Please describe your chosen illustration
I used acrylic paints for this
illustration. I love acrylics for so many reasons. They dry fast, the colours
are vibrant and what you see is what you get, generally. Once an illustration
is printed, you don’t want any surprises ie. Too light, too dark, streaks that
you hadn’t noticed in your artwork. With acrylics, I find that the finished
print is very close to the actual artwork. Most of the time.
This illustration is for a book
that I’m working on about a little girl, Rose and her toy rabbit, Poppy. In
many ways the relationship between them is akin to a mother and her child.
Poppy is like a typical toddler.
When did you
know you had a talent for illustration?
I’ve loved drawing for as long
as I can remember. When I was little, there were Disney cards in the bread
packets. I would collect them and copy the characters. I used to make books out
of stiff paper and glue in the cards and my drawings. I would spend hours
working on these books. I also made posters of the characters and they were
hanging all over our house. I still have some of my old drawings but sadly the
books, to my mother’s chagrin, (and mine), got thrown out with the newspapers
one week, many, many years ago.
I don’t actually know if I have
a talent for drawing although my grade 3 teacher told my parents that I was
artistic at a parent/teacher interview after I did a collage of a rubbish tip.
Honestly, it was just rubbish. Little bits of paper and polystyrene shapes. I
remember I had great fun doing it and didn’t think that much of it. If only it
could always be that easy.
Have you ever
studied your craft at an institution of any sort?
I was determined to have a
career in art. When it came to studying, I wanted to do something that I could
hopefully earn a living from. “Commercial Art” sounded so exciting to me. By
the time I got to study it, it had become, “Graphic Design” and later,
“Communication Design.” It was great in that I developed some skills and met
some fantastic people, who to this day, 28 years later, are still my dearest
friends, but it really didn’t satisfy my illustration needs. After I finished
the diploma, I went overseas and worked as a freelance illustrator in Holland for 8 years. That
was a great time of my life. I was doing what I really loved and getting paid
for it.
Have you
illustrated any books?
By the time I returned to Australia in
1996, I had 2 young children and it was then that my love of children’s books
really took off. In 1999 my first book, Baby Bear goes to the Zoo was
published. After 14 books, this one is still my favourite. It turned out
exactly the way I wanted it to. I wrote it for my then 2 year old daughter.
I have written and illustrated
8 books and illustrated a further 6. Of course I prefer to do both, but
illustrating someone else’s work also has its pros. It has a certain
detachment, perhaps making it easier to be freer creatively. Generally there is
no contact with the author but recently I had the pleasure of illustrating
Tania Cox’s stories, What makes my Mum Happy and My Dad and Me. I had met Tania
many years ago at a writer’s retreat when we had both just finished our first
book. For a while we kept in contact. As happens when you have children and
just life in general, we lost touch so it was great to reconnect through her
books and we did correspond during the process.
Deadlines are a necessary evil.
I don’t know if, for me that they are the major factor in interfering with my
creativity. I think as an illustrator, you are constantly wondering if what you
are doing is going to please the people it's intended for.
I have been teaching short
courses in Children’s Book Illustration at CAE (Council of Adult Education)
since 2001 and short courses in Writing and Illustrating a Children’s Picture
Book and Illustration Styles and Techniques at RMIT since 2003. I also teach
Drawing at RMIT in Foundation Studies, Art Design and Architecture.
Who is your
favourite Australian children’s book illustrator and why?
Bob Graham would have to be my
favourite illustrator. His illustrations tell you so much about his characters
and there is such an understatement to his words.
What’s your
website or blog address (if you have one)?
My website address is www.lorettebroekstra.com
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