My objective for this project was to research and to get a better insight into the workings of the author/illustrator relationship. To get an idea of the collaboration process I worked first hand with a friend, Richard Standen and his writing partner Tom Stanley, who had written a children’s story called ‘The Kangaroo Who Lost a Shoe’.
The final pieces that came out of this collaboration are a collection of 7 postcards, five of them 4”x 6” and two longer ones at 4”x 8”. The story is 120 pages long, so rather than focus on the whole thing, I put my energy into illustrating the core parts and characters, which is why postcards were chosen because I thought this was the most effective way for me to present the work.
This project was really suited to the line of work that I want to pursue, children’s book illustration. This originated from a young age, when I would write and illustrate my own stories. Over time, my style has developed through education into something that I believe would be suitable for children’s illustration, with bold outlines, bright vibrant colouring, and in turn creating simple designs appropriate for the younger age group.
My friend, taking my interests into account, approached me with the idea of collaborating, which would not only benefit me, the illustrator, but also provide him, the author, with designs that he could show to prospective publishers alongside his children’s story.
The research was carried out via email, phone and occasionally meeting in person to discuss ideas and for me to receive critical feedback. I would email Richard each time I had designed something new or changed something so as to get his opinion in order to meet his specifications of what he had imagined for the story.
I enjoyed reading the story, which is targeted at the age group of 5-8 year olds and felt inspired by the characters and could envision plenty of ideas for the postcards.
This was made easier by the descriptions and guidelines that were sent with the publisher file containing the story of the Kangaroo. These guidelines helped me to piece together the main thoughts and ideas of the authors, in terms of the illustrations that they wanted to appear alongside the story. It was difficult to choose which parts of the story to focus on because there was so much of it that I liked and was interested in drawing.
So as to document and clarify this working process, I set up a blogspot.com website, http://khamptonillustration.blogspot.com/ which has enabled me to provide a step-by-step guide into what was involved during the course of this project. I have broken each postcard down into parts, so as to highlight the making of it, including the feedback comments that were sent to me by Richard. Changes to the characters and settings were made until the authors were happy with the end product. The feedback was very useful because it helped me work on and improve the forms of the different creatures and environments I was drawing and it also pointed out things that I had missed. So a fresh pair of eyes was much needed in order for me to achieve the full potential. To help me draw out the characters and their surroundings, I used references gathered from the internet. The authors, included animals, like a Binturong, a Sand Cat and a Moon Bear, that I had to familiarise myself with because I was unsure as to what they were. There were also habitats, like the Aral Sea that required research. I think if I struggled with the unusual animals and places, then this might be a bit complex for a child aged 5-8. However, it will also increase a child’s knowledge and educate them into the wider variety of animal species and also increase their knowledge geographically. It was interesting for me to discover new things and to read and illustrate something that was a bit out of the ordinary and different to the typical children’s book.
However, despite these positives, there were also negatives to the collaborative relationship. Sometimes, the feedback was not sent back as promptly as I would have liked it, due to the fact that he was otherwise engaged in academic work. The same applied to me, when I was prompted to provide him with sketches, ideas and couldn’t fulfil his requests. Perhaps, it would have been more constructive to designate a certain amount of time to the project each week, to ensure everything was completed on schedule.
There were also differences in opinions when it came to some of the designs, but looking back, he was always right to initiate these changes because it has improved the final outcomes, making them more realistic and helping me align with the brief.
A further requirement for the story was to make the images look more ‘natural’, with a fair amount of detail. The artists that I had looked at prior to beginning my sketches, were Eric Chase Anderson, Harry Horse, and Chris Appelhans, all of whom Richard had recommended. Watercolour was the material of choice to get the natural, more textured appearance, however it was difficult at first to achieve the desired effect because I had not used watercolour much before, as it is not the technique I am most comfortable using.
