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!

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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

Seven Brilliant Books about BIBLIOPHILES • Jonathan Emmett

Prince Ribbit, my latest picture book with the wonderfully talented Argentinian illustrator Poly Bernatene, has just been published in UK hardback and paperback.

Prince Ribbit’s heroine, Princess Martha finds inspiration in the Royal Library. 

Although Prince Ribbit is the fourth book that Poly and I have done together, it’s really a follow up to our second, The Princess and the Pig, in that both stories are set in a fairytale world populated by characters who love books.

The characters in The Princess and the Pig use the books they’re reading to interpret (usually mistakenly) what's happening to them in the the story.

As a book-lover myself, I’ve aways enjoyed reading stories about other bibliophiles. There’s something satisfyingly meta about reading a book about a character who is reading a book. So here are seven brilliant picture books about bibliophiles.


One of my favourite novels of recent years is David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas which is effectively six books nested inside each other like a set of Russian dolls. Each book jumps forward in time and one of the ingenious connections between the stories is that characters featured in the inner books are reading the outer books. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book does something similar in picture book format. Each spread introduces a new character who is reading their favourite book, the inside of which is shown on the next spread. So the book starts with eponymous Charlie, who is reading a book about a pirate, who is reading a book of fairy tales, and so on. While Scheffler's spread layouts shift around as the reader jumps from genre to genre, Donaldson ties the whole bookshelf together with her perfectly-scanning rhyme.

The spread from Joust Joking, Sir Percy the knight’s favourite book.

Jane Blatt and Sarah Massini’s Books Always Everywhere features a diverse group of toddlers enjoying an equally diverse selection of books. Blatt’s simple but charming rhyming text combines beautifully with Massini’s cheerful, perfectly-composed illustrations to make this book an ideal gift for budding bibliophiles, especially in the board book edition. Published in 2013, this book deserves to become a pre-school classic.

The board book edition of Books Always Everywhere makes an ideal gift for budding bibliophiles

Timothy Knapman and Adam Stower’s Mungo and the Picture Book Pirates is one of three books in which young Mungo literally enters into the book he is reading to join in with the adventure. In this first outing Captain Fleet, hero of Mungo’s favourite pirate picture book, is so worn out after six back-to-back readings of his story, that he abandons his book leaving Mungo to take his place and rescue Admiral Mainbrace and cabin girl Nora from a crew of dastardly pirates. The second book in the series, Mungo and the Spiders from Space, was featured in one of my earlier PBD posts.

With the hero holidaying in another book, Mungo is obliged to take his place in the story.

In Lauren Child’s Beware of Storybook Wolves the traffic is going the other way, with characters leaving little Herb’s favourite bedtime book to join him in the real world. Published in 2000 (before many publishers developed their current anorexic obsession with diminished word counts) Child’s quirky, characterful 1,300 word text is accompanied by equally quirky and characterful illustrations in which a trio of villains (two hungry wolves and a wicked fairy) emerge to threaten poor Herb before being seen off by a fairy godmother.

When Herb’s mother leaves a book behind one night, he finds himself at the mercy of two hungry wolves.

Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates sees Dog pursuing the dream of many a bibliophile – opening their own bookshop! Sadly, the bookshop's "grand opening" is a disappointing anti-climax. However Dog is able to find solace in his stock until trade picks up. You can watch Alison Steadman reading the book here.

Dog shows his love of books by opening his own bookshop.

Ralfy Rabbit loves books so much, he ends up stealing them to feed his insatiable reading habit in WANTED! Ralfy Rabbit Book Burgular by Emily MacKenzie. But Ralfy’s book-burglaring days come to an end when young Arthur spots Ralfy making off with a favourite book.

Ralfy Rabbit’s love of books puts him on the wrong side of the law.

Henry, the title character of Oliver Jeffers’s The Incredible Book Eating Boy also has an insatiable appetite for books – only he likes to eat rather than read them. The more he eats, the smarter he gets. Eventually the strain on his digestive system proves too much and Henry finds a more conventional way to feed his love of literature.

