LETS

draw!
Inspiring projects and ideas for the whole family

You might
need a few
of these!

From the makers of

Sponsors of The 2014 Big Draw

Artists &
I L L U S T R A T O R S

In partnership with
The Big Draw and
Campaign for Drawing

WELCOME!
D

4 Why draw?
6 Lets play!
8 50 shades of grey
10 Drawing like great artists
12 Drawing with kids
14 Q&A

The Big Draws patron Andrew Marr offers a

personal testament to the power of drawing

rawing is one of lifes simple

pleasures, something we pick
up as children and from which
we can continue to find
enjoyment for years to come.
Brought to you in association with
The Big Draw and Artists & Illustrators
magazine, this free 16-page Lets Draw
supplement has been designed to
encourage the whole family to discover
(or rediscover!) the simple joys of putting
a pen or pencil on paper.
We hope that our simple project ideas
and easy-to-follow demonstrations provide
a little inspiration for you at home and
dont forget to take part in a Big Draw
event during October find about some
of the highlights on page 5.

Stuck for ideas of what to draw next? Try these

eight great projects that are fun for all the family

Talented graphite artist Kelvin Okafor gives a

masterclass in how to create a tonal portrait

Illustrator Marion Deuchars shows you how

to create a drawing in the style of Paul Klee

Why all children deserve the chance to

experiment with top quality art materials

Illustrator and Big Draw patron Posy Simmonds

reveals her favourite pencil and hidden talents

CLAIM YOUR

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to spend on art products and materials of your choice online at Art Discount
Subscribe to Artists & Illustrators, the UKs biggest and
best magazine for artists, and receive 1 year (13 issues)
for just 39.95 (usually 50).
PLUS well send you a 20 voucher to spend on anything you
like at Artdiscount.co.uk (one of the UKs largest online
retailers of fine art products and materials) absolutely FREE!

Get this
voucher,
FREE!

ORDERING IS EASY: Go to
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or call 01795 419838 and quote BD49
Lets Draw, The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd. Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place London SW3 3TQ Tel: (020) 7349 3700 www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk
EDITORIAL: Editor Steve Pill Senior Art Editor Chlo Collyer Assistant Editor Terri Eaton WITH THANKS TO: Marion Deuchars, James Dobson, Sin Dudley,
Jan Flisek-Boyle, Sue Grayson Ford, Andrew Marr, Kelvin Okafor, Kathryn Roberts and Posy Simmonds ADVERTISING: Advertisement Manager Tom OByrne
Sales Executive Erika Stone Advertising Production allpointsmedia www.allpointsmedia.co.uk PUBLISHING: Managing Director Paul Dobson Deputy Managing
Director Steve Ross Publisher Simon Temlett Commercial Director Vicki Gavin Marketing Manager Will Delmont
Artists & Illustrators (ISSN 0269-4697) is published every four weeks. We cannot accept responsibility for loss of, or damage to, unsolicited material. We reserve the right to refuse or suspend advertisements, and regret we cannot guarantee
the bona fides of advertisers. Readers should note that statements by contributors are not always representative of the publishers or editors opinion. News Trade (UK and Rest of World): Seymour International Ltd. 2 East Poultry Avenue,
London, EC1A 9PT Tel: (020) 7429 4000, Fax: (020) 7429 4001 Email: info@seymour.co.uk Printed in the UK: Wyndeham Heron Colour origination: allpointsmedia

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

Lets Draw 3

hy would
anyone in
their right
mind seek to
encourage other people,
strangers with lives of
their own to live, to draw?
Why should there even be
a Campaign for Drawing?
We dont need campaigns,
apparently, to persuade
others to write, or take
photographs, or play
music. Whats special
about drawing?
I think the answer is
that it is an important
part of being fully human
which has, for very
specific reasons, fallen
out of practice and habit.
Most educated people
understand that to
survive in the modern
world they need to be
able to write, to explain
themselves, as well as
to read. Generations have
grown up sending
photographic images to
others, once by snail mail
and now by Instagram.
In many ways, with everyone
clasping their mobile phone,
this is the most imageconscious society in
human history.
Drawing, the primal way
of making images, has been
important since Homo
sapiens left Africa and
began to colonise the planet
and arguably before that
too. We dont know any
cultures around the world
where drawing didnt
happen and wasnt valued.
There are plenty, of course,
whose drawings havent
survived, from the Bronze
Age Britons whose bark
rotted centuries ago, to
rainforest tribes, again using
quickly-perishable materials.
But from the ancient
Chinese, to the Aztecs, the
Inuit and all modern
cultures, drawing has clearly
been an important part of
how the human being
expresses culture.
4 Lets Draw

