Earlier this year I was asked to write a couple of funny stories for Oxford University Press for their Oxford Reading Tree - Treetops Chucklers, series. It was lots of fun writing the stories and it's been great seeing them being brought to life by the wonderful Dutch illustrator Marijke van Veldhoven, that the publisher chose to illustrate them.
When I visit schools and talk about the illustrations, children and adults are often surprised to hear that I don't choose the illustrator and I don't tell the illustrator what to do... In fact, most of the time, authors and illustrators don't actually talk very much about the book that is being created between them. Children ask me lots of questions about the illustrators but I can't always answer them... luckily, Marijke was happy to help with this and here she answers a lot of the questions that children have been asking me...
What is
the best thing about being an illustrator?
The very
best thing about being an illustrator is; doing what I love as a living. I have been
drawing everything and on everything since I was little (it drove teachers
crazy) and it was wonderful to make it to an art school. For the first time I
could do art full time! After that I worked hard to make a living with my
illustrations and I've been doing that ever since. It's great to create
something for others to enjoy. And I like making jokes in pictures too (I do
that with stand-up cartooning too, making funny cartoons during a meeting or
training session).
How long
would it take you to do all of the pictures for a book (like the Sock Eater and
Nelly’s Nest) ?
All the
pictures in a book! It can different for each book. But for 'The Sock Eater and
Nelly's Nest' it took me 4 weeks for the sketches and 6 weeks for the colour
art work. On a big picture book I would work for months!
Is it
hard thinking of how people or creatures will look?
Sometimes
it is hard to get them just right. With a little cheek, or very strict or just
very lovable. And sometimes I get it right immediately. I have a special
sketching strategy to design the characters.
Do you
have to do lots of rough sketches of characters before you are happy with them?
Yes I do,
most of the time. The characters always need fixing before they are right. And
of course they need to look good from every angle.
What is
the hardest thing to draw?
For me,
the hardest things to draw are cars.
What are your favourite things to draw?
I love to
draw people and animals.
What do you not like to draw?
Cars (no
surprise there)
Do you
use computers to help with your drawing?
The
drawing is done by hand. Colouring I do by hand and with photoshop (or
combined).
What do
you like to draw and colour with? (Paint, pastels, pencils, chalk...)
Sketching
with a good old pencil. I use pen and ink a lot. For colouring I use gouache
and some water colours.
Were you
really good at drawing when you were at school?
Yes, I
had some talent and I practiced a LOT.
Apart
from yourself, who is your favourite illustrator?
I love
several illustrators: The Tjong Khing, Annemarie van Haeringen, Quentin Blake,
David Roberts, Peter van Straaten, Maaike Hartjes and many more.
How many
books have you illustrated?
I've
illustrated about 25 books.
And finally the answers to those questions that everyone gets asked...
Favourite food: a good lasagne.
Favourite animal: cat.
Favourite colour: green.
A big thank you to everyone that gave me questions to ask Marijke - and a special thank you to Marijke herself for taking the time to answer them... As soon as I see finished pictures (and the finished book itself, I will let you see it here.) You can see more of Marijke's work by visiting her website... the writing is in Dutch of course so you might have some difficulty reading the text but there are lots of pictures and video clips to look at...
Here's a BIG HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone reading my diary... We've had a lovely Christmas and hope you have too. 
