Anne Spudvilas PIO issue 289 May 2010

1.  What's this illustration for?

This is a detail of the cover for The Peasant Prince, a picture book version of Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin, published by penguin. It is done in ink and watercolour on rice paper in traditional Chinese brushpainting technique.

2.. Do you have to wait for a flash of inspiration - how do you start?
My beginnings are in the text, I illustrate other people's texts so  as I’m reading  ideas start to form, visual ideas that I quickly jot down in tiny, very rough thumbnail sketches.

3.. How did you get your start as an illustrator?
I got to know popular writer Isobelle Carmody through a mutual friend, and she asked me to do a cover for her young adult novel The Gathering, in about 1990.  Penguin used it and I was encouraged to send my work out to various publishers. More work followed.

4.. Who or what has influenced your work?
I'm inspired by the work of many people. Painters like Gustav Klimt, Whistler, contemporary Australian painters.  Illustrators that I love include Lizbeth Zwerger, Shaun Tan's versatility and imagination, Roland Harvey's beautifully delicate watercolour work, Leigh Hobbs' wonderful pen lines.   My work is always influenced by what I see around me every day.


5.. What's your favourite media for creating pictures?
My favourite medium at the moment is charcoal, I’m really enjoying working in black and white.  but i also love oil paints, and printmaking techniques - etching and monoprints.

6.. Do you experience illustrator's block - if so, what do you do about it?
YES!!  I'm in the middle of it as i write.  Nothing can be done about it, you just have to keep working as well as you can. Sooner or later, new things happen, you have to be ready for it. This is only the second time it's happened in my life - it's totally unpredictable.

7.. What's the worst thing about being a freelancer?
Never being able to look ahead and know how much money you're going to make.  It’s difficult to make plans – you have to always have faith that the work will come.

8.. And the best?
Being able to stay in bed and work if I want to, the early morning is a great time for me to catch up on things with my laptop and a coffee propped up on lots of pillows.
And it's so good to have time to do what I want when i want to.  No set hours.

9.. What are you working on at the moment?
I'm concentrating on getting the work I've done already onto my website in an online shop.   Also working up an idea for a picture book of my own, either wordless or written and illustrated by me.

10.. Where can we see more of your work?www.annespudvilas.com  - something else to do, update the website!