I keep a list in my head of things I will NEVER EVER draw

Including pirates, mermaids and unicorns 🏴‍☠️🧜‍♀️🦄

Back in 2021 Walker Books sent me a manuscript to read with a view to illustrating it. I should explain that in the past I have almost always said no to texts by other authors. In fact for the first 20-ish years of my career I didn't illustrate a picture book for another author because it seemed like such a difficult task.

I found it hard to imagine how I would find a ‘way in’. It was easier for me to write my own stories about things I wanted to draw. In fact that’s why I started writing stories in the first place. But since then I’ve been working on finding ways around that problem * and now I always read manuscripts looking to see if I can find a way in.

When this text, called Drew, Moo and Bunny Too, came along my first reaction was, ‘Pirates! No, I don't do pirates. There are too many drawings of pirates in the world already and I will never be able to draw a pirate that feels like MY pirate.’

Along with mermaids, dragons and anything mythical, including dinosaurs (which I know aren’t mythical but I’ve never seen one, so) I keep a list in my head of things I will never draw and pirates were number two, after unicorns.

But then I read the text and my heart melted. It was written by Owen Sheers for a small boy he knew called Drew. Drew died of a very rare type of childhood cancer, and Owen wrote this story, in collaboration with Drew’s parents Mel and Jon, for the family. Read more here.

The story can be read on two levels. On one level it’s an adventure story about a small boy, a magic carpet and a gang of ragtag pirates led by a head strong little girl. On another level, I think it’s a story to help Drew’s parents let go of something very precious to them. A reminder that precious things can always live in your heart. This story came from something very real and very heartfelt and so I said yes. 

I thought I’d tackle the pirate problem when I came to it. I once drew a dragon and that worked out alright…

Tackling the pirate problem turned out to be really good fun, and now I am not scared of drawing pirates. Do you hear me? I am not scared of drawing pirates, I actually like drawing pirates.

I’ve learned to push past these rules, I think they are based on fear of not doing a good job, or being ‘found out’ as a rubbish pirate/ dragon/ mermaid illustrator. They take a bit more thought and practice than stuff on my ‘definitely will illustrate list’ but that’s where the challenge lies and drawing challenges always get me excited.

Here’s how I tackled the pirate problem: first of all I decided that at least half of the pirates would be women. Then I looked up female pirates of old and found some fantastic prints that were very inspiring. I decided that each pirate should have a very different body shape and imagined celebrities who would make good pirates. That’s about it really, once I had decided on Daisy May-Cooper from The Witchfinder, Super Gran (from 1980’s TV) a distant relative of mine mixed with a bit of Geoff Capes (The world’s strongest man from my childhood) I was there! 

Can’t find the name of the artist for the image on the left, but it’s of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, famous female pirates. The print on the right is of Anne Bonny from a Dutch version of Charles Johnson's book of pirates. Legend goes she sailed the seas bare chested, which doesn’t sound sensible, so drafty! Then there’s Daisy May Cooper and Super Gran.

Anyway, Drew Moo and Bunny Too is available for pre-order now. Pre-orders really help authors and illustrators because it gives booksellers faith that the book will do well and they’ll order nice big piles for their front table. So you’d be doing me a big favour if you pre-order a copy. It’d be like buying me a cuppa tea and a biscuit (a Garibaldi if you’re asking) to say well done on the pirates Helen. Thank you.

(I have linked to Amazon, but you can order it from your local bookshop too, in fact that would be much better, support local booksellers!)

Walker Books is extremely proud to be publishing Drew, Moo, and Bunny Too, a children’s story written by Owen Sheers and developed with Mel and Jon in collaboration with The Drew Barker Wright Charity. Not only will it be a classic, stand-alone story to share with young children, but also a beautiful way of honouring Drew’s memory and raising awareness of ultra-rare childhood cancer. Walker Books

*These are some ‘ways in’ to someone else’s text that I have found useful:

1. With a sketchbook in hand, visit the place the author set the story. That’s what I did with the two Michael Morpurgo books I illustrated, one set in Venice, the other in a tiny mountain village in Switzerland.

2. Research by collecting visual inspiration from books, museums, photos and on Pinterest then make notes and sketches until you get a firm hold of how you’d draw this world.

3. Or in the best case scenario, which is what happened with Drew, Moo and Bunny Too, feel so pulled into the emotion of the story that you are in that world before you even put pen to paper (then worry about how you’d draw the pirates).

By the way, I made the whole book on Procreate. I usually make books by hand on paper, or sometimes I compile hand drawn elements on Affinity or Photoshop, but this one is 100% Procreate. I’ll tell you all about that another time.

Do you have a list of things in your head you will NEVER-EVER draw? Please tell me! Am I the only one with such a list?

Helenx 

P.S. Oh and I hate drawing tables in picture books, all that flat boring surface with things on. The children in my books can eat while running around or go hungry.