Alison Wow thank you so much ,that is very kind of you . My creative process is very old school,I paint with Alkyd (a quick drying oil paint ) on paper, more recently I paint on smooth water colour paper as it seems to give a softness to the texture of the paint. I then often add a crackle varnish which is a three part process involving different layers of varnish, some people comment that the varnish gives a look of old porcelain and some of old paintings I like both those ideas. My colour pallet seems to have become slightly more subtle over the years although I still favour certain paint colours, I think most illustrators and painters do .
Alison: Ha, yes, I'm very pleased to say that all radiators are now fully functional,just in time for winter. When I am not working on a book or looking for plumbers , I love painting new one off paintings for my etsy shop, it gives me a great opportunity to paint anything that pops into my head,it is very refreshing sometimes when I am between books and helps me try out new ideas. I am also constantly thinking of new book ideas, I have sketch books full of scribbles for new books but finishing the stories is the part I find the most difficult.
Alison: When I graduated my style was completely different to the way I work now. I used pen and ink a lot and also made 3D models out of paper which were photographed. I had specialised in illustration at college and made short animated films since I was at school so I had hoped I could work both as an animator and an illustrator. I trundled my portfolio around both animation studios, publishers, design, and advertising agencies, anyone really who would let me through the door. The animation studios seemed to have more work for an inexperienced graduate so I worked as a background artist and animated a few small background sequences. I'm afraid I found working on someone else's ideas and styles a little frustrating, I guess I was rather impatient. I eventually landed my first illustration commission for a music paper which was fantastic, I was so excited to see my work in print. My commissions were quite sparse at the time but I carried on developing my illustration style. My sister worked as an illustrator, she had an agent and she suggested I show my work to her agent which I did and amazingly they decided to represent me. I have been lucky enough now to have been working ever since, give or take a few quiet patches in the early years.
Alison: It did take a lot longer than usual to develop the character of the Tiny baker. When I first read the manuscript I really loved the quirkiness and the way Hayley had written the story, it left the main baker character open to interpretation. The editors at Barefoot books suggested trying the Baker as a tiny human with insect qualities and also a full insect character. I scribbled pages and pages of ideas, tiny French chefs with antennae, fleas, moths, lily beetles, flour beetles until eventually I tried a plump bumble bee and hurray she worked so was cast in leading role. The funny thing that happened as soon as I started working on the Tiny Baker it was as though all the insects in the area heard about the book so came to visit me and have a sneaky peek. I had a small ladybird swarm, spiders, grass hoppers, then one morning I found a large slug sitting on the upstairs ceiling, to this day I have no idea how he got there. All creatures were carefully relocated to the garden.
e: Ha! I love it. What do you think makes an illustration magical, what I call "Heart Art” - the sort that makes a reader want to come back to look again and again?Alison: Oh that is a very good question. I think for me now and possibly since I was a child a magical illustration is one that is based in reality but has a strangeness to it, a world from the author and illustrators imagination, it could be a frightening world where witches and monsters live or a dreamlike, surreal world where anything could happen. I think if the reader believes in that world it really pulls them in and fires their own imagination. I loved the books of Beatrix Potter as a child and although I knew animals didn't wear clothes or visit small shops, I could believe they did when I looked at her wonderful illustrations. I also love illustrations with atmosphere, again I think if an Illustrator manages to capture a mood or feeling it really helps the reader to believe in the story and want to look for longer and repeatedly at that picture.
Alison: I have been so lucky over the years that I have been almost constantly busy with books and other illustration work. My first picture book was commissioned about a year after I joined the Illustration agency "The Organisation" .The publisher of that book was happy with end result so soon afterwards commissioned another book. Meanwhile I think if you can get your work published and on the book shop shelves the process seems to snowball, other publishers see your work and hopefully commission their books. At the moment I don't have an agent,the Organisation closed early last year when the founder sadly died. I may need another agent in the future but at the moment I am busy illustrating a book for a publisher I have worked with many times and before that I illustrated the wonderful story by Hayley Barrett The Tiny Baker. I am also working with a toy company who are producing really good quality puzzles and other toys using my illustrations which is very exciting. As for advertising myself I try to post a new illustration every week on Instagram, I love seeing other illustrators and artists work and it is great when anyone leaves comments or gets in touch, I think social media is a brilliant way to show your work, not just for new illustrators but for us old timers too.
Alison: Ha, yes, I really did fantasise about tea time treats while painting all those cakes, especially as the editor I worked with on the Tiny Baker has two young daughters who love baking, she would often tell me the latest delicious treat to emerge from their oven. My "signature bake" would have to be date flapjacks, I think they are the easiest bake on the planet.
I love all parts of the creative process from sketching the characters , working out the compositions and painting the illustrations. I mentioned earlier the one challenging part of working on the Tiny Baker was creating the baker character, we got there in the end and I'm so glad the editors made sure we all made the right decision.
Alison: I think the obvious story in The Tiny Baker is about friendship. It is great that the ants "do what ants do best" and all pull together to clear up the huge mess in the kitchen made by the ladybird cooks. It is amazing the way ants work together in the natural world, so a good message would be if we all pull together we can make a big difference, us humans have certainly created a huge mess which needs cleaning up.
I love the way most young children have a fascination with all creatures including insects, older children and adults often seem to develop a revulsion for anything with six or eight legs which is such a shame, so it would be wonderful to think my insect characters could help children to keep their interest in tiny creatures and maybe help their parents to feel more kindly towards insects, even the ones without top hats and ball gowns.
Alison: At the moment I have just started a new book called Pitch Perfect and Persistent it is the true story of Amy Beach, a composer and pianist, born in 1867, a child musical prodigy. Against all the odds at the time of sexual inequality she managed to carve an amazing career although even to this day she is still not as well known as her male peers.
As for my dream project, that is very difficult to answer as I have had the opportunity to illustrate some wonderful manuscripts over the years, The Tiny Baker is right up there with my favourites. I love painting animals so any project featuring animals would be a dream. A couple of years ago I illustrated a book by Julia Copus called My Bed Is an Air Balloon, I adore painting landscapes from the air and dreamlike scenery so it was wonderful to combine two of my favourite subject matters, having said that I can't think of many subject matters I don't enjoy painting, perhaps machinery might be a challenge for me, unless it has a face.
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