I began by combining the watercolour and pen on the same page with an unsuccessful result, the strokes being too confined within the lines and a lack of freedom and expression. To combat this problem, I decided to split the layers apart, drawing the image with a brush pen and then painting the watercolour layer separately, ending with the two layers being combined on Photoshop. This looked a lot more fitting and meant that the images were more prominent, with a suitable amount of texture contained within the loose watercolour brush strokes.
Another problem that could have arisen, is that because Richard is my friend, he may not have been as critical as he would have liked and may have withheld significant criticism so as not to offend me, which could have overall benefited the project.
I am curious as to whether the working relationship would have been altered if I were working with someone that I was not familiar with, rather than a friend.
Another aspect of this project was for me to look into other working relationships, to deepen the insight and for me to branch out from the working relationship I was currently in. I looked at other authors and illustrators and their collaborations, for instance, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, who have collaborated on many books together, including, ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘The Snail and the Whale’ and ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’. The latter being the book that first cemented their working relationship.
In an interview with Scholastic Book Clubs, Axel Scheffler was asked, ‘Do you and Julia sit down and talk about how she imagines the illustrations will look or does she just leave it to you?’ To which he replied, ‘we never really meet to discuss anything. Julia will write a book and send it to her editor, who then passes it to me to illustrate. Julia sees my sketches and makes comments, but we don’t usually interfere with each other’s work, so it’s fine!’ In this case, author and illustrator do not work so closely together, probably because they have collaborated together so many times, that they trust each other’s judgment. In my case, this is the first time I had done collaborative work, so was not entirely sure what to expect from carrying it out first hand, and what was expected of me. This meant that more frequent contact was needed to ensure that I was heading in the right direction and achieving the right results.
Some postcards needed more support than others. When I met with Richard to discuss the work done, some designs didn’t need to be changed and he liked them the way they were, which made me feel positive about what I had done because in these parts I had clearly captured what he had been thinking. Other postcards were not so easy to complete, for instance some of the time, I struggled with the form of the animals, either giving them a ‘freakishly long leg’ or not putting enough detail into them and sometimes not even providing a correct representation of that animal. In situations like this, Richard would always helpfully encourage me by sending me links to images on the internet, clarifying what needed to be changed and improved.
Another example of the author/illustrator relationship is Lewis Carroll and Sir John Tenniel, who worked together on ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking-Glass’. Carroll originally wanted to publish his own illustrations with the book, but after his images being ‘condemned’ by people, he decided to find a professional illustrator, which is where Tenniel came in. ‘We discussed the book and agreed on about 34 pictures.’ The two men did not meet up frequently to confer, indicating that Tenniel was left to produce the images that he envisioned, with very little input from Carroll. When the first few copies of ‘Alice’ were published, Tenniel was dissatisfied with the printing of the images, so a re-print was decided upon. Here, the working relationship seems quite strained with both parties having very fixed opinions, the illustrator more so than the author. Carroll must have felt a bit sour towards Tenniel at first because he had wanted to do both the writing and illustrating for his first book, until people knocked his confidence. Another problem was that Tenniel, ‘was fairly slow in producing illustrations which delayed publication’ and when it came to working on ‘Through the Looking-Glass’, Tenniel, at first, declined due to the ‘pressures of work’. After Tenniel had accepted the proposition, a few months later when Carroll requested updates, no illustrations had been drawn. This must have been very frustrating for Carroll, but despite this, he commissioned Tenniel once more after ‘Looking-Glass’ because of his great admiration for the illustrator and his work. Just to highlight this level of appreciation, it is said that Carroll ‘admired Tenniel’s work and often cut out and kept copies of his drawings’ from the magazine ‘Punch’. As stated before, the problem of other work commitments did occur frequently for both Richard and me throughout the project, which slowed the process down and reduced the amount of communication between us. However, once past this, the work began to run smoothly and was being produced at a steady and comfortable pace.
