my experience publishers like to keep the authors and illustrators separate – perhaps they fear us ganging up on them? I was interested to read that Scott Westerfeld had specifically sought out Keith Thompson and that they worked closely together on the series. For more info check out the links below.
An interview about the series with the illustrator, Keith Thompson:
Keith’s art website:
The Leviathan website:
It's a new world record... well for me anyway! After completely screwing up the deadlines for my latest book, I got a frantic call from my lovely publisher, Jane at Hachette. I, in turn, almost had a heart attack on learning that the artwork was due at the start of June, NOT the start of August. Having never missed a publishing deadline in my life I was utterly mortified. So began the world record attempt to illustrate a complete book in 16 days. AND.... YAY - It's all over - I did it!!! Thankfully publishers are used to writers and artists NEVER delivering on deadline – so the book is all back on schedule thanks to a couple of weeks INTENSE work. What's more I'm really pleased with the end result. The book in question is a followup to last years "Wheels on the Bus" which has been in the bestseller list for seven months now. With that kind of success there's always demand for a sequel (of sorts). The new book is a NZ version of "Old MacDonald" - it's a bit of a nostalgic love-letter to NZ farming, full of All Black jerseys drying on the line, rusty old Holdens and unfinished boats languishing in the back paddock. OH YEAH - and Old Mac has a few remarkable animals on the farm too. Like this cow... who makes milk shakes. Look out for it in stores in September 2011.
OH and by the way - if any publishers read this... NO I don't want to EVER do a book in 16 days again.
Today marks the day (6 years ago) that I completed work on "Faithfully Mozart" and sent it off to the printers. AND got my final payment. "Faithfully Mozart" took 6 years to complete and now we are 6 years on. So what have I done in that time? WELL... I've illustrated 14 covers, 53 school journal stories, 35 books as well as written and illustrated 4 of my own. That's the equivalent of ONE book on Mozart.
To celebrate, I've re-edited an old Mozart Interview I did with Anita McNaught, added some illustrations and music and posted it on youtube. Check it out....
Well - just got my 11th rejection for "Monkey Boy". It's something I've learnt to accept very well. I say this, because it's important for all those aspiring writers and illustrators out there to know that it's all about perseverance. You just have to find the right publisher for the right book and it doesn't mean that your work is no good. Well actually... it could mean that your work is utter crap... or maybe even ahead of it's time. "Monkey Boy" is part novel - part comic and has been on the fire for 3 years now. It's a slow roaster. Anywho - I have an ace up my sleeve - so I'll let you know how my next pitch goes. Fingers crossed it's the right fit. In the meantime I'll keep working away on my many other projects.
Thanks to those who told me their favourite dinos - but I have just discovered possibly the coolest dinosaur ever - Dracorex Hogswartia. Yes - believe it or not - it is named after Hogwarts. As you can tell from this National Geographic cover, it really does look like something that would be right at home in the movies. The Draco part refers to 'dragon' rather than the evil blondie from Harry Potter. I think Dracorex will have to make an appearance in Dinosaur Rescue 4.
I have just begun work on Dinosaur Rescue 3 with Kyle Mewburn and I want YOU to be involved. There are 96 pages in these cool little books and there is always room to pop in lots of dinosaurs mooching about in the background. Simply visit my Facebook page (Above) and tell me your coolest or meanest or favourite dinosaur. I'll be selecting the best ones to appear in the book and posting up drawings of them. Ask your kids and grandkids their opinion too, and share this with all your Facebook friends to see if I can't double my Facebook fans - I'm only 995,947 behind Flight of the Conchords!
Here's a Styracosaurus from Dinosaur Rescue Book 2: Stego-snotty-saurus - just to give you an idea.
Wahhhooo! Just finished another book. 3 down, 2 to go by the end of the month. "Phoebe & the Night Creatures" (Scholastic NZ) has been on the go since August last year with most of the work done in October. Today I finally approved the proofs and now it's off to the printers. Unfortunately you'll have to wait until August 2011 to see "Phoebe" in the shops. But I'll post up some pics on my Facebook page in the meantime to whet your appetite.
This is the first book where I am officially credited, and (most importantly) paid, as designer. Even though my day-job is as a designer - I rarely do the finished layup work for my books because I get too busy just finishing the illys. In this case Scholastic were really great and let me do my thing. It's nice not to hand over control to some other designer to stuff it up or do something boring. It's amazing the amount of times I have received proofs back and seen that my illustrations have been cropped wrong.
