1. You are a very painterly illustrator. Were you a Fine Art student?
I feel my work is becoming more painterly as my technique continues to develop. I was an illustration student at Brighton Art College and my early work was a good deal flatter and more linear.
2. You are also, in many ways, a very traditional illustrator. Your illustrations have (in the best sense) a timeless quality. Are you conscious of a tradition in children's book illustration?
I am very aware of a tradition in children's book illustration. Most of the illustrators who inspire me the most were working in the early part of this century, when ful-colour printing was first coming into widespread use. People like Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac in Britain, and N. C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish in the U.S.
3. What is your favourite medium for picture books, and why?
I use a mixture of watercolours and gouache paints. I use more and more gouache (body colour) these days. It's a very versatile and quick-drying technique.
4. Each of the illustrations in the new title, When Jessie Came Across the Sea, could stand alone as a painting. How long did the full-page pictures take to complete?
It's difficult to say that an individual picture took a particular amount of time, as I had spent many weeks researching the project generally. But in terms of drawing and painting time I would spend between a week and a month on a picture, depending on its complexity.
5. You mention research: What historical research did you have to undertake to give an authentic feel to the New York pictures?
I got hold of as many photographic books relating to the period as I could, and also watched movies and documentaries, making notes on costumes and settings. To be sure of authenticity, we asked the Jewish museum of New York City to look over my work as I was working on the project.
6. So you do use photographs in your work?
Yes, I go to great lengths to get the right models and to dress and light them. I take lots of photographs. To achieve th kind of overhead angles that I like, or to catch a particular fleeting expression would be impossible working directly from the model. In my fairy-tale books I use photography much less and I have lots of fun making up grotesque fantasy characters.
7. Amy Hest, the writer of the new book, lives in New York. To what extent were you able to collaborate in person?
I still haven't met Amy, although we do write to each other. She was very good about making minor changes in her text if I needed them. For me the best kind of collaboration with an author is when they write a wonderful story and then I go off and illustrate it.
8. Jessie is from a Jewish family, but the whereabouts of her original village is kept vague. Was this an advantage or disadvantage for you as an illustrator.
Definitely an advantage. It gave me a lot of freedom when I was depicting Jessie's home village.
9. Other than the new book, which one of the titles you've worked on has given you most satisafaction?
"The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey" is a particular favourite of mine because it opened up a whole new area for me to work in, but I'd find it very hard to pick a favourite from my fairy tale books.
10. I particularly like your illustrations to the Simon & Schuster edition of Oscar Wilde's stories. In many of those pictures, and in several in the new book, you give the reader a slightly elevated view of the subject. The exception, I suppose is the splendid cover picture of Jessie arriving in New York. Can you comment on this?
Taking an elevated point of view heightens the drama of a scene very effectively. Or sometimes I use it to vary the pace of the book in the way that a film-maker uses different camera angles.
11. Which contemporary illustrators do you admire most?
For me there are two artists working in picture books that I particularly admire: Alan Lee and Gennady Spirin -- very different artists, but each is highly inspiring.
12. You were born in Belfast, lived for a while in Sussex, and now live in Dublin. To what extent is Ireland important to you as an artist?
I hadn't realised when I was living in England just how important being Irish was to me in realtion to my work. I had chosen to illustrate texts by people like Oscar Wilde and W. B. Yeats, but now that I'm living in Dublin it's much easier for me to immerse myself in the very strong culture and folk heritage that exists here.
13. It's always difficult, from published books, to gauge the scale of the original illustrations. What are the usual dimensions of your original artwork?
I used to do my originals about twice as big as they would finally appear, but recently I've been working closer to the scale of the book.
14. Can you give an idea of your typical working day?
My working days are very different according to what stage my book is at. Early on in a project I would be having lots of meetings and long phone calls, and arranging model shoots. But as the project goes on I spend most of the time at my desk. I'm usually working by 9.30am. I stop for lunch and lots of coffee breaks but, if the work is going well or a deadline is looming, I might continue to work until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.
15. What make of paints/inks/brushes and other media do you use. Do you have any superstitious attachments to a particular working tool?
I mostly use Winsor & Newton paints. I've used all kinds of watercolour papers but now I've settled on Arches, and I go through hundreds of Faber-Castell pencils.
P. J. Lynch will answer supplemetary questions at the end of the
month.
To have your question considered for selection post it to the ACHUKA e-mail
address.
|