Henry’s bibliophilia manifests itself in a rather unusual way.

I hope this post has whetted your own appetite for some bibliophilic picture books! If you have a favourite picture book about a book-lover that I haven’t mentioned, I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.

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Jonathan Emmett's latest picture book about bibliophiles is Prince Ribbit, illustrated by Poly Bernatene and published by Macmillan Children's Books.

Find out more about Jonathan and his books at his Scribble Street web site or his blog. You can also follow Jonathan on Facebook and Twitter @scribblestreet.

See all of Jonathan's posts for Picture Book Den.

TO BOLDY GO: Picture books in space • Jonathan Emmett

As someone who grew up at the time of the Apollo Missions I’ve always found the idea of space travel hugely appealing and had a particular interest in stories that are set in space.

I've pitched several space-set stories to publishers over the years. However, while I’ve had some success getting space-set chapter fiction published …

The Captain Comet chapter fiction books illustrated by Andy Parker are set in space.

… none of the space-set picture books I’ve pitched have ever made it into print.

An art sample by illustrator Steve Cox for Invasion of the Botty Snatchers,
an unpublished space-set picture book we developed together.

Of course this could be because none of them were any good, but when another of my space-set picture book ideas was turned down last year, the publisher told me that one of the reasons was that, “picture books set in space generally don’t sell.”

If this is true, then I think it shows that the picture book market is currently catering to the tastes of a demographic that is relatively narrow compared to its potential readership. There are plenty of picture book age children that are interested in stories set in space. However these children are currently having this appetite fed by TV shows and films rather than books. My son and several of his friends were obsessed with the original U certificate Star Wars trilogy from the age of four and when I went to see the new Star Wars film over Christmas, I was struck by how many parents had brought small children to see it, despite its 12 certificate rating.

If publishers want to show these children that picture books are every bit as capable of matching the appeal of their favourite films and TV shows, they might consider “boldly going” into space a little more often. And I do mean “boldly”; it’s not just the setting that’s important. There is a market for gentler picture book stories set in space, but such books will not cut it with young readers with an appetite for dogfights and death stars. These children need picture books that can match the dastardly villainy, thrillingly perilous predicaments and sophisticated craft and weaponry evident in films like Star Wars.

Here are three space-set books that are a good deal “bolder” than most.

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The King of Space written and Illustrated by Jonny Duddle is one of the best picture books of the last ten years and shamefully under-recognised by reviewers and awards judges alike. It’s a brilliantly illustrated, tech-tastic, action packed epic, filled with battling spaceships, menacing robots and a pint-sized megalomaniac.

The hardback edition comes with a dust-cover that unfolds to make this awesome poster of a 'warbot'.

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Nuts in Space written and illustrated by Elys Dolan is a madcap space epic that's brimful of comic references to both Star Wars and Star Trek. Charged with transporting “The Lost Nuts of Legend” across the galaxy, the crew of Forest Fleet’s finest starship encounter a mischievous menagerie of creatures from little green men to ravenous Ewok-like bears, before falling into the clutches of Daft Monkey and his legion of simian stormtroopers.

The book is full of amusing in-jokes for sci-fi fans young and old, such as this encounter between Daft Monkey and Commander Moose.

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Mungo and the Spiders from Space written by Timothy Knapman, illustrated by Adam Stower is part of an excellent series of Mungo stories in which Mungo, the young hero, enters the world of a favourite bedtime book. In this story it's a comic book adventure featuring a Dan-Dare-like space hero called Captain Galacticus.

Galacticus and Mungo join forces to thwart the villainous, Dr Frankenstinker, the "maddest scientist on Mercury".

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Can you recommend any other picture books that "boldly go" into space? If so, we'd love to hear about them in the comments box below.

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Jonathan Emmett's latest picture book is Fast and Furry Racers: The Silver Serpent Cup illustrated by Ed Eaves and published by Oxford University Press.

Find out more about Jonathan and his books at his Scribble Street web site or his blog. You can also follow Jonathan on Facebook and Twitter @scribblestreet.

See all of Jonathan's posts for Picture Book Den.