The Illustrator's Busman's Holiday : Garry Parsons

Among the things I enjoy seeing posted on Twitter are illustrator’s roughs for the projects they are working on. I’ve always been curious to know how other illustrators develop their work because everyone’s process of working is unique. These initial character sketches and pencil outlines sometimes give you a hint of that process and would have mostly gone unseen in the days before social media.

Recently my attention has been drawn to posts that have included observational drawings, city scenes or landscapes and even life drawing, all of which appear separate from work projects and made out of studio time. These drawings are often accompanied by a text or a title alluding to the illustrator being on holiday, travelling or simply having a few minutes to spare in a coffee shop or killing time on a station platform. Some of these drawings are superb!

Hannah Warren - Montenegro Sketch book and "Black Lake"

I have always drawn (well ever since I can remember anyway) and when I visit schools today I often tell the children that I have been practicing my pencil skills since I was first born. (I draw a baby version of myself to illustrate this). So when I studied painting at art college it wasn’t a challenge for me when the tutors encouraged the students to carry a sketchbook with them at all times because I already did and still do today. So, when I’m travelling or going on holiday, my bags always include drawing equipment and sketchbooks, which appear before swimming trunks and passports on my packing list.

Garry Parsons - El Turbón, Spain

On a recent trip to Somerset with my seven-year-old son, we stopped on a hillside, got a blanket out of the car and sketched the landscape together. My son confidently explained to me that there was “no imagination needed” because it’s all there, right in front of you – the hills, the farm, the trees and cattle – and “you don’t have to make it up!” 

Garry Parsons - Kilve Beach, Somerset.                                             Guy Parker-Rees - Sussex Downs

He was right, of course, in some ways. Drawing on a hillside, there are no deadlines, art directors, editors, sales team or authors to consider. No one was going to suggest I use a different colour or change the eyes on the cows from circles to dots.  What there is, though, is a quiet joy in just sitting and drawing what you see, especially on a warm evening in a beautiful place with another artist, even if they are just seven. But, despite having carried a sketchbook with me most of my life and always feeling the urge to sit and draw, this was the first time I’d really considered what it was that actually compels me to do it. And it’s a curious question to ponder.  I can come up with many different answers, most of them valid in some way or other, but what it really comes down to is feeling a sense of ease through drawing what you see. It’s like a necessary nourishment that’s unique and personal.

Garry Parsons - Santa Cruz de la Serós and Luz-Saint-Sauveur.

So after my son’s encouraged revelation I made a mental note each time I spotted a landscape or holiday sketch posted by an illustrator on Twitter to ask them the same question, what is it that motivates them to continue drawing “out of studio hours” when probably, like me, they spend most of their day drawing anyway.

Guy Parker-Rees told me: “I love drawing and painting landscapes when I have the time and I go life drawing every week. Life drawing is the very best way of keeping that loose connection between eye and hand. I love the freedom to let go and experiment when doing my own work. No brief, no deadline, just enjoying the process. I'm sure it always feeds back into my illustration work: it's a way of trying things out, maybe using different media or techniques.

I think it's important to keep experimenting with different ways of working in order to keep your style fresh and to make sure it keeps growing and evolving.”

Guy Parker-Rees - 20 minute life drawing

And the dexterous Hannah Warren told me:

“I draw to relax and to think and to observe and to remember. Drawing for yourself is very different and private and many things just stay in the number of small sketchbooks. It's good to have something that’s just for you. Some things though, are used as a basis for commissioned work, like an interesting person walking their dog, someone smoking on a wall, a couple having an argument. I like to look a lot at body language and how people just go about their lives. My work has so many people in it because that’s what I’m most interested in. As for drawing “on holiday” this is again to record a new place.”

Hannah Warren - Sketch

I’ve seen some beautiful work worthy of high praise from many other illustrators too, Adam Stower and Thomas Docherty to name a couple. Wonderful artists with acutely refined drawing skills, the depth of which just might have been concealed within the confines of picture book characters or a commercially designed illustration job but glimpsed in these “out of studio” works.

So if you enjoy a good drawing, these are well worth looking out for on your Twitter feed!

 

Garry Parsons - Roda de Isábena

But now I’m left wondering if authors do this too? Do they sit on the beach on holiday in Minehead conjuring poetry, psalms or haiku just for pleasure? I’m curious!

