Children’s books, illustration and publishing.
At the start of an art class, particularly with children, I often say ‘You can’t get it right and you can’t get it wrong’. Art is an individual thing and no one does the same work. It’s an attempt to put the learners and ease and reduce comparisons and harsh judgments. Creativity is easier when…
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Time to wrap up 2021 and wish it a fond farewell! But first a little bit of reflection. It hasn’t all been easy but I can look back on this year and safely say I enjoyed creating a bunch of stuff, I made some good progress and faced some really unexpected hurdles. I use a…
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Tomorrow is the publication day for this lovely picture book celebrating some of the heroes of the catastrophic bush fires that took place in Australia early in 2020. I’m really proud to have illustrated this book, especially as it’s so local. It was a super fast deadline but fortunately there were no compromises and the…
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The 100 Day Project – again I do love a challenge, but sometimes you have to gracefully admit defeat. In February I started another #100dayproject. This time I chose to draw a character every day. It was fantastic practice with using the iPad and Procreate. And it’s always great to mix with other artists outside…
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Where do you find support and encouragement when you work alone? I signed up to attend a SCWBI event for illustrators. I would love share some of my work for ‘peer review’ (when I’ve figured out what that is) but honestly, after ten years of working as a professional illustrator, I’m not sure I’m ready…
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Should picture books tackle the big issues or are they just for fun?
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Illustrator Karen Erasmus discusses the slow and sometimes difficult process of developing a creative career.
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New Project…time for a break The start of every creative project is an idea and a brief. And it’s always nice to receive those from a publisher and get the contract signed. But after that comes the best bit. The faze of gathering more ideas and inspiration and letting it all sink in. It can…
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Many years ago I listened to Shaun Tan speaking to a small group of illustration students about how he uses colour. He showed us one of his pictures where he’d deliberately chosen a green colour for the sky. He explained that it was used by many painters and helped evoke a surreal, dreamlike effect. It…
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I’m a bit excited about this! A famous person reading a book I illustrated, and getting dressed up for the occasion.
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