Cute is pretty much a swearword in our house these days, both my children having grown out of thinking “well, aren’t you cute!” is a compliment. But there are now two really cute kids around again, because I’ve seen all the finished pictures for my next picture book: Orange Juice Peas. And the Floris 2012 catalogue is out, so I can show it to you, or the cover, at least.
The two kids in Orange Juice Peas, Jessie and Ben, are SO CUTE. And that’s not an insult, it’s just a fact!
It was a joy watching both of them come to life in sketches, roughs and final pictures by the wonderful illustrator Lizzie Wells. That’s the best thing about picture books. I have the idea, I write the words and I create the story, but the illustrator brings the characters to life. It’s nerve-wracking meeting my creations for the first time in a picture, just in case they look somehow wrong. There are lots of ways for a character to look right, not just one way, but there are just as many ways for them to look wrong.
But this time it’s fine, lots more than fine, because Lizzie has brought Jessie and Ben (and their cat, their babysitter, and their dad’s hairy legs) to life wonderfully.
So picture books really are teamwork. Novels are teamwork too, with the editor an essential part towards the end of the process. But picture books are more obviously teamwork. And if you get a great illustrator, who tells the story in expressions and movement, then the writer can back off a bit and take some words out again.
I sometimes get asked ‘Do you have your own illustrator?’ No, I don’t. I don’t keep an artist in the cupboard, or the fridge, or under the desk. But I think the question means: are all my books illustrated by the same person? And no, they’re not.
Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a recognisable style to all my picture books, so that people could say, ‘oh, that’s the new Lari Don and x book.’ But it’s also good to have exactly the right artist for each book, because they are all different stories, with different characters, in different realities.
Gabby Grant’s funny cheeky polite pictures were perfect for The Big Bottom Hunt, Nicola O’Byrne’s simple panoramic style was ideal for How to Make a Heron Happy and now that I’ve seen them, I know that Lizzie Wells’ colour, energy and CUTE faces are wonderful for Orange Juice Peas.
I wonder who will illustrate my next story? No idea. But for now, I’ll just smile at the cover of Orange Juice Peas:
What a lovely post Lari and one I can totally relate to. There’s something really inspiring about the collaboration between writer and artist in a picture book, and I love that moment when the proof is delivered and you see the pictures for the first time. When I first saw the pictures by Sarah Warburton for my Ruby and Grub books, I was overjoyed – they were even better than I’d imagined. Lizzi Wells’ cover is adorable… and, yes, I must say it, sooooo cute! I am sure young children, and parents alike, will love it!
What’s so cool is that it is a collaboration, even if you never meet the artist (and I never have, which is a source of surprise to readers, who probably imagine us chatting and sketching and having cups of tea together.) And the finished work is definitely created equally by both of us – it not just one person’s idea, and the other person’s slavish illustration of it. What I’d love to do is write a second book about a character who’s already been illustrated and see if my idea of them and the story I put them in, is influenced by the artist’s imagining of them. Actually, that’s an idea… Off I go to write, again!