***

Guy Parker-Rees is the award-winning illustrator of Giraffes Can't Dance which has sold over 215,000 copies. He is extensively published by Orchard, Walker and Little Tiger. Visit Guy's website HERE and follow him on twitter @Guyguyyug 

Hannah Warren is an illustrator and bike lady who lives and works in South London and has recently worked for The New York Times and The Sunday Telegraph as well as in publishing. Hannah's work has also been animated for broadcast. Visit Hannah's website HERE and follow her on Twitter @_hannah_warren_ 

Garry Parsons is an award winning illustrator of children's books including the best selling picture book "The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas" by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter. Visit Garry's website HERE and follow him on Twitter @ICanDrawDinos

Writing Away (or Going Away to Write) by Malachy Doyle

 I'm lucky, me. I have a study.

I also have a writing hut.

But I still find that some of the best ideas happen when I’m away.

When I started writing, over 20 years ago now, I went on a week-long course at Ty Newydd. It’s on the Lleyn Peninsula in Wales - and it’s a wonderful place to write. 

The tutors were Kevin Crossley-Holland and Valerie Bloom and they were both fantastically encouraging. ‘You’ve got it, Malachy,’ they said. ‘Now go home and do it!’

So I did. And two of the stories I was working on that week became books (The Football Ghosts, 11 years later, and The Snuggle Sandwich, 14 years later!)

A year after that I got a bursary from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and spent it on a week at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan.  Another superb place to write.

Three of the stories I was working on that week became books - Una and the Sea-Cloak, The King of the Birds and Moya, The Luck Child.

These days, when I go away, it’s generally to help other people write. I’ve been back to Ty Newydd many times, running courses, including with both Kevin and Valerie.   

I’ve also led residential courses at Annaghmakerrig and at all three of the Arvon centres across England – courses for schoolchildren and for adults. It’s great to give back, to encourage, to inspire, to help people find their voice… And it’s wonderful to discover the occasional just-about-fully-formed-but-didn't-yet-know-it writer to whom you can say, ‘You’ve got it! Now go home and do it!’

At the Totleigh Barton Arvon centre in Devon I was teaching a new writer for children, Anthea Simmons. She wrote her first picture book story ‘Share!’ there. It’s gone on to be published in many languages, and already has two sequels.

 In the same place, on a course I taught with Vivian French, we helped a new and very exciting young writer by the name of Michelle Robinson find her picture-book voice. (She's been known to lurk hereabouts.)   

And just the other day I heard from the illustrator Guy Parker-Rees that a character he developed on an Arvon course I was teaching a while back has not only become a book, but has sold to Brown Bag films for development as an animation series.

Running courses helps my own writing too. I generally sit in on the sessions of my co-tutors, often finding myself inspired to write things I’d never have written at home. I was recently teaching an Arvon schools course with Sheena Wilkinson, a fellow Northern Irish writer, and wrote a story in one of her sessions (in fifteen minutes flat, as you do!) that, fingers crossed, will soon be a picture book.

So, yes, I’m a big fan of writing courses and of the idea of going away to write. It's a excellent way to shift gear, to see things differently, to try a new approach or a whole new genre and to find the confidence to follow where it leads...

And if anyone’s tempted, I’m leading one at The Hurst (the newly-refurbished and delightful Arvon centre in Shropshire) at the end of May.

It’s a Tutored Retreat, so rather than running workshops, I’ll be available all week, with my co-tutor, the very excellent Narinder Dhami, to help you with your writing. Whatever you’re working on – from picture books to young adult, it’ll be a great place to find inspiration, to write and to develop as a writer. And maybe, hopefully, like me, you’ll get a book or two out of it. Arvon tell me there are still some places left, and that there's a possibility of bursaries for those who can’t afford the full fee. Oh, and our special guest on the Wednesday night is the superb Geraldine McCaughrean – not to be missed.

So has anyone else any suggestions as to other good places to go away and write. What works for you, and why?

 

 Malachy's latest book is Sea Stories, published by OUP in their series
 'The Greatest Stories' (Oxford Reading Tree: Treetops), May 2016

And if anyone would like to find out more about the tutored retreat at The Hurst, go to the Arvon website:

http://www.arvon.org/course/childrens-and-young-adult-fiction-tutored-retreat/
 
or ring The Hurst 01588640658 (from UK), email thehurst@arvon.org