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You are here: Home / Archives for Meet

Meet An Illustrator 3 – Debi Gliori

January 22, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

self-portrait © Debi Gliori

We’re delighted to have Debi Gliori as the third guest in ACHUKA’s  new Meet An Illustrator feature. Did you miss the first one with Jim Field? The second one with James Mayhew?

 
I daren’t count them all, but Debi must have published nearly 100 picture books, both by herself (the Mr Bear series has sold millions of copies worldwide) and in collaboration (for example with Joyce Dunbar on Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go To Sleep).
 
In the early 2000’s she turned her hand to fiction, publishing a luxurious, velvet-bound trilogy Pure Dead Magic, Pure Dead Wicked and Pure Dead Brilliant, followed by a further, associated trilogy, also velvet-bound.
 
Her picture book Night Shift was shortlisted for the 2018 Greenaway Medal and described by Jake Hope as an “extraordinary picture book that articulates through its art and spare, staccato sentences, what it is to feel depressed.  A massively important conversation-starter and a useful and clear way to explore depression and its far-reaching roots, enabling greater understanding.”

This year we can look forward to:

  • The Boy and the Moonimal from Bloomsbury in June
  • ‘A Cat Called Waverley’ from Otter Barry Books 

    image from the book posted to Debi’s Instagram


 

As a child, what were the first illustrations you remember being pleased with? 

Drinkers in a bar in Barcelona. I carefully copied the words ‘Cocktail Bar’ into my little sketchbook and felt very chuffed with myself. I’ve still got the drawing – it is remarkably accurate, down to the row of optics and a solitary drinker. I was 4 at the time. I still have the sketchbook. 

 

Who/what inspired you when you were young?

A girl at school who said my drawings were rubbish because I didn’t colour inside the lines. I’ll show her, I thought…

 

Who inspires you today?

My family. They’re at the heart of everything I do.

 

Did you study art or illustration? If so, where?

Five years of illustration and graphic design at Edinburgh College of Art.

 

What is your favourite artist tool/product?

My elderly watercolour pan box. Opening it is like being a child stepping into a sweet shop. Eye candy in its purest form. All those colours just waiting to be brought to life with water.  Every one of the books I’ve made has begun in that box. 

 

Where do you buy your art supplies?

At the moment, from the multiple temptations ( I have to rein myself in every time I log onto their site) of the online box of delights that is Jackson’s Art. 

 

What software/apps do you use?

None. I’m an analogue artist. Writing too. I use brushes, charcoal, watercolour, acrylics, paper, canvas and a fountain pen.

 

What was your first commission?

Such fun! It was a series of Star Wars-inspired murals painted on the bedroom walls of a very fancy house in a nearby town. 

 

What are you working on at the moment?

A book about a Viking heroine defying her family’s expectations. Also, a series of large 1m square paintings of peonies. 

 

Twitter or Instagram? Yes

Coffee or tea? Absolutely

Cat or dog? Dog, every time. But can I ask for a third category? Thankyou.  Guinea Pig. 

Grape or grain? In tiny doses because migraines. But both. No preference.

Sunrise or sunset? Sunrise. I love Da Day Dawn. Best time ever and a beautiful Shetland tune. All that possibility.

What do you listen to when you are working?

I crave silence when I’m  writing. Can’t hear what I’m doing otherwise . When I’m painting, the odd audiobook or Jan Garbarek, Arve Henriksen, John Surman, Philip Glass, Olafur Arnalds, Espen Eriksen Trio or- brace yourself – I leap to my feet, grab my fiddle and play something that needs practice. 

 

Where can we follow you on social media?

@debigliori on Twitter (for passion and politics and what makes me laugh or weep)

@debi_gliori on Instagram (for what I’m working on)

 

 

This is a regular weekend feature, publishing every Saturday.

Filed Under: Meet

Meet An Illustrator 2 – James Mayhew

January 15, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

self-portrait © James Mayhew

We’re delighted to have James Mayhew as the second guest in ACHUKA’s  new Meet An Illustrator feature, which launched last week with Jim Field.

James is an amazing ambassador of art and music for children, and he has a huge number of adult followers on Twitter who appreciate his #BookIllustrationOfTheDay hashtag posts. He is probably known best for the sequence of Katie books, featuring famous artists and paintings, which began with Katie’s Picture Show (1989).  
 
 
More recently, he collaborated with Jackie Morris on Mrs Noah’s Garden, an ACHUKA Book of the Day in May 2020:

This year we can look forward to:

  • Gaspard’s Foxtrot written by Zeb Soanes illustrated by James Mayhew
    Publishing with Graffeg UK March 2021

  • Mouse and Mole 6: the Secret of Happiness written by Joyce Dunbar illustrated by James Mayhew
    Publishing with Graffeg May 2021

 

As a child, what were the first illustrations you remember being pleased with? 

