Jeremy Tankard contact

I came across Jeremy Tankards work whilst researching children’s book illustrators/authors online. I wanted to find out how you go about writing for children’s books as well as illustrating them, and the positives/negatives of doing this. Jeremy sent a really nice detailed reply explaining how and why he ended up creating his own children’s books. A lot of his work is not stylistically what I would usually go for but some of his animal characters are really nice. Like the bear one I have shown. He also conveniently included my questions into his email with the responses which means I don’t have to go back and forth between both. Again, my questions are in grey and the responses are black:-

Thanks for the great questions. I'm glad you like the animals. The funny thing is I used to avoid drawing animals at all costs as they're very difficult to draw. Now I'm the other way around -- I LOVE drawing animals and would happily populate all my books with cute fuzzy critters! Now, to your questions:

Do you look to any other designers for inspiration when creating work like this?

Absolutely. There are a handful of illustrators whose work I adore. I consider them to be inspiration rather than influence. I love: Chihiro Iwasaki (http://images.google.ca/images?q=Chihiro+Iwasaki&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=ZAz7ScD4AY-eMo_T_bEE&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title); Jack Kirby; Dave McKean; Chris Raschka; Thierry Martin (http://thierry-martin.blogspot.com/); I even enjoy James Jean. And there are many others. I love artists who are able to convey a genuine sense of MOOD and ATMOSPHERE in their drawings. Even if the artist usually portrays a very dark atmosphere or mood it often inspires me to reach further in my own drawings -- even if I'm going for a very different mood. I also love artists like Peter de Seve, especially for his sketchbook stuff -- so full of life and gesture. I love good animation based illustrators for this as well.

When you were starting out as an illustrator did you build up a reputation by illustrating other authors work before approaching publishers with books you had written as well as illustrated?

Strangely not! My story of getting published is the stuff of fantasy. I had no intention of writing my own books, believing myself to be an illustrator and that's all. But my now editor at Scholastic wanted me to try my hand at writing my own books. She just wanted to see if I could do it. I took some writing classes and started writing. As it turned out I LOVE writing, even though I find it very difficult. However, I used to be a freelance illustrator and spent many years "honing my craft" doing drawings for magazines and ad campaigns. It was these drawings that got me interest from the publishers. My editor believed that if I could learn to write with half the strength of my drawings she would have a product she'd be crazy not to put on the market (her words, not mine -- it was a good ego trip!).

Writing and illustrating children’s books like yourself is something I would love to do, I can see many benefits of doing this.

There are a great many benefits. Chiefly: it's FUN!!!! Also: I'm my own boss; I set my own hours; both writing and illustrating means I make twice as much money than if I was only doing one; I don't have to draw anything I don't want to draw; etc...

Have you come across any negatives in working this way, and what positives has it had for you personally?

Negatives: I'm not a millionaire; I'm my own boss; I'm running a business and sometimes that's not much fun; it's not a steady paycheque; it's highly competitive; the deadlines are usually pretty long and I like nice short deadlines; writing is very difficult; you have to learn to be very good at managing money; etc...For every negative there are many positives. It's very satisfying and rewarding and I'm tremendously proud of my work.

Did you have any training in writing literature or is it something which comes naturally to you?

It doesn't come easily, but it feels pretty natural when it comes. Does that make any sense? I find writing incredibly difficult. I think this has something to do with my own lack of experience though (with only three books in print I feel pretty new at this game). I took some "writing for children" classes through a local college. I learned a lot through them! I've also got AMAZING editors and agents who have been very helpful when I'm in the development stage of making a book. I rely heavily on their expertise.

My own thinking regarding art, since I know I liked my use of computer and traditional art: never lose sight of what the computer is -- it's just another drawing tool. The most important thing in your art is good drawing or rendering skill and your ability to tell a compelling story. A good friend of mine once told me something that I'll never forget. We were talking about animated movies and he was grumpy about all the big studios making the switch to 3D computer animation because of the huge success of Pixar's films, "What they don't seem to realize is that you could shoot the Pixar movies with sock puppets and they would still be amazing because they've spent so much time coming up with a great story." Your story must be good and your illustrations must be good -- don't rely on any tricks and especially don't rely on the computer. At the heart of all my illustration is DRAWING. Much though I love the computer, drawing is still the central element in all my work. I would like to think that the books would be just as good if I didn't use a computer at all. I just use it to fill in the spaces between my drawings.

But like I said, I'm fairly new to all this and I've still got a lot to learn. Ask me again in a few years and perhaps I'll have some real wisdom for you!