I also looked at the relationship between director and actor, a similar process to the above, whereby the actor has to understand the vision of the director so as to proceed.
It appears from research, that this working relationship is a lot harder to sustain and maintain, due to the apparent ‘negative hierarchy’ existing in some cases. ‘Actors feel that the director has the upper hand, because (s)he apparently knows what (s)he “wants” and the actor doesn’t.’ It is harder for a director to explain to an actor what they had envisioned because they have to rely solely on verbal communication, whereby, the author/illustrator relationship can rely on other means as well, for instance, providing visual examples, which Richard did for me on a number of occasions. The relationship here is also more intense because there is a crucial need for guidance, which is useful for an illustrator, but as with Axel Scheffler and John Tenniel, they can be left to their own devices.
An example of a director/actor relationship that has worked time and time again is that of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. This relationship has thrived due to the level of mutual understanding between them both. ‘The two men thrive on the very abstractness of their creative partnership.’ This is precisely why Johnny Depp has been cast in so many of Tim Burton’s films and why their working relationship has lasted for almost 20 years, with seven movies, soon to be eight, being produced collaboratively. There are many other working relationships in the film industry whereby the director has chosen to use the same actor on more than one occasion, for instance, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Attenborough and Anthony Hopkins.
This just goes to show that if you connect with the working partner and you have that sense of mutual understanding and realisation then the collaboration, spreading across all industries and many lines of work, will be successful and in many circumstances, repeat itself.
When I first approached this project, I had a vague idea of what to expect, due to the work experience I had undertaken with an illustrator working in the children’s book field. This was very insightful and the working relationship I had with Richard can be closely compared to the relationship the illustrator, Jane Cope, has with her editor. They corresponded solely by email and she showed me that she was able to draw things the way that she desired, changing particular parts and putting more of a modern twist on them. Again, this demonstrates that many illustrators have a lot of freedom when it comes to being commissioned. Sometimes small things have to be changed to comply more with the brief, but the illustrator is normally left to carry the work out as they wish.
If the author viewed the work of the illustrator and liked what they saw, then there is an assurance that the illustrator would be able to produce a product that met all of the author’s requirements, which is probably why the illustrators are not so restricted when it comes to collaborating.
Overall, I think the process was an interesting experience to be a part of and I have learned a lot about the author/illustrator relationship and the trials and tribulations that surround it. With the indications and descriptions for the images provided by the authors, I feel that I have followed the specifications as closely as possible to the author’s ideals and captured the essence of the story fairly well in the postcards. I showed the designs to Richard and he thought that they looked of a ‘professional standard’. It was very satisfying to see all the parts, the brush pen outlines, the bright colours and the individual aspects of the images all coming together to make a finalised item that can now be used as promotional material for both parties. The postcards both acknowledge my work, with all of my websites printed clearly on the backs of each, and the work of Richard and Tom, with the quotes from each section of the story that I worked on.
I also feel that I have gained a newfound knowledge and have been educated on the selection of places mentioned in the story and the animals that I was at first, unfamiliar with. I was pleased with the amount of help that Richard gave me, providing me with online sources to help me accomplish his aspirations for the project and showing me what he wanted, rather than trying to explain. Things are made far easier when there is a visual example to follow. At the beginning of the project, he sent me links to various artists that he liked the style of, pointing me in the direction of the more natural looking image with a fine amount of detail, as with Harry Horse and his illustrations for ‘The Last Polar Bears’.
I have to admit that when Richard did not approve the images, it did get rather tedious drawing and re-drawing the same characters, but I was glad of the criticism and was pleased with the wide variety of characters that I was able to choose from to illustrate. Every part of the story was different, the places were diverse, ranging from forests, deserts, swamps, beaches etc. and the Kangaroo was the only recurring character, so the journey through the story was made more exciting, which is perfect for a child.
Excitement, variety and adventure is what a lot of children thrive on and it were these aspects that attracted me to the story in the first place.
