November

Things to do

Interview with Nick Sharratt

How do you decide which bits of a book to illustrate?

I read the manuscript at least 3 times to get a good feel of the book and note down any important physical descriptions the aurthor’s included. The I decide if it’s a book that needs lots of pictures or just a few. As a general rule the more funny bits in the story the more illustrations it’s likely to get. (I’m happier illustrating humorous passages of text than very serious ones). Then I go through the story again and mark the sections I think would be good for illustrating. Sometimes the author will let me know if there’s anything that he or she is very keen on having illustrated but usually it’s up to me.

Do you work closely with the author to decide what a character looks like?

Usualli I find that the author will have described a character in quite a lot of detail by the time I’ve read right to the end of the story and that gives me plenty of information as to how to draw that character. If there’s not mich physical description I go on the personality described and try to come up with a person who lokks right for that personality. Ver occasionally, I might think of some detail, a hairstyle perhaps, that I think would work better in the illustrations than the one described in the text and I might suggest it to the author, but that very rarely happens.

Any advice for aspiring Illustrators?

It’s what everyone says but the best thing you can do is lots and lots and lots and lots of drawing.

Look at the work of other artists but try to draw from your own observations of the world, using your own imagination and ideas rather than copying someone else’s. Try to complete your drawings. Join an art group, which is what I did when I was a teenager. Enter any art competitions that you come across. And stick at it!