I am a huge Neil Gaiman fan - and have been since I got into comics at Art School. For those of you who don't know - Neil Gaiman is the most famous author you've never heard of. He started as a cool-as comic writer (doing heaps of ground-breaking comic stuff with the Picasso of comic art - Dave McKean) - then he made the huge leap to international award winner and best selling novelist, children's book author and screen-writer. Several of his books have been made into movies including Coroline and Stardust - he also wrote the screenplay for Beowulf and Princess Mononoke. On top of all this he is also the most generous and humble author you are likely to come across.
Anywho - back to my initial story... when I heard Neil Gaiman was coming to the Wellington Arts festival I promptly booked my tickets 5 months in advance and began working on the coolest, best-ever question to ask my hero. What did I really want to know? What would no-one else ask? I kept a notebook of the best things I could ask - big sprawling complex questions. Finally came the day. Ha ha – Being the biggest Neil Gaiman fan in New Zealand I would thwart any possible rivals by turning up to the venue a whole 45 minutes BEFORE Neil was due to appear. Here came my first shock - for I discovered (45 minutes before Neil was due to appear) that a few Neil Gaiman fans had beaten me at my game. In fact - to tell the truth - the Wellington Town Hall was already fit to busting with about 3000 other Neil Gaiman fans. Curses - but I had an ace up my sleeve - my question I had been working on for 5 months - Bwhahahaha...
I knew from my own experience with audiences, that when question time comes, everyone is too shy to put up their hand. Then after 4 minutes every single audience member wants to ask their question. So I knew that when it came to question time I would be first up with my great question - which I had carefully written out on five pages of A4 pad. Alas - if only I wasn't kidding - then I wouldn't have to relay the tragic events that follow. Sure enough – after an amazing 50 minutes of Neil talking about everything from Scientology to the secret coven he, J.K. Rowling and Stephen King are in (he was joking :-) finally came question time. I leapt up like a boy who's just wizzed on the electric fence. YES. I was 2nd in line. I made my way up to the front of the auditorium, only feet away from the master himself. Soon it was my turn to ask my question, in front of those 3000 others. My chance to show I was New Zealand's greatest Neil Gaiman fan... Neil Gaiman turned to me, eyebrows raised expectantly at the coming question... and then ... and then ... my heart started thumping like the chest-buster from Alien. My face flushed bright red and my hands started tingling ... curses (again) I wish I had my 5 page question written down. I think I stuttered and mumbled a few misheard words. As adrenalin pumped through my veins time seem to slow to a standstill. This made it seem like I had been up there for ages wasting time - so I blurted out (in my best impression of a teenager whose voice is breaking) - "so are you going to do any more comics?"
What a crap question! Of course he is - he still does comics all the time - I knew that! I buy them! But Neil answered it perfectly marvelously - making even the crappest question seem funny and interesting. I slunk back to my seat - under the gaze of all those fans who weren't me. At least I wasn't the person who asked "how do you get published?"
Never the less - all was not lost. I had carted a whole bag-load of Neil Gaiman books around Wellington on my aching shoulders for the day - so I would make up for my crap question by getting them signed. Bwhahaha. Unfortunately everyone else SOMEHOW cottoned on to my brilliant plan - and when I say everyone - I mean EVERYONE. Apparently Neil was signing books for 4 hours! Crikey I've done about an hour and that was hard on your wrist.
I'm pretty sure Neil Gaiman has been getting ideas from my website. He's obviously copying my BW portrait above.
Just got this amazing review from the Taranaki Daily Times.
"Every so often, a children's book emerges head and shoulders above the rest. And you know this because your children request it over and over again. For me and mine, The Wheels on the Bus is the clear 2010 winner. Even though the text Bixley uses is already well known internationally, the sassy New Zealand twist is what sets this nifty version apart. The bus driver is a delightful kiwi and the bus itself is simply called Fun. Off the kiwi goes, picking up passengers (swordfish, tuatara, gecko, squid, rabbit and others) as he circumnavigates the North and South islands. Sightseeing stops occur at intervals: the Cape Reinga lighthouse, Rotorua mudpools, Hawera dairy farms, kaikoura whale-watching and the famous Moeraki Boulders.
There's a natty little fantail that appears a la Where's Wally on every page, plus a child friendly map of the entire trip, so children can plot exactly where it is that the wheels on the bus go round and round. This is an utterly fabulous book and Donovan Bixley deserves all the praise he gets for it."
Not bad huh?
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