WHYDRAW?
BBC broadcaster, Big Draw patron and avid drawer
Andrew Marr explains why we should all rediscover
the simple joys of putting pencil on paper

In this country, as in many

Western countries, there was
a golden age of drawing
around a century ago. Mass
media were well advanced,
but photographic imagery
was still of poor quality and
relatively expensive.
So skilled drawings filled
newspapers and magazines,
advertisement posters and
cheap books. I had a great
uncle, killed in the First
World War, whod made a
decent living drawing coats

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

and costumes for

department stores, and the
illustrations for the new
cowboy stories; and you can
stand for the thousands of
sketchers and illustrators
who dominated the visual
imagination of the Victorians,
Edwardians, and right into
the inter-war period.
Even then, the golden age
took a long time to die. In the
1960s, when I was growing
up, cartoons were
everywhere. The books I

loved most had beautifully

drawn illustrations; all boys
and girls were brought up
with the drawings of Eagle,
Look and Learn, The Beano,
Jackie and so on.
But as photographic
reproduction got better and
better, and faster and faster,
the drawing culture withered
away. We are now in the
ridiculous position of having
a couple of generations who
have almost been taught not
to draw that they cant

other Big
TO DO: Fi nd
i n m y area
Draw events
draw that drawing is
only for some tiny,
bizarre elite of artists.
And, of course, when
people get to art school,
they are then taught
that drawing has almost
nothing to do with
art at all.
All of this is an
outrageous waste of
human talent and
expressiveness. Most of
us can draw. All of us
learn to look, to see the
world more sharply, and
to enjoy the simple
pleasure of making
something, when we
learn to draw. Talk to any
engineer, inventor or
designer, and you begin
to understand how
fundamental drawing is
to the economy.
And as I have learned
after my stroke, drawing is
a wonderful therapy and a
way to connect again with
the beauty of the world
around us, for the princely
sum of the cost of a 3B pencil
and a cheap notebook.
To undertake a campaign
on behalf of drawing is
therefore to try to wrench
back part of the culture that
has fallen away, and to give
ourselves a tool and practice
that should have been ours
all along. Its not a campaign
for art, still less for the art
market. Its a lot more
important than that.

Drawing Picks
Here are nine highlights from the hundreds of Big Draw
events taking place across the UK over the next month
1. JOIN THE BIG DRAW PARTY!
28 September, 11.30am 4.30pm
V&A Museum of Childhood, London E2
Join author Jacqueline Wilson and illustrators Nick
Sharratt and Marion Deuchers for the
Big Draw 2014 launch party.
Open workshops include
cartoon portraits and
pavement art.
All materials will be
provided free by
Big Draw sponsor
Faber-Castell.
thebigdraw.org/
event/3430

2. HOW TO DRAW
VINTAGE FASHION
12 October, 1.30pm
Fashion and Textile Museum, London SE1
Create illustrations and designs for vintage-style
clothes inspired by the museums Knitwear: Chanel to
Westwood exhibition.
thebigdraw.org/event/2833

3. LIFE DRAWING IN THE LANDSCAPE

18 October, 12-6pm
Tything Barn, Kilgetty, Pembrokeshire
Drawing neednt always be indoors! This figure
drawing event takes place in the beautiful Welsh
countryside with longer poses as the day progresses
thebigdraw.org/event/3054

4. ITS OUR WORLD

18 October, 1.30-4.30pm and
19 October, 12-3pm
Kelvingrove Art Gallery
and Museum, Glasgow
Organised in collaboration with the RSPB,
these two workshops offer the chance to
explore the relationship between nature
and the local architecture.
thebigdraw.org/event/3284

5. AMAZING ART
SUPERSIZED WEEKEND
25 and 26 October, 12-3.30pm
National Maritime Museum,
Falmouth, Cornwall
Andrews A Short Book
About Drawing is published
by Quadrille, RRP 15

Work with Falmouth University students to create

personal sketchbooks inspired by popular painter
Kurt Jacksons fishy-themed new exhibition,
Line Caught and Local.
thebigdraw.org/event/3154

6. DRAWING WITH INDIGO

25 October, 1-4pm
William Morris Gallery,
London E17
Textile artist Lucille Junkere will show
you how to draw with stitch and ink,
using Victorian designer William Morriss
favourite shade of blue.
thebigdraw.org/event/3023

