Please
describe your chosen illustration
This picture is of the Adelaide
Cemetery in Villers-Bretonneux, in the
Somme region of France.
I based it on several photographs I took there, plus a sketch on the spot. I
painted it in my apartment in Paris,
where I lived for a few months in 2011 with an amazing view across the road to
the golden dome of Les Invalides. It was done with acrylics in one day – I was
on a roll! It’s one of 75 paintings I did for my book The Poppy, which is to be released in March 2014. Obviously, it’s a
picture book, with a few hundred words, but it is principally the pictures that
tell the story. I ended up removing 6 of the paintings from the final layout,
about a week’s work. Oddly enough, it didn’t cause any angst – the book was
much better without them. A whole book is the same as one illustration –
knowing what to leave in and what to leave out can make all the difference.
When did you
know you had a talent for illustration?
I was drawing 30 page comic books when I was 10 or 11, and
dinosaur ‘books’ when I was 8. I always drew and wrote as a kid. I wasn’t
really one for kicking the footy on the weekend – in fact I don’t ever recall
doing it! The person who really gave me a shove was my HSC art teacher, David
Williams. He took one look at my work and said that his art was nothing like
mine, so he couldn’t help me – I’d have to work things out for myself. Of
course, he actually was right there advising and guiding the whole time, but he
made me really believe that I had it in me, and that all I had to do was find
it myself. It gave me a huge boost of self-confidence at the same time as
scaring the hell out of me!
Have you ever
studied your craft at an institution of any sort?
Apart from HSC Art, and the normal school art classes up to Year
10, I never studied art. Everything after school was self-taught. There’s a lot
to be said for going it alone – no danger of picking up a tutor’s style. But it
can be slow. These days in particular, I think a course of some sort would be
important for an illustrator just starting out, if only to learn a bit about
the industry. It’s much tougher out there now than when I started out.
What computer
programmes do you use?
I don’t do anything on computer at all, and I’ve never been
asked to. The predicted demise of hand-rendered art never eventuated, except
for things like maps, graphs etc, which are faster and better on a computer.
Black and white seems to have also gone as colour printing is now relatively so
cheap. Since computer art is so ubiquitous, and Photoshop lets anyone with
half-decent art skills create good looking work, hand-rendered seems to have
become more in demand, possibly because it isn’t something everyone can do.
Have you
illustrated any books?
I’ve illustrated about 70 books, and lots of magazine articles
and other odds and ends. I think Could a
Tyrannosaurus play Table Tennis? is probably my favourite. It was the first
major picture book that I wrote as well as illustrated. Like The Poppy, it wasn’t commissioned, but
just an idea I liked and wanted to explore.
For commissioned work, it usually just starts with an email and
me saying yes! It’s rare that I’ve turned down an offer, though it has
happened. Then the manuscript is sent, and if I still think I’d enjoy doing it,
I start doodles, then roughs, and hopefully something the editors like emerges.
It’s rare that I meet the authors; In fact, it’s only happened
once, but we worked really well together and it was great fun to be with
another creator. She was amazingly generous with letting me do my own thing, or
maybe my vision just happened to match hers – her writing is visually vivid.
I’ve met a few of my editors, but many are just email addresses,
and occasionally a voice on the end of the phone.
The time to do a book varies from a few weeks to several months.
The Poppy was done over two and a
half years, including planning and research and pauses whilst doing things that
paid the bills.
Unless they are ridiculous, I like deadlines. I need a bit of
pressure to stop me doodling and getting distracted, and just get on with it.
Who is your
favourite Australian children’s book illustrator and why?
Shaun Tan is my favourite Australian illustrator; I probably
don’t have to explain why. If I had to pin it down to one thing, I would say
imagination – his is unique, coupled with fantastic skill.
What’s your
website or blog address (if you have one)?
My website is www.andrewplant.com I don’t have a blog – I
don’t think I’m really all that interesting. And I’m afraid from what I’ve
read, neither are most people who have blogs! There are some outstanding
exceptions amongst illustrators that I’ve found, but honestly, if you’re half
decent at your job, who has the time to keep up a running commentary of their
life? I’d rather be out doing something new, than writing about something I’ve
already done.
Would you like
to tell us anything else about yourself and/or your work?
New illustrators should bear in mind that very few of us
‘oldies’ get all our income from illustrating. I also do murals, and set design
and construction and scenic painting. School and library visits to talk about a
book often brings in more than sales of the book itself. Murals and sets are
just really big illustrations, I guess, and working on an 8 x 20 metre picture
instead of an 8 x 20 cm one is very liberating, except for the sore arms and
neck! But I wouldn’t change it for anything!
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