 By myself? A painting of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, when I was about 7!

 

Who/what inspired you when you were young?

 A book called “Art Treasures of the World” – it directly inspired my first book, Katie’s Picture Show. But I also loved book illustrators: Edward Ardizzone, Maurice Sendak, the Johnston sisters, Ronald Searle,Tove Jansson, Errol le Cain, Brian Wildsmith, John Burningham… these are the illustrators I grew up with.

 

Who inspires you today?

 So many… I’m still inspired by older illustrators: Edmund Dulac, Roger Duvoisin, John Minton, Edward Bawden… Amongst my contemporaries, I greatly admire  Angela Barrett, Jackie Morris, Sarah Massini, Ehsan Abdollahi, Benji Davies, Sarah McIntyre, P J Lynch, Komoko Sakai, Emily Sutton…(I could go on!)

 

Did you study art or illustration? If so, where?

 Yes, first in Lowestoft (Foundation Course), then Maidstone (Illustration BA)

 

What is your favourite artist tool/product?

 I have two. First is a dip-pen – I love using pen and ink. Second is a pair of Moomin scissors, gifted to me by Clara Vulliamy, which I use for my collage work..

 

Where do you buy your art supplies?

 The Art Trading Company in Bungay, Suffolk. Happily the Waveney Valley is full of artists, so this tiny town manages to have a fantastic art shop.

 

What software/apps do you use?

 None.

 

What was your first commission?

 The front cover of Nell Dunn’s novel “Up The Junction” for Virago Press

What are you working on at the moment?

 Book 6 in the Mouse and Mole series

Mouse and Mole  2020

 

Twitter or Instagram? Twitter

Coffee or tea? Neither – hot water and lemon

Cat or dog? Dog

Grape or grain?  Grape

Sunrise or sunset?  Sunrise

 

What do you listen to when you are working?

 Podcasts; ABBA; Classical music; Opera. Today it is Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Snowmaiden”

 

Where can we follow you on social media?

@mrjamesmayhew on Twitter

@mrjamesmayhew on Instagram

Facebook – James Mayhew – Author & illustrator

 

This is a regular weekend feature, publishing every Saturday.

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Meet

Meet An Illustrator 1 – Jim Field

January 9, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

self-portrait © Jim Field

We’re delighted to have Jim Field as the first subject of our new Meet An Illustrator feature.

Jim’s first picture book was Cats Ahoy written by Peter Bently, which won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in 2011. He has become known for drawing frogs on logs since the picture book Oi Frog! written by Kes Gray became a best-seller.
 
Last year he published his first self-authored picture book Monsieur Roscoe On Holiday and is currently at work on a second Monsieur Roscoe title.
 

This year we can look forward to:

  • The Whale Who Wanted More written by Rachel Bright illustrated by Jim Field
    Publishing with Hachette Children’s Books UK April 2021

  • Rabbit and Bear – A Bad King is a Sad Thing (the 5th book in this picture book series) written by Julian Gough illustrated by Jim Field
    Publishing with Hachette Children’s Books Aug 2021

 

As a child, what were the first illustrations you remember being pleased with? 

A Summer Fair Poster I illustrated when I was 5 years old, it was picked as the winning illustration to be used for my School. The drawing is still somewhere at my parents’ house.

 

Who/what inspired you when you were young?

Characters were a big inspiration to me from a very young age – from cartoons and books, Tom and Jerry, Wile-E Coyote and Roadrunner, Richard Scarry’s Busy Town. My dream was to make animated cartoons as a child.

 

Who inspires you today?

Many things inspire me from music, my surroundings, my family, walks in nature, films, exhibitions, other illustrators (too many to name here). 

 

Did you study art or illustration? If so, where?

I studied a BA in Animation at Hull School of Art and Design from 1999-2002.

 

What is your favourite artist tool/product?

A Jumbo Faber Castell 4B pencil.

 

Where do you buy your art supplies?

Rougier et Plé in Paris 11éme.

 

What software/apps do you use?

Photoshop. I’ve been using it for 20 years, we have a love/hate relationship.

 

What was your first commission?

I designed a logo of a super-hero character for a Carpet Company back in 2002. 

 

What are you working on at the moment?

I am just starting work on my second self-authored/illustrated bilingual book, Monsieur Roscoe; Book 2 (title still to be confirmed!) 

 

Twitter or Instagram? Instagram

Coffee or tea? Tea

Cat or dog? Dog

Grape or grain? Grain

Sunrise or sunset? Sunset

 

What do you listen to when you are working?

Oh I love to listen to many types of music while I work, such as Bill Callahan, Ravi Shankar, Eternal Tapestry, Brian Eno. 

 

Where can we follow you on social media?

@_JimField on Twitter

@_JimField on Instagram

 

This will be a regular weekend feature, publishing every Saturday.

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Meet

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