Photographs by Joanna Carey.


His style over the years as a picture book artist has been through some changes, most significantly when he began to use a computer, and he talks about this with enthusiasm. ‘As a youngster I could never get paint, pastels or coloured pencils to do exactly what I wanted, but I was completely hooked on felt tips. I liked the way I could control them, the evenness of their lines, the reliability and the brightness of the colour, their suitability for the graphic style I was aiming for. So Photoshop, for me, is like a magic box of felt tips: unlimited bright clean colours, perfectly controlled “colouring-in”, perfect for precision pattern-creating. Initially I didn’t know much about computers, so I learnt a few basics at a local college, and since then I’ve developed my own technique – with a fair bit of trial and error.’


Sharratt doesn’t draw on the computer. He does that on paper, with a 6B pencil, then scans it in and manipulates the quality of the line as required. At this point he sits down at his computer, and just as an organist might start pulling out stops, prior to a recital, he summons up on the screen the vast palette of ‘personal patterns’ he has created, with which he ‘colours in’ the drawings. Listed on the screen, the names have a bizarre poetry all their own – Toad Skin… T-Rex Skin… Hand-Drawn Hessian… Monster Fur… Crackles… Gravel… Nick’s Houndstooth… School Jumper… Tarmac… Splats… Speckles… Wig hair… Sock wool… the list goes on and on seemingly unending in its possibilities, but it’s bewildering to think that those myriad visual effects and textures, in all their infinite variety, can be summoned up at the touch of a button – it makes me wonder if there’s a future for traditional, time honoured techniques, real, handmade artwork? We’d touched on this earlier and Sharratt had spoken with awe about the luminosity of Michael


The Books – a selection From Alison Green Books:


One Fluffy Baa-Lamb, Ten Hairy Caterpillars, 978 1 4071 0668 7, £10.99 Moo-Cow, Kung-Fu-Cow, 978 1 4071 1552 8, £6.99 Octopus Socktopus, 978 1 4071 0731 8, £6.99


Elephant Wellyphant, 978 0 439 94444 1, £6.99


From Scholastic Children’s Books:


The Big Book of Magical Mix-Ups (Hilary Robinson), 978 1 4071 1571 9, £7.99 A Cheese and Tomato Spider, 978 0 590 19159 3, £6.99 Don’t Put Your Finger in the Jelly, Nelly!, 978 0 439 95062 6, £5.99 I Went to the Zooper- market, 978 0 439 95063 3, £5.99 Ketchup on your Cornflakes?, 978 0 439 95064 0, £5.99 Buzz Buzz, Bumble Jelly, 978 0 439 99865 9, £6.99


Foreman’s watercolour washes and the skill and subtlety with which they are applied.


Surely a computer can’t compete with that? Will everything become digital? ‘No,’ says Sharratt. ‘There’ll always be a need for physical picture books – books you can hold and share.’ And as you might deduce from titles like the The Gooey Chewy Rumble Plop Book (yes, it’s about the digestive system) or The Best Pop-Up Magic Book… Ever! (which features a finger guillotining trick), his own books certainly do have a very physical presence.


His latest book, One Fluffy Baa-Lamb, Ten Hairy Caterpillars, is another pop-up extravaganza, absurdly funny and featuring wonderfully robust paper engineering and ever more subtle use of colour and pattern. It’s a counting book really, but it wears its pedagogic mantle lightly and the eponymous baa-lambs and caterpillars have inspired some crazy wordplay – chocolate baa-lambs, strawberry gateau pillars… wear-a-bra lambs, bobble-hatterpillars… and when the whole thing opens up like a marvellous little Art Deco theatre, we get ooh-la-la lambs and acrobatterpillars. But with their wittily observed body language, and their aviator shades, the rock-guitar lambs are the stars of this show.


Humour is Sharratt’s strength, he says, and ‘and my sense of humour does seem to tally with kids across the primary school range. A lot of my books seem capable of working with preschoolers at the same time as with kids up to years 4/5. Which is good! I hate the idea that you have to leave picture books behind once you can read for yourself.’ n


Joanna Carey is a former Children’s Books Editor of the Guardian.


Books for Keeps No.184 September 2010 15


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