7. JAPANESE ART AFTERNOON

30 October, 2-4pm
Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth
Museum, Grasmere, Cumbria
Introduce the kids to traditional creative skills
popular in Japanese culture such as origami paper
folding and elegant calligraphy.
thebigdraw.org/event/3351

8. EVOKING MEMORIES
THROUGH DRAWING
1 November, 2-4pm
The Creative Quarter, Folkestone, Kent
How can we literally draw on our memories? This
inventive multimedia workshop will find out while
exploring the towns history as a cross-channel port.
thebigdraw.org/event/2982

9. DRAW IT OUT
2 November, 1-3pm
The New Art Gallery Walsall,
West Midlands
Learn how to make your
own drypoint etching at
this drop-in workshop
a great way to
introduce the family
to the delicate art of
printmaking and
approaching drawing
from a new angle.
thebigdraw.org/
event/2693

TO FIND DETAILS OF YOUR NEAREST BIG DRAW EVENT, VISIT THEBIGDRAW.ORG

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

Lets Draw 5

!
T
R
A
ST

Look away!

Sit down opposite a friend or family member with a pad

of paper and a pen or pencil. Now, try to make a line
drawing of them without looking at your page focus
only on your sitter at all times. Hard, isnt it? You wont
produce a perfect portrait, but this quick exercise helps
hone your observation skills.

WHATEVER NEXT?

Turn on the TV. Watch part of a favourite

programme and then turn the TV off again.
Try to imagine what happens next.
What might the characters be doing?
What locations might they visit next?
Draw the imagined scene.
If you have a digibox, you could
even pause the programme
and see how your drawing
compares to what really
happened on the screen.

Le

NEW WORLDS
Ever wanted to visit another planet or go back
in time? Well, now you can by drawing yourself
in a whole new world!
Find an old photo of yourself or print one out on
the computer. Take a pair of scissors and carefully
cut around your silhouette to remove the background
(kids you can ask your parents to
help with this bit!).
Glue the back of your
cut-out figure to a larger
sheet of white paper.
Now, draw yourself
a new location on the
paper around your
photo. Where will you
go? The only limit is
your imagination!

6 Lets Draw

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

a
Can you draw
s
na
na
ba
bunch of
ur
yo
ng
ti
lif
without
?
ge
pa
e
th
pen off

PLA

ake
If you cant m
nt in
Big Draw eve
n
eight more fu
that you can
with the

Walk the line

Look around your house for an object with an interesting

shape maybe a plant, a toy or a bunch of bananas? Place
the object on the table in front of you and try to draw it in a
single continuous line without lifting your pen or pencil off
the page. Try to describe both the outline of the object and
also any key internal shapes or details.
This game is a great way of learning how shapes relate
to one another and developing hand-eye coordination.

This is a
great lesson
in style over
accuracy!

LEFT IS RIGHT

ts

Are you left- or right-handed?

Try putting your pen or
pencil in the other hand
to complete a drawing
of a person or a
scene. You will no
doubt find it harder
and struggle to
achieve an
accurate likeness
but you might also
find it is a more
expressive or emotive
drawing as a result.

AY!
l
it to an officia
are
October, here
s
drawing game
play at home
whole family

Grand day out

This is a fun one to try after a family holiday or day trip.

Take a large sheet of paper and divide it into rectangles
using a black pen and ruler. Challenge your kids to create
a cartoon telling the story of what you did that day,
drawing the people involved and the places visited in turn.
If they are older, you can call it a graphic novel and get
them to add speech bubbles or develop the expressions
on the characters faces. Date the drawings they will
become fun visual diaries to look back on in years to come.

WINDOW DRESSING

Sounds
incredible
Play some music and draw
what it makes you feel or
think about. Let the rhythm
of the music influence the
speed of the marks made.
Use coloured pens or
pencils to reflect the
mood of the music. Do
this with friends or family
and compare your
drawings of the same
songs at the end.

Find a dry-wipe marker, chalk pen or

similar that will write on glass and wipe
away easily (be sure to get parental
approval and have them test it in a small
corner first!). Choose a large window in
your house and make an outline drawing
on the glass of the scene you can see
outside. Embellish the drawing with
patterns, shapes or extra characters
animals, people or maybe even imaginary
monsters. Have fun turning the real world
into something more fantastical!

