Valerie is the author, who was born and lives in Australia. She used to be a teacher and her passion is travelling to most parts of the world. For a writer, this must give some amazing experiences that can feed into your writing and give your work a greater depth. Korky was born in Zimbabwe where he admits he had a privileged childhood. He studied Fine Arts and Film Animation before starting his career in advertising. As an illustrator he has won countless awards and has sold more than two million books in over twenty languages.
What I like is the attention to detail in his pictures which never fail to engage as you see something different every time. I would love to know how long it takes him to illustrate every piece with regards to making a living. For any book with possibly eight to ten illustrations needed, you probably get a flat fee for each picture and with this much attention to detail, must make it difficult to make it worthwhile. But the benefit is that you get some amazing books that you never tire of reading to your children.
The next favourite of mine is Lynne Chapman. She has been illustrating children's books for many years but started out as a printed textile designer before moving on to being an editorial illustrator. She worked on most of the major newspapers, magazines and some trade publications as well. She has been quoted as saying that she prefers to illustrate children's books because she has more time to immerse herself in the story instead of having to quickly churn out pictures for magazines and newspapers.
Like most illustrators, she has her own individual style and way of working. Her medium of choice is soft chalk pastels onto textured paper which gives the look she needs. Lately she has been illustrating with pen and ink before scanning into the computer to add the colours digitally. The obvious benefit is being able to correct any mistakes a lot easier.
Not only are her book illustrations lovely to admire but she also travels a lot and keeps a sketchbook of her travels which is equally engaging to view.
Also a few pictures of her vast portfolio of pictures:
Finally the lady herself:
Another of my favourite illustrators is Michael Foreman. Some of his pictures are beautiful and are works of art in their own right. Some of them even seem too good to be in a children's book but that is the beauty of children's illustrated books because the standard is so high.
He was born in Suffolk, studied at the Royal College of Art and also in the USA. In the late 60's he lectured at St Martins School Of Art and also went on to work at the Royal College and the London School of Printing.
He hasn't always been a children's illustrator and in fact has illustrated some well known books by Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Roald Dahl and Rudyard Kipling. As well as designing Christmas stamps and providing work for countless European and American magazines.
What I admire about his work is his ability to capture your imagination and convey the right emotion to tie with the story. Having studied art he has the ability to paint and draw from life using the correct senses of anatomy and perspective.
His breadth of work is staggering but here is a few of my favourites:
There are always going to be certain books that will never be thrown away and Peepo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg is one of them. It is such an engaging book with some fantastic illustrations that you never tire of reading or looking at. Alan is the writer whilst his wife Janet is the illustrator. Sadly Janet died of cancer in 1994, aged only 50, a great loss to children's illustration and also sadly to the publishing partnership.
They have produced many other books but this one is my favourite because throughout the book you have a small circle cut out of the following page so you can get a sense of the following picture but when you turn the page the full scene unfolds.
Whilst I could literally go on forever with children's books, I will just show one more.
I have lost count of how many times I have read Percy The Park Keeper and Albert Le Blanc books to Sophie. Not only are the stories brilliant but the illustrations are fantastic for children. Nick Butterworth has illustrated some of the best well known books for children in recent years. Why I left him to last is also his connection to my main interest of Graphic Design. After studying at the Royal Liberty School in Gidea Park he was an apprentice typographical designer with the National Children's Home before working at Crosby Fletcher Forbes which is the beginnings of the design agency pentagram that exists today. He then decided to leave to become a freelance designer, working occasionally with his friend Mick Inkpen who is also a well known illustrator.
His most famous character has to be Percy the Park Keeper who appeals to all ages. His style of writing is engaging and along with his charming illustrations, make for the perfect package.
The beauty of creating a likeable set of characters is the likelihood of being able to write more books within a set location. Also the subject matter is suitable for anyone, regardless of your background or location. Another reason I like them is that they retain a sense of innocence about them. It is said time and time again in the media that children lose their innocence a lot earlier than when I did and that's very sad. I would spend hours going on my bike off on adventures with my friends all over the place but now we seem to have this obsession with having our children always in sight. These books have that sense of adventure about them and enforce that strong bond of friendship and helping one another which is so important to learn when you are growing up.
Mine and Sophie's other favourite is Albert Le Blanc which is not only a great funny story but the illustrations transport you to the wonders of an old fashioned toy shop where there sits a sad looking bear who never seems to smile. The other toys try to make him laugh and it isn't until the end where the bear explains that he is not unhappy but it is just how he was made. Also, lately, a lot of books have CD's inside with the story read by someone famous. This one is read by David Jason and his voices are really good and it has been played to death in the car.
I did say that I could go on all day but this is definitely the last one.....for now anyway!
We're going On A Bear hunt has to be included not only for the great illustrations by Helen Oxenbury but also the story by the great Michael Rosen.
Born in Ipswich, her father being an architect, she developed a passion for drawing at an early age. later she attended the Ipswich School of Art, working in local theatres in the holidays where she would eventually start her career. Starting at the local Rep theatre designing and painting the scenery to then working for ABC Television and at Shepperton Film Studios.
When she met her husband, who is also a children's book illustrator, Helen started a career down the same path which seems like a good choice to me considering her fantastic illustrations.
But like I said earlier, my favourite has to be Bear Hunt which has some great sound effects that you can say together. See if you can recognise the narrator on the video at the end. As a clue, he started on a building site in Germany and then as a detective in Oxford!
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