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<\/p>\nHow do you know pirates love to draw? Because they say ARRRRRRRRT all the time.<\/p>\n
Well, enough bad jokes and onto some brilliant drawing. Read our interview with Adam Hancher \u2013 illustrator of The Wondrous Road Ahead and My Golden Ticket \u2013 to find out exactly how one goes about creating artwork for impossibly personalised children\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n
Of course I drew for fun when I was very young. I was mainly into portraiture, my favourite subjects being Sonic the Hedgehog, Tom and Jerry, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ren and Stimpy\u2026 the list goes on.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t study art at school. I started college with the intention to one day become an astrophysicist, or meteorologist, or engineer, until I realised how important maths was for those things, and I was quite bad at maths. I changed things around and took up more creative subjects. I found my way onto an Art and Design Foundation course and this is when I started to draw. The illustration module interested me the most, so it just felt natural to see where that path took me.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s hard to pick a favourite. I did like The Funny Bones, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. \u201cOn a dark dark hill there was a dark dark town. In the dark dark town there was a dark dark street\u201d, I loved the repetition, the characters were bizarre, the illustrations were so vibrant, it\u2019s a great book. The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes also left a lasting impression on me. Andrew Davidson\u2019s accompanying wood cut illustrations are incredibly beautiful.<\/p>\n
Some of the biggest influences on my style are the cartoons and video games I grew up with. The bright and bold background designs, the beautiful box art, the narratives that unfold – it\u2019s all very similar to what\u2019s found in a children\u2019s book. These things truly sparked my interest in storytelling. I\u2019d like to recreate some of that enjoyment I experienced through the children\u2019s books that I produce.<\/p>\n
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For The Wondrous Road Ahead, I worked really closely with the author Julia Gray. Early on we played around with some basic concept sketches and sample text. At this stage research is very important for me. Creating mood boards, soaking up other stories, researching historical events, it all builds a foundation and grounds the project. Once we were happy with a loose direction I sat down with Julia to plan the story.<\/p>\n
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Together we discussed who the various characters were, the environments they inhabit and what problems they are facing. We planned the story structure together with very, very, basic sketches and then we parted ways. Julia wrote the words, and I drew more detailed thumbnail sketches. We would meet up, discuss these ideas, and tinker with them a little more until all the story beats worked. Then I\u2019d progress to a second round of sketches before moving on to final artwork.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s really quite different. In The Wondrous Road Ahead, parts of the story are interchangeable \u2013 they could appear before or after another \u2013 so it\u2019s more difficult to plan character arcs and hit all the beats within a traditional story structure. Designing a protagonist is also tough. You want an interesting character, but it needs to be a character that many different children can imagine themselves as being.<\/p>\n
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On reading Julia\u2019s first draft I realised there would be some strange characters in this fantastical landscape. So for inspiration I had fun researching every bizarre character I have met through books, comics, films and so on. Julia and I decided on the basic features of each character, then I sketched up rough ideas.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very important to think about what the character represents. The Mallowax tells lies, and we decided to visualise these lies as ice sculptures in the Mallowax\u2019s cave. The Mallowax is quite a compulsive liar, so I gave him many arms and hands to better sculpt his multitude of fibs. You can see here early sketches of the Mallowax, compared to what he later evolved into.<\/p>\n
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I decided early on to give each character and their environment a distinct set of colours. This is to clearly define each strength associated with the character, creating variety.<\/p>\n
Some choices play with associations that colour may have. For example, yellow is often tied to cowardice so we decided to pair that with Bravery instead. The forest setting of the Kindness narrative made green the obvious choice. Red is a colour of passion and strength so we paired that with Determination. We decided to set the theme of Honesty within an icy cold environment, so blue was an obvious choice. The Uninterested Unch wallows in a muddy swamp until he breaks out into the sunshine, so a muddy yellow changing to a vibrant orange seemed fitting. This left respect and the Indigoat. It\u2019s in the name with this one, so there we have it, Indigo.<\/p>\n
Astrophysicist, Meteorologist? Probably not. I think realistically if I didn\u2019t become and illustrator I would have found another way to be creative, a graphic designer, or a carpenter maybe. Making things, forming ideas, telling stories, these are the things I enjoy about my job and these are the things that I am good at \u2013 the drawing is simply the outlet. So my advice would be explore many different things that interest you. Read, research, talk to grown-ups, join clubs outside of school, discover what you enjoy and are good at. See where it takes you. Most importantly put the hours in and work really hard. That always helps.<\/p>\n
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