Seeing colour in a new light


Steve Antony brings words to life through his illustrations, helping to create visual stories within stories. He has written and illustrated more than 20 books including his own Mr Panda and Queen’s Hat series, as well as You Can a unique collaboration with author Alex Strick and dozens of young people.


ILLUSTRATOR and writer Steve Antony knew straight away that he wanted to be involved in the project to bring You Can to life. Author Alex Strick (see pp. 16-18) wanted to give children and young people a genuine place in the creation of You Can, speaking to them about their lives and experiences. The result was a series of positive statements, offering advice and tips to other young people about how to cope with growing up. Steve says: “When Alex sent me one of


the first drafts of You Can, I thought it was such an empowering piece of text. I hadn’t read anything like it before – essentially, it is a manifesto for how to live your life, for children.


“You can see similar things for adults, positive affirmations in mindfulness and self-improvement books, but there wasn’t anything like it aimed at children. The fact that these positive statements came from children makes it all the more special and empowering.


“My gut instinct was to say ‘yes, I’ll do it’ straight away.” Steve, who writes and illustrates his own picture books, admits he is usually a little more hesitant when saying yes to other people’s projects, adding: “Illustrating takes a long time so it is a big commitment, and I really enjoy writing and illustrating my own books. Illustrating someone else’s books is a whole different thing.” However, the concept and the initial text had already made an impact and Steve says that he was immediately


Spring-Summer 2022


thinking about how to weave the words into a story. The nature of the text – a series of positive statements, such as “You Can… explore new worlds…, make amazing discoveries…, love a picture book whatever your age…, do things together…, or alone” – means there is no obvious narrative path to follow. Instead, Steve wove the text into his visuals, showing the lives of 14 children as they grow towards adulthood. He says: “When I read it for the first time, I was thinking about how I could visualise it. The text is very powerful, but it doesn’t tell a story in the traditional sense. What I wanted to do was create that story visually, so that it could run alongside that text. It was a challenge to come up with a visual landscape that is sequential, and which fits the text.”


Focusing on 14 children, rather than just one or two, helped Steve represent


the diversity of the contributors, but Steve says: “I knew it was really ambitious, and I wasn’t sure how I would tackle it, but I was excited about the challenge and creating these characters. “They are fictional characters but they are loosely based on the young contributors and their statements. I had to figure out who they are, and what makes them ticks. The book is showing you their entire childhood. It includes themes of change, development and growth and it was important to show that children have the freedom to develop, and change their mind and get new interests. It’s important for them to be able to experiment and learn to accept who they are.


“Growing up has its challenges and I really wanted to reflect that and also show that children grow and change. There are some really subtle changes there – the way they dress, the way they express themselves, but also the way they interact with each other and how those interactions change over time.” Alex and Steve were developing You Can during the pandemic, and it became clear that there was a need to address some of the issues that were coming out of that. The pair decided to put in an additional spread – “You Can… miss someone…, have bad days…, ask a grown-up for help…, share happy memories…, and look forward to tomorrow.”


Steve says: “We felt it was important to talk about grief and loss. We knew this book would come out in the wake


PEN&INC. 13


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