!
H
S
I
FIN

TO DO: Sh are your

drawin gs on Twitte
r
at The_Big_Draw
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

Lets Draw 7

50 SHADES OF GREY
Kelvin Okafor shares his techniques
for creating lifelike tonal portraits

oung British artist

Kelvin Okafor
only graduated
from Middlesex
University in 2009 but he
has already gained a huge
following for his beautiful
tonal portraits of friends,
family and celebrities.
His work has been
featured by the BBC, The
Guardian and Daily Mail,
while his debut solo
exhibition at Londons
Albemarle Gallery last spring
was a great success.
My art developed from a
sort of obsessive desire to
achieve greater realism and
emotional expression in my
drawings, he told us.

I actually dream about how

I will start and finish a
portrait. I continue to
reference my photos while
Im drawing, but I already
know how the portrait will
look when its completed.

You will need:

A range of graphite pencils,

grades 5B to 5H
A white chalk pencil
Black Faber-Castell
Polychromos pencils
Cretacolour graphite and
charcoal powder
Archival drawing paper
A tortillon (for blending)
A Tombow Mono eraser
A good pencil sharpener

I begin by studying the subject from either a photograph

or a live sitting and embedding an image of them into
my subconscious and memory. Rather than creating a
grid, I lightly sketch the subject and define the
background. It is essential to understand the tonal
values, making note of the darkest and lightest.

My portraits always develop in stages; I complete

each feature of the face before moving on. I then
As with hair, skin begins with a light base of graphite
go back and work over the entire picture, adding
powder applied with cotton buds. To create blemishes,
highlights or changing tonal values to finish it off. I also
pores or scars I use tortillons and hard pencil grades such as
use black Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils in certain
5H. I also use the Tombow Mono Eraser and a Cretacolour
areas, as the wax creates yet another subtle effect.
white chalk pencil to create highlights such as light reflecting
off oily skin.
Kelvins portraits tak
e more
than 100 hours to co
8 Lets Draw www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk
mplete

on drawing at
Find more tips
o.uk/how-to
llustrators.c
di
an
ts
is
rt
.a
www

This subject has medium to dark brown hair so a light

background provides the needed contrast. The fairer the
hair the darker the background needs to be and vice versa.
I layer a base using Cretacolor graphite powder then build
upon that with Cretacolor charcoal powder. I then work in
details with various pencil grades and use erasers,
particularly the Tombow Mono Eraser, to create highlights.

I measure proportions, determine the scale of the

drawing, and shape the rest of the features based
on the eyes. I believe the eyes show the subjects soul
and are most often the focal point of the drawing.

Lois White Rose, graphite, charcoal and

black pencil on archival paper, 72x58cm

I never impulsively create a portrait. I like to study the

subject from different angles and then work to express
the essence or mood of the person through my drawing.

Who would you draw?

A friend or a famous face?
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

Lets Draw 9

DRAWING LIKE GREAT ARTISTS

Taking inspiration from your favourite
Old Masters or contemporary painters
is a great way to improve your skills,
as artist Marion Deuchars explains

n my new book, Draw Paint Print like the Great Artists,

I have chosen some of my favourite artists who have
been an important influence on me, helping me to
develop my own style over the years. By exploring
their techniques, I began to understand the essence of their
work and how they see the world around them.
Every artist learns by looking at the work created by others,
and then picks up bits of that and makes their own art in their
own way. Through them, you will discover new working
methods and new ways of exploring image making. It may be
something as simple as using scissors rather than a pencil, or
being fascinated by a new shape or a playful exercise.

Paul Klee (1879-1940)

was a German-Swiss
painter whose concepts
for composition and
design remain the
foundations of those
used in the art and
design worlds today.
Like his great friend
Wassily Kandinsky, Klee was
very interested in the
abstract, and his art

How to make a

You will need:

White card
Wax crayons (bright colours)
Black gouache or acrylic
paint
A wide, flat brush
2H pencil (or cocktail stick
or other sharp tool)
Kitchen towel

gradually developed
from representational
into purely abstract.
In the 1920s, both
Klee and Kandinsky
taught at the
revolutionary
Bauhaus school for
arts and crafts, where
Klee passed his theories on
art and design on to a new
generation who would bring
them to the world.
Klee was ambidextrous:
he wrote with his right hand
and painted with his left.
Many of his drawings and
paintings look like lines
stacking up on top of each
other in playful doodles.
He used bright colours and
made intricate patterns.
Many of them remind me
of crayon etching.
This is an edited extract from
Draw Paint Print
like the Great
Artists by Marion
Deuchars (Laurence
King, RRP 12.95).
www.laurenceking.com

10 Lets Draw

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

ONE

THREE

Klee made all kinds of lines

in his work. Some of them
looked as thought they
were scratched out of the
paint. You can make similar
kinds of marks by
scratching lines out of
paint-covered wax. It is
called scratch art or
crayon etching. It is
very simple to do.

