Windows into illustration: Benji Davies
Benji Davies’s picture books tell big, emotionally charged The Storm Whale won the Oscar’s First Book Prize in 2014 and was shortlisted for Booktrust’s Best Book Awards. His second, Grandad’s Island, won the children’s book category of the AOI World Illustration Awards 2015 and was crowned Best Picture Book and overall Children’s Book of the Year at the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards 2015. Here he describes his technique, and how he approaches his
G
randad’s Island is my second book as author-illustrator, and although I’ve illustrated over thirty other picture and novelty books, my process continues to evolve.
When writing I find a lot of my ideas bubble up, subconsciously. The building blocks of Grandad’s Island were scattered about – parakeets flying past my window, an idea for a ship sitting snugly in a row of terrace houses, old letters I had kept from my own grandad. I collected all these elements over time, some without realising, gradually piecing them together. I made notes on my phone, sketches on pieces of paper, each time reworking and tinkering until something coherent started to form.
Once I had the full story mapped out in my head, and then written as a synopsis, I began loosely storyboarding. I made text notes beside each image, sentences and phrases that came into my head; words to compliment the images and drive the story forward.
The storyboards are strung together sequences of thumbnail drawings, which are small drawings that suggest the composition and content of the illustration I am planning. I do this with a brush pen of grey ink on cartridge paper. It’s fluid, and encourages me to work quickly. It gives a soft tone, unlike black ink, which is solid and definite. It suggests that I can change it, and it doesn’t fight with the text as I lay it down next to the image.
6 Books for Keeps No.215 November 2015
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