This week, I'm very happy to welcome Steve Antony to POP!
Earlier this year, Steve's debut picture book, The Queen's Hat, was published amid a flurry of wonderful reviews. Betty Goes Bananas followed hot on its heals, and 2015 will see the publication of Steve's third picture book, Please, Mr Panda. With all these books, it's a wonder he had the time to be interviewed (but luckily for me he did)!
Thanks so much for letting me interview you, Steve! Your debut picture book, The Queen’s Hat, was a great success and also nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal. How did it feel for your first book to be so well received?
When I saw my book for the first time in a shop, Foyles, I didn't have that fuzzy, dreamy, out-of-this-world feeling I thought I'd have. I think I was too tired to jump up and down, and a bit self-conscious, too. My friends were probably expecting me to fly around the store or explode into stars or cry or something. Later that day I returned to the shop on my own and just looked at my book on the shelf. I felt proud. All the hard work was worth it.
Then came the reviews. My brother called me at 8am the morning after the book's publication date. Without saying hello or anything, he said "You're in the Sun!" A week or so later I had a text from my publisher on a Sunday that said, "Go and buy the Times x." It seemed that almost every other day for about three weeks the book was getting good reviews.
It is very cool to see my Big Ben illustration and The Queen's Hat bunting in shop windows. Every now and then I get a tweet or a text with a Queen's Hat window display. I've put a few of them on my website.
When I heard the news of the Kate Greenaway nomination, I jumped up and down like a kid on Christmas. What an absolute honour!
You were signed up by a publisher very soon after graduating from Anglia Ruskin University. Can you tell us a bit about your journey to become a children’s author-illustrator?
In a nutshell, I graduated with a HND in Illustration from Swindon College, worked in a call centre for nine years, got made redundant, applied for a place on the Anglia Ruskin MA Children's Book Illustration course in Cambridge, used my redundancy package to pay the course costs, signed to my agent while on the course, graduated in 2013 from Anglia, and then I was contacted by several publishers that had seen my work in my class's graduation show at Foyles in London. I signed with Hodder Children's for The Queen's Hat, Please, Mr Panda and several more books, and I signed with Oxford University Press for Betty Goes Bananas. More recently, I left a part-time support role at Swindon College in order to work full-time as an author-illustrator.
Applying for the MA course was a big leap of faith. I had no Plan B. For years and years I had tried and failed time and time again. I've had countless rejections and several false starts, too.
I’ve always wanted to be an author-illustrator. It's that simple. Even if I hadn't been made redundan,, I'd still be drawing, writing and sending submissions to publishers, while holding down a day job.
You’re represented by Elizabeth Roy. What drew you to working with her in particular?
I was introduced to Elizabeth by my MA tutor, Pam Smy, while at the Bologna Book Fair in 2012. Pam's also represented by Elizabeth. I'm a huge fan of Pam's work and I really like the work of the other authors Elizabeth represents. I showed her The Queen's Hat and a few of my other picture book dummies in Bologna. There was a good vibe to our conversations. I later arranged to meet her in Cambridge, and things naturally progressed from there.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Conversations. Yesterday I heard a guy say something to another guy. It gave me this amazing idea for a story. But I didn't write it down and totally forgot it.
Newspaper articles. The Queen's Hat was inspired by a newspaper article about the Queen holding on to her hat on a windy day.
Not thinking too much. When I'm totally relaxed and not stressed or tweeting, an idea can just pop into my head.
Talking with arty friends. I get inspiration from talking with my arty friends about life and stuff. I sometimes get inspiration from talking to my non-arty friends, too.
Do you find it easy to retain your distinctive style in the world of children’s books?
I've found a medium and a process that I'm confident with, and I've found my voice through many trials and errors. The best way I can describe how I've developed my style is by explaining the three most important parts to my creative process.
Drawing things. I have to really know what I'm drawing. I have to watch it move and sit still and move again. My final illustrations may not look like observational drawings, but that's how most of them start. It's like knowing how to bake a cake. You can't just chunk a bunch of random ingredients in a bowl. Once you know how to do something with confidence, like bake a cake, or ride a skateboard, or draw a panda, you then have the confidence to bake a different kind of cake, try new skateboard tricks, or turn a panda into an extra-ordinary picture book character.
Then there's the colour. The dreaded colour. I'm red-green colourblind, so colour used to be my greatest enemy. But not anymore. I use grey soft pencils and graphite sticks for every illustration, and I use Photoshop to convert my drawings into colour. The process is simple, but sometimes laborious. I draw a picture several times until I'm happy with it. I decide upon the colours. I'm very picky about colours. The colours have to be right and purposeful just like everything else in the book. I then deconstruct my drawing so I can convert it into coloured layers by using the mask tool in Photoshop. It's a bit like screen printing but without the mess.
And finally, there's the character or concept. Who is this character? What kinds of marks will bring this character to life. Bold, black lines? Slightly softer edges? What's the purpose of this story? How can I emphasise the point with my illustrations?
Its a completely organic process. I just go with the flow and hope for the best. I don’t just think, "Hmmm. What style shall I use?" and then think of a style.
Which part of the book-making process is your favourite?
Brainstorming ideas and suddenly having that moment. That lightbulb moment when an idea strikes like a bolt of lightening. I wish I could bottle it. It happens once every few months. It happened with The Queen's Hat, Please Mr Panda and Betty Goes Bananas and the other books I've got lined up for publication over the next two years. It can be triggered by something I've seen or heard. Sometimes it comes from nowhere.
What are your views on the picture book market right now?
There is not enough diversity in picture books. Yes, there are lots out there, and some brilliant ones too. But I think there’s still not enough.
What advice would you give to illustrators looking to crack into the children’s book industry?
Find your voice. Find your market. Get prepared. Get a website. But don't leave your day job. Things will happen if you put yourself in situations where things happen, so long as you're prepared and not afraid to talk to strangers. Prepare for success, and let failures fuel your fire. Write a best seller, and only leave your day job if you can afford to.
And, lastly, please describe yourself in five words
Imaginative. Adventurous. Hardworking. Loyal. OK.
Comments