Draw a border on the white card.

Paint over wax crayon with black acrylic

or gouache paint with a wide, flat brush.
Cover evenly. The paint should be quite
thick but not lumpy.

TO DO: Enter this

competition today!

Ive scraped
the black pain
t to
make a Kleelike doodle

TWO

Rub wax crayons onto the paper, up to

your border, leaving no white spaces.
Rub away surplus wax with kitchen towel.

WIN!

Enter our prize draw for the chance

to win signed limited edition prints
by Quentin Blake and Posy Simmonds

rtists & Illustrators and The Big Draw have

teamed up to offer one lucky reader the
chance to win two fantastic limited edition
prints by Campaign for Drawing patrons
Quentin Blake and Posy Simmonds.
Quentins print is pictured above, while Posys can be
seen on page 14. Both prints are signed limited editions
and available to purchase from www.bigdrawshop.co.uk.
For your chance to win these two stunning prints...

FOUR

Scrape your pattern into the black paint

to reveal the wax colours. Rub away the
surplus dried paint.

Click here
to enter
T&Cs apply see www.chelseamagazines.com/terms
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

Lets Draw 11

Drawing
with Kids

Sin Dudley explains why all art materials are

suitable for children and why we can learn
a thing or two from how they use them too

here are very few people who would deny that

children are precious. There are not many people
who would give children less than the best they
could offer in every way possible except when it
comes to art materials.
When children are making a piece of art, they are exploring,
WHY NOT...
discovering not only a world of imagery and self-expression,
...try our
but also the joy inherent in the act of creating something.
project on
Why hamper them with inferior materials?
page 13 with
Even in something as simple as a coloured pencil there is a
crayons or
world of difference between a childrens pencil and one
paint to
designed for artists use the latter will release its colour
add colour?
more readily and consistently. A child will find this far more
satisfying to use, enjoying the brighter colour and probably
completing a picture within the time limit of their
concentration span.
I would like to advocate using good-quality materials from
the time your child wants to make marks. A three-year-old is
ughter capable of using a good-quality brush without ruining it try
Sins granda
, gets telling them to tickle the paper and listen for it laughing!
4
ed
ag
Sophia,
tists
ar
h
it
w
Adults have much to learn from watching children. Picasso
to grips
ls
ia
er
at
m
famously said, It took me four years to paint like
y
qualit
Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
I dont think he was simply referring to
their observation of the world.
As a student I was taught that
the first art lesson you give a
child in any new medium is to
give them it and then sit
back, watch, and listen.
Note their responses,
how they use all their
senses to explore the
medium. Very young
children will do this
before trying to use it to
produce something and
I believe this is an
approach we should all
try to recover.
If children are ready to
draw and paint, they are
ready to succeed. Lets do
everything we can to help them.
You never know, we might just pick
up a few tips for ourselves on the way...
12 Lets Draw

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

HIGH FIVE!

Sin Dudleys fun

drawing project will
encourage the whole
family to get hands on
The poor old pencil is often
overlooked, simply because
they are so commonplace.
For me picking up a decent
pencil is still an exciting
experience; the feel of the
pencil as it glides over a
lovely paper with a decent
tooth, and the range and
expressiveness of the
marks I can make, continue
to delight me.
Use this activity to
encourage your children to
explore the possibilities of
graphite pencils further.
Have them use all their
senses note the way the
pencil feels in their hand,
the smell of the wood, and
the sound it makes on the
paper. Take this
opportunity to compare
the different grades of
pencil, and learn how and
when to use each of them.

You will need:

Three grades of graphite

pencil for example, an HB,
a 4B and a 9B
Large sheets of good-quality
drawing paper
A good sharpener
A good light source, strong
enough to cast shadows

will
ncil on its side
Turning a pe
e
ak
ks you can m
vary the mar

STEP ONE

STEP TWO

STEP THREE

STEP FOUR

Encourage your kids to play with the three grades of

pencils to experiment with the marks they can make
and notice the differences between them. Have them
try using different pressures: tickling the paper for
light marks, pressing harder for darker ones. What
happens when they layer the graphite? Can they make
marks shine by burnishing them? How do they feel?
Encourage them to alter the angle at which they hold
the pencils. What sorts of lines can they make now?
Could they, for example, make marks that look slow
or heavy?

