A spread I created for the Make Art That Sells ‘Illustrating Picture Books Course’
‘The Big Short’, did you catch that movie? The one with Christian Bale shorting the housing market and Margo Robbie explaining what that means in a bubble bath? Great scene. Great film.
It’s based on a 2010 book of the same title, by Micheal Lewis. His lesser known book is ‘Liar’s Poker’ (great read) which is an autobiographical sketch of his life as a young trader. He is floundering helplessly when he starts his career in the brutal, cut throat world of investment banking. There’s a piece of advice preached repeatedly to the struggling trader, ‘You have eyes… plagiarize!’ This advice serves him very well and he soon rises through the ranks to success and glory (if you ignore that itsy-bitsy blip where the economy crashes and burns) But, genuinely, the advice does serve illustrators well (and with far less devastating economic consequences…)
Here’s how it works for me. Each week, week in week out, I tootle down to the local library and pick up a selection of kids book (all ages) which I peruse during the week, filling up my tank of what illustrations are possible and how pro illustrators solve problems. I then carry my little mental store around in my head ready to whip out when needed. I’ll show you what I mean.
Here’s an illustration from Chris Riddel’’s middle grade book ‘Guardian’s of Magic’. What a great scene. Look at the detail. All that on a single page in small paper back chapter book. Ah! Bliss!
So, when asked to illustrate ‘a rickety old house stuffed full of things’ in a Make Art That Sells class, I knew I had to use the same detailed cut away technique. Here’s a reminder of how it came out:
So even though this book is targeted a totally different age, that Riddell scene sparked something really special. It doesn’t stop there… let’s break down the anatomy of the scene I drew further. The giant dino? Inspired by Steven Lenton’s huge plant in the conservatory of ‘The Nothing To See Here Hotel':
The stone age hand prints on the rocks? Of course, a familiar trope, but one that came easily to mind thanks to reading David Robert’s Inch and Grub recently:
The idea for doing rocks at all? This beautiful book I spotted in my classroom library:
The loose, painterly depiction of bushes and trees? Julia Sarda’s ‘The Withered Arm’:
I could go on but I think you get the idea. So get down the library and starting building your mental store of what is possible!
*please note I don’t actually endorse plagiarism. All the ideas should be scrunched and bashed together enough that you’ve created some new, magical, original and totally YOU.
Thanks for reading :D