I am so pleased to welcome Rob Biddulph, author-illustrator of Blown Away, to POP this afternoon! Rob's beautiful illustrations are endearingly wonderful, and his first picture book, published by HarperCollins, is surely a bestseller in the making. Rob spared a few minutes to answer my questions, which is some feat considering how busy he is! Thank you, Rob!
First off, I have to ask what it was like to work for Just Seventeen! (Do you get asked this question by most women?!)
Ha! Yes, it does come up occasionally! Well, I absolutely loved my time there. It was my first job after college and I couldn't have started my career at a better place. It actually turned out to be a real hotbed of editorial talent. Lots of Just Seventeen staffers have gone on to have stellar careers across all facets of the media and I still have lots of friends from those days.
Just Seventeen readers were great too. They were so into it. For them it was almost a tribal thing - either you were a Just Seventeen girl or you weren't. There was no middle ground. My friend Marc and I used to write the letters page (not to be confused with the problem page!) and so had a lot of direct communication with them. They were really clever, sparky and, above all, funny. We even used to get a bit of fan mail, so they obviously had great taste too!
Personal Just Seventeen highlights include sitting awkwardly opposite a pre-fame Westlife while they loudly serenaded us in the office, and playing as a one-man football team against nineties boy-band 5ive. They were so terrible I actually beat them on my own!
Another highlight was meeting my wife (she was the editor). Actually, I should probably have mentioned that one first.
Ha! Let's assume you saved the best for last! You've actually worked for so many well-known magazines. How has this mixture of experience contributed to your unique artwork style?
The magazine and newspaper world is a very creative environment. Every day you are surrounded by talented, clever people who have all risen to the top in their chosen field. You can't help but be inspired by them. Also, the fact that I'm in charge of the art desk means that sometimes I can commission myself! I've illustrated for every mag I've ever worked on and as such have had to learn how to tailor my style to suit an audience. I guess being adaptable has come in pretty handy during the development of my children's book stuff.
Having said that, there's no short-cut to finding your own style. It's only really through lots of drawing and redrawing that you can ever get close to something that you're happy with. Even then I never quite seem to get there. And I'm not sure I ever will because my tastes are constantly shifting. If I'm lucky enough to still be making picture books in ten years time I bet they'll look quite different to the ones I'm making now.
You currently work for the Observer, and have a family of three. How do you manage to be an author-illustrator as well?
It's tricky. I'm at the Observer five days a week, so any book work has to happen either in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed or at the weekend. It's fair to say that there have been a few late nights! I do think you have to be quite driven to stick with it. I was lucky enough to get lots of encouragement from agents and publishers fairly early on, so I've always believed that getting a book published was something that was achievable. Still, there were times when it was harder to keep the faith. It can be a very slow process.
The sheer workload involved can be hard on the family, but I have to say that my wife Ally has been amazing. She's always been so supportive and encouraging. There's definitely no way that I could have done it without her. The kids have been brilliant too. They don't hold back with any criticism - a very useful part of the development process, if a touch painful at times!
Similarly, my editor at the Observer Magazine has been great. He's a published author himself and has experience of 'the journey'. So he's totally fine with it when I have to disappear off to HarperCollins HQ at a moment's notice. It would have been much harder had he not been so understanding.
Blown Away, your first picture book, was published at the end of August. How does it feel to be a children’s book author-illustrator?
Well it's all still very new, but so far it's been amazing! The first time I held a finished copy of the book in my hands was almost like an out-of-body experience, as was the first time I saw it in a shop window. When you've been working towards something for so long and then it finally happens you can't quite believe that it's real.
I had to sign 550 copies at HarperCollins HQ a few weeks ago. Now that was odd! About halfway through I totally forgot how to write my name. I also got one of those exam lumps on my middle finger.
The very nicest thing about this whole experience, however, is getting feedback from children. It's so nice when they ask me questions about the story. It means they've really engaged with it.
What do you enjoy most about the book-making process?
I genuinely enjoy all aspects, but if I had to choose one it would be the final artworking. I love being in my studio, music turned up loud, fresh coffee brewing, the rest of the world shut outside while I just sit there and draw. It's lovely. By that point any creases in the story have been ironed out and all I have to do is execute the final illustrations. To some extent the pressure is off. It sounds a bit odd, but I enter an almost zen-like state. I lose myself in the artwork and then suddenly, before I know it, there's a finished illustration on the desk in front of me.
Writing and storyboarding are great fun too. The fact that all three elements of the process use different parts of the brain means that it's not something I think I'll get bored with anytime soon.
Oh, and the team at HarperCollins are brilliant. I feel very lucky to have the people who have worked on the Oliver Jeffers, Richard Scarry and David Walliams books in my corner. They're such a lovely bunch and they all bring so much to the table. I really feel that I'm in very safe hands with them.
If you could meet any authors or illustrators, alive or dead, who would they be?
Hmmm. Well, my favourite book is To Kill A Mockingbird so I'd love to meet Harper Lee. Unfortunately, I doubt she'd want to talk about the book considering she's refused to discuss it with anybody for the last fifty years!
The late Richard Scarry was my favourite author/illustrator as a kid, so it would have been great to shadow him as he went about his work. Same with Maurice Sendak. Where The Wild Things Are is a work of total genius - a genuine literary classic.
Who else? Well, I'd love to do a life-drawing class with Stanley Spencer or sit in a field painting trees with Vincent Van Gogh. Actually that would be great cos I could tell him not to worry too much about not selling any paintings. He'd get the recognition he deserved eventually!
What are your views on the picture book market right now?
Well, from a creative point of view I think that the market is in rude health. In fact I'd go as far as to say we are in something of a golden age. People like Jon Klassen, Oliver Jeffers, Peter Brown, Marta Altés and Emma Yarlett are producing astonishing work. Just so beautiful. Then, of course, there's Eric Carle, Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler, Lauren Child and Judith Kerr all still delivering brilliant picture books on a regular basis. I spend at least one lunch-hour a week browsing the picture book section in my local bookshop. I really love it.
If you could change one thing in the world of picture books, what would it be?
It would be nice to be able to print text in a colour other than black! For those that don't know, the main story text in a picture book can (usually) only be printed using black ink so that when any foreign editions are printed the printer can simply replace the English language black plate with the foreign language black plate. I think it saves a lot of money. Sometimes it would be great to have some lovely 72 point red type though. Y'know, just for a change.
Describe yourself in five words
I can always do better.
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