Q：Your work is often characterized by subtle emotions, imaginative ideas, and a gentle, comforting quality. How did this highly distinctive and recognizable artistic style develop over time? Was it a gradual process, and were there any key influences or experiences that helped shape it?
Thank you for your kind observations.
I think that I can attribute my style, and subsequent career to being a late bloomer.
It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that it occurred to me to become an illustrator, and my first book wasn’t published until I was thirty-three years old.
I had grown up loving drawing and surrounded by a talented artistic family. My mum taught art in a school for pupils with special needs, and my dad was a technician at an art college and a print maker, so although I had the grounding in art, I thought the only routes open as a career were teacher or fine artist. I didn’t want to teach, and what I drew didn’t feel like ‘fine art’ to me. As a result, I spent my late teenage, and early adult years travelling the UK, and living in an old bus. I met a lot of people and experienced a lot of things, which needed humour and imagination to surmount. By the time I was a mother and was reading picture books to my child all these experiences were influencing what I drew. My style has changed and matured over the last twenty years of my career, because that reflects my life.
Q：For emerging illustrators who aspire to reach an international audience and have their work seen by readers around the world, what practical advice would you offer? Are there any steps they can take to increase their chances of being noticed by publishers, agents, and readers in other countries?
I’m not sure that I would give specific advice to emerging illustrators to try and reach international audiences. I think that what is charming about an illustrators’ work are the quirks that come from their personal and cultural backgrounds, whether that be in style or content. I think of my illustrations as very British. I include British wildlife, and items of everyday use that I have grown up with, and I wouldn’t wish to change that. I think children benefit from seeing the subtle ways that different cultures explore the world visually. It can open a dialogue between the child and adult about how people live around the world, which is great. I’m generally amenable to change things that might offend, or give a very different meaning in another country, but I will still aim to stay true to the books that I want to make.
Q：How do you maintain your creative energy over the long term? For illustrators who are constantly striving to grow and push beyond their comfort zones, what do you believe are the most important mindsets and habits to cultivate?
Sustaining creativity is without doubt the hardest part of being a picture book maker.
When I began writing and illustrating, I assumed that with time it would become easier to think up ideas and to keep the creative flow, but in fact it has stayed just as difficult as when I began, and sometimes it is harder because I’ve used a lot of the ideas that first excited me.
The thing that has changed, is that with experience comes the knowledge that eventually an idea will come. Unfortunately, experience hasn’t taught me when or how that idea will materialise, so each time I finish a book I suffer through an unnamed period of stress hoping that something will kickstart the creative process.
I used to spend these times at my desk berating myself on my lack of creativity, but nowadays I am kinder to myself, so if I am stuck, I will leave my desk to spend time in my garden, make pottery, or do DIY on my house (which is old, and always in need of some repair or improvement). These activities along with walking my dog, free my mind up enough for me to be open to new ideas.
I think what keeps me going, and I think is the best advice for illustrators just breaking through is to try to feel the pleasure in what you are doing, even if what you are doing may not become your next book. Give it a little time and space because something you draw or think or hear may grow to become something else. I have been (and am) guilty of shooting down my own ideas before I’ve given them a chance to work. This self-criticism although necessary to weed out bad work, tends to run riot if not recognised.
I am a creature of habit, so I am in my studio every weekday, but I try not to torture myself if it is not happening. An hour of concentration is better than eight hours of panic. I don’t work weekends and try to take holidays (even if they are spent at home). I think creativity is like a battery. It goes flat, and time away from working recharges that battery.
