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How long have you been
creating art for children?
It really depends on what you call 'art' but I've been a creative little
monkey since the very beginning. This picture of me at 4 yrs old, shows one of
my more spontaneous body-art creations.
My younger self (the one of the left)
was thinking, how fabulous would it be to use charcoal and cover my entire body
from head to toe? Not satisfied with just this, I then enlisted the boy from
next door as my next subject and proceeded to the paint him in charcoal. Ah,
the hubris of the young creative mind.! My mother thought this was hilarious,
which is why this photo exists, the boys mother was however not so easily
amused. Not even when I explained to her that we were meant to be soldiers
seeking our fortune, or a fight, whichever came first.
I only started taking drawing seriously when I put aside my wildling ways,
picked the leaves and twigs out of my hair and donned a uniform to go to
school. When I was a bit older, my father came home one day with nibs and ink
and for ages I became obsessed with ink pen illustrations as well as
lithographs. I
never quite got the hang of colour, not until much later and not for want of
trying, believe me! Without any formal training, I tried every pigmented art
medium I could lay my hands on but the results were always disappointing. I eventually stumbled upon oil
pastels and finally found a medium I could connect with.
How long have you been
writing for children?
Not long at all! *laugh. It wasn't until I signed up to the 12x12 challenge
that I even thought about writing as well as illustrating children's books. I'm
34 now and if I'm honest, I'm only at the very beginning of my journey. I keep
reminding myself though that Julia Child only started cooking when she was 37 -
anything is possible!
Can you share a bit about
your publishing journey?
I spent most of my twenties working in the advertising business. I started
out designing leaflets for a national supermarket chain. I soon realised
however that art and leaflet advertising are very different things. When it
came to placing hundreds of products and accurately pricing them, my ability to
focus was zero. I moved on to help out in the market research and strategic
planning departments, which was a lot more interesting. I learnt a great deal
working in advertising, specifically how to use design programmes like
Photoshop and Freehand which has really come in handy over the years.
After I left advertising I tried a few different things but the one I loved
most was being a bookseller. I'm a bibliophile of epic proportions, so working
in a book store and sharing my passion with others was a perfect fit for me. I
had also been producing fine art pieces with oil pastel in my spare time but
although I adored illustration, I really didn't believe I was able to produce
them myself. The trouble was, I had convinced myself that all illustration came
from the imagination and try as I might, I couldn't produce work straight out
of my head. Once I discovered the truth however, that most illustrators use a
great deal of reference pieces for their work, it all kind of fell into place.
I'm still learning everyday but at least now I feel like this is something
within my ability to do.
After I had my son, I stopped working full-time and signed up for a
illustration course with Mark Mitchell. He has been such a inspiration as a
professional illustrator and invaluable as a guide and teacher. I recommend
that anyone starting out with a desire to illustrate sign up for one of his
courses. It was through the people I met on this course that I was inspired to
buy a digital Wacom tablet, now a lot of my illustration work is done
digitally.
Where do you do your
artwork? Would you describe your space?
I have a small studio... ok, it's our spare room and laundry corner, but
let's not quibble. Would you like to see
it with our without the overflowing ironing baskets?
Please tell us about your
illustrations. Can you describe your creative process for us? How would you
describe your style?
My process seems to be refining itself more and more with every passing
day. I start out with thumbnail sketches for the entire story and then tackle
each thumbnail individually and flesh it out. First off, I'll look for as much
reference as possible for the elements I've included in my thumbnail and from
this, I might do a few character sketches and then start drawing out the
full-sized compositional sketch. Lately, I've been doing a lot of my drawing
with my digital tablet, as well as my colour work. I'm not sure if this will
always be the case, I sometimes miss the tactile yumminess of working with oil
pastel and paper.
This composition comes from the picture book dummy I'm currently working on, called 'Goodbye Mom'. After writing the story I got down to quickly scribbling thumbnails for every page, these are just a few of them.
I then focused on 'Tea with the Lion' two-page layout and started looking for reference that might help me draw this.
Using these reference images, I drew up a few Character and Reference Sketches.
I start putting together the final composition sketch that shows the placement and look of everything I want in the final illustration
Once the final sketch is done I decide on the palette or colours I want to
use in the final piece. I did this by referring to finished pieces I had
already done for the book and making sure the colours I used didn't stray to
far from these for continuity purposes.
My first attempt at a digital colour composition for this layout was
somewhat disastrous but I learnt a great
deal from it. I'd just gotten my digital tablet and was still in the
process of finding my feet. I tried again after making a few adjustments, I
feel the second attempt is actually stronger because of all the mistakes I made
initially. (6.First Attempt 7.Finished Work)
Which comes first the
story of the illustrations/sculptures?
For me, the story has always come first. I adore anything that tells a
story, a picture, an object, a song – it's the essence of everything for me.
Perhaps it's why I love illustration above any other form of art because it's
sole purpose for being, is the story. How cool is that? Methinks pretty cool.
Helga can be found
at:
Website: www.helgapearson.co.za/
Twitter: @helgapearson
Please leave comments and questions for
Helga Pearson
in the comment section below.
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Featured Author/Illustrator of the Week!
