Old stuff - PIO Children's Writers and Illustrators online

An interview with Pass It On from way back in 2014

This is one of the illustrations from my book Sealskin Coast published by IFWG Australia in May 2014.

What medium did you use? The picture is made up of a scanned “collage” with the elements made from cut-out drawings in ink and graphite on several different types of paper and cardboard. The background is boxboard from the back of a watercolour block. Some of the other illustrations in the book use real objects, photos and other collage elements.

How long did it take? The small drawings were done fairly quickly as I was aiming for a spontaneous, free look. It is difficult to keep this if I plan and fiddle too much (though I’m getting better at it). Most of the work was in composing the whole picture from the separate elements, getting it just right.

What is it for? The illustration is for chapter 10 of the story, which is an adventure/fantasy for readers from 10 years old (to 100).

When did you know you had a talent for illustration?
I’ve always loved drawing, painting, and reading and have loved doing all of these since childhood. I think I have an ability to combine images and words.

How did you know? Did someone encourage you? Several (nearly all) members of my family are/ were illustrators, artists and writers of various kinds and all encouraged me, particularly my parents and grandparents. In fact, I sort of thought this was what all adults did when I was a child. My grandmother was illustrator and artist Pixie O’Harris and my grandfather worked on the editorial team of the Australian Encyclopaedia. My parents are/ were an illustrator and an historian, and my other grandparents were a teacher and an art/ antiquities dealer. etc. Perhaps you could call it a family curse. My brother is a very good painter (I’m not biased).

Have you ever studied your craft at an institution of any sort?
I studied Visual Arts (B.A.) at Alexander Mackie/ City Art Institute/ UNSW (they kept restructuring while I was there) and have studied various related courses through TAFE and writers’ centres etc. I self-educate constantly as well.

How long was the course? This was a three-year full time degree course.

How affordable was the course? I’m one of those annoying people who is old enough to have received a free tertiary education. I am extremely grateful and would like to make a nasty, bitter political statement here about the current government’s policies and how they are beating young people into the ground. But I won’t.

Would you recommend it to upcoming artists/illustrators? This was a general visual arts course aiming to produce Artists. I thought it would be best to get a good grounding in drawing and art skills rather than a specific illustration course. At the time there was nothing particular between graphic design and Art with a capital “A” as far as I can remember. There might have been something at MIT but I didn’t want to move to Melbourne. The course was good in terms of learning to paint and draw and getting an art education, but there was very little to do with actually making a living as any kind of artist, which I feel was a bad oversight. However modern courses deal with this much better. I have debated the wisdom of my choice since, but hindsight is unobtainable in the past.

Do you run courses or workshops yourself? Yes, to schools in my area (Snowy Mountains/ Canberra) if asked, talks to bookshop audiences also if asked. I love talking to people.

What computer programmes do you use? I used to use Painter Classic quite a lot but the computer died and the program didn’t fit the new computer. I haven’t really got back to digital art media except in a very simple way; i.e. if it doesn’t work in the scanner, I’ll probably not do it.

Have you illustrated any books?
Yes

How many books? Sealskin Coast is the most exciting and recent of my projects. It’s a 17-chapter novel for young and young at heart readers. An illustrated graphic story, Adolphus the Magic Dog was published in the NSW School Magazine (June issue 2014). There are various others but these are the recent ones.

Do you have a favourite? Because Sealskin Coast is all mine, story and illustrations, I’d say it’s the current favourite, but I like all of them and am particularly excited about the School Magazine story.

How are you usually commissioned? What is the process? So far in my experience work has come from me sending unsolicited manuscripts/ examples of my artwork to publishers. Persistence and a thick skin are useful skills here.

Do you have contact with the authors? I  much enjoyed having input into the cover design and layout of Sealskin Coast. This was possible because IFWG Australia is a smaller publisher. I am very interested in cover design, typography and layouts and do a bit of design work.

On average, how long does a picture book take to illustrate? I have on average about two days a week free to do this work, maximum four if I ignore weekends, which isn’t always possible or desirable. Sometimes I can work faster and sometimes it’s just slower for many reasons. I can’t remember how long the Sealskin Coast illustrations took. The Magic Dog illustrations were a commission to a deadline. I had about a month to do eight full-colour illustrations.

Is it difficult working to deadlines? Does it interfere with your creativity? I actually like deadlines. The discipline doesn’t interfere. In fact, I think it helps.

Who is your favourite Australian children’s book illustrator and why? Too many to mention all but I’m fond of Elizabeth Honey, Shaun Tan and lots of others.

What’s your website or blog address (if you have one)? www.rowenaevans.com is my own website and I’ve recently joined Tumblr. If anyone is interested it’s at http://peablossomsnowflake.tumblr.com/ . This is a collaborative project I’m hoping to get going with other artists.

Would you like to tell us anything else about yourself and/or your work? YES! I love music too. I am the best recorder player in town, have a passion for playing the French horn and love singing. As well as having the delight in Sealskin Coast of doing both the writing and the illustrations, I have had an opportunity to indulge my love of complications, folk music and music in general. There’s now a clip on YouTube where I got together with two musician friends (one of whom was rash enough to mention skills in recording and editing) and one of my children, who is a digital artist and animator. The animated song relates to the source of the story of Sealskin Coast, the legend of the selkies, from Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia. Here’s a link if anyone wants to see/ hear it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yymb3HLHH00