Advice and FAQs
Some questions answered below. I’ll add more as time goes on.
What materials do you use?
For cartoons, I draw them in pencil first, a HB propelling pencil, then go over it in technical pen, Rotring Isographs, usually doing a few drafts before I get to the final version. I generally draw the frame first. I often use different sized nibs for the words than the drawing – wider for the words.
For cartoons that are to be published in colour, I draw the line art first, then usually photocopy the cartoon onto 180gsm watercolour paper and colour it.
My children’s books have all been done the same way – line drawings in ink then coloured with watercolour.
Who have been your influences in cartooning?
Dad got Pick of Punch (the annual collection produced from the English humour magazine Punch) for Christmas every year, and I read the cartoons from when I was old enough to read). I wasn’t influenced by specific artists as much as as I was influenced by the idea of cartoons – that there were people in the world drawing pictures to make other people laugh or exclaim or think. Or feel sad – I always noticed the . Charles Schulz with his Peanuts comic strip was a huge influence, I loved the world he made and the brilliance of both the drawing and the ideas. Michael Leunig’s work in the 1980s had a huge impact on me. When I decided to become a cartoonist I looked at lots of work, and discovered amazing women cartoonists including Nicole Hollander, Alison Bechdel and Roz Chast.
Who have been your influences in children’s books?
There have probably been countless influences – but there are a few I specifically remember thinking ‘I want to do something like that’.
Firstly Brian Wildsmith’s illustrations. I had A Children’s Garden of Verses illustrated by him and I pored over the drawings. I loved the brilliant colours he used, and various the techniques such as wax resist for a nighttime drawing.
Then Tove Jansson’s Moomintroll books which I read over and over again. I loved the world she created of the Moomins, illustrated with simple line drawings. I think her work has been a huge influence.
My two favourite children’s books, neither of which I had as a child, are The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. In their different ways, I think they are examples of near perfect picture books.