On the same piece of paper, have them create a new

set of hand shadows and draw around each of them
again, this time using the 4B pencil. Once you have a
layer of hands drawn with that 4B pencil, change
again to the 9B pencil and repeat.
You will end up with an arrangement of hands,
interwoven but distinguishable because of the quality
of lines made by the different grades of pencil. You can
continue until each member of the family has had a
turn or carry on to cover a larger sheet of paper!

Angle your light source so that it produces good

shadows on the page. Have your children place their
non-drawing hand between the light source and the
paper, playing around with the shadows until they find
an interesting shape.
Using the HB pencil, have them draw around the
outline of their hands shadow. Take turns to make
shadows, overlapping HB outlines and building up
interesting shapes on the paper as you go.
Hands wobble so have them rest their arms on
something if necessary.

Now have them add texture, tone and pattern using

the range of marks they discovered in the first step.
They do not have to follow the shapes of each hand,
but instead encourage them to look at the patterns
that the shadows have made when they overlapped.
As they fill in each shape, try to have them keep an
eye on the balance of tones and marks across the
whole page. The result will appear abstract at first,
but on closer inspection it is also a lovely record of
your familys hands. Lastly, dont forget to date it!

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

Lets Draw 13

When did you first

start drawing?
I remember being three
years old and drawing
lots of circles. As soon
as I picked up a pencil,
I knew it was what I
liked doing best.

Why is drawing so
important?
It teaches you how to
really look at things and to
understand them. Drawing
can do such different
things. When its very
exact, like architectural or
medical drawing, its an
excellent analytical tool.
Plus, a lot of people get a lot
of pleasure out of it. I think
drawing is extraordinary.

Youve been creating

strips since the 1970s.
How did you get started?
After Id left college, I was
freelancing and doing what
most students did those

Q&A

POSY SIMMONDS

The much-loved illustrator and Big Draw

patron reveals her favourite pencil and
a talent for tap dancing
INTERVIEW: TERRI EATON

days: carrying
my portfolio in a black case
and going to see people.
This was before the days of
websites so I spent a couple
of months reaping not much
success. My first commission
was for The Times and it was
to fill in for someone who
was on holiday. August is a
good time to pitch, even
now, because a lot of people
are away and theres always
drawing to be done.

Buy a limited edition print of

Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds
at www.bigdrawshop.co.uk

What
is your
career
highlight
so far?
Being asked to
do the regular
comic strip for The
Guardian in 1977 because it
was something very
different and exacting.

Are there any lessons

that have stuck with you?
My early days at The
Guardian taught me how to
draw quickly. They gave me
some copy and said they
wanted the illustration by
5pm. There was no time for
second thought but it
allowed me to develop my
own visual handwriting.

It was overwhelming but

I really liked it.
I remember
[the director]
Stephen
Frears
remarking
how the
books
graphic
novel layout
made it easier
because it was like
a ready-made
storyboard. When youre
writing a graphic novel, its
like drawing a film in a way,
only Im in charge of
everything the direction,
the script, the props, the
camera, the lighting.

What one art product

can you not live without?

Whats the best piece of

advice youve received?
Being told Ill make 1,000
drawings that Im not happy
with but being assured that
its perfectly normal.

Whats the biggest

misconception about
being an illustrator?

Its often something Ive

read in a paper and you
think, Gosh, how appalling
or absurd!

Whats the secret to

drawing good characters?
Spend a significant time
developing them, draw them
from different angles and
ask questions about their
character what car they
drive, what shoes they wear,
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

Your strip Tamara

Drewe was adapted
into a movie in 2010.
How was that?

It used to be a beautiful
black Berol Karismacolor
pencil but theyve been
discontinued. Im now using
a Faber-Castell one, which is
still very good, but it makes
me sad when a brand I love
no longer makes a product.

Where do you find

your inspiration?

14 Lets Draw

whether theyre vain and

such like. Hopefully then
therell be some sort of
recognition for the reader.

Everyone thinks its such

fun. Ill bump into someone
after a deadline and theyll
say, Oh, youre still doing
your sketching? What fun!
They believe that you sit at
home with a teapot at your
elbow, a cat on your lap and
its all very cosy.

Apart from art, whats

your biggest talent?
I can tap dance a bit.
Im quite good at doing
impressions of animals too,
like chickens, cows and cats!

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Lets Draw 15

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