Jorge Martin
About Author
Jorge Martin drew compulsively on any surface available to him as a child. Originally from Spain, he has lived in San Francisco, Mexico City, Hamburg and London. Currently dedicated to doodling and storytelling, he writes and illustrates books, runs picture book courses, and draws live at events.
Interview
FAIRY TALE PETS
LITTLE TIGER PRESS
JULY 2017
FAIRY TALE PETS is a fabulous new take on fairy tales - and the animals therein. What if Goldilocks's baby bear needed looking after, or the three little pigs wanted someone to look after the wolf for an afternoon. Where would they go? Why, to the pet-sitter, of course. Poor Bob gets much more than he bargained for when he signed up for this job....
We asked illustrator Jorge Martin to tell us more about illustrating Fairy Tale Pets, written by Tracey Corderoy:
Q: Where did you train and what brought you into illustrating children's books?
A: I always loved drawing but I pretty much stopped doing it when I went to college... I did a degree in Media Studies and I've worked in web and service design and advertising. A friend of mine was in picture books and I thought hmm this is nice, writing and illustrating your own books, looks easy... you don't have to go into an office, I can be your own man...
I did a short illustration course at Central Saint Martin's and then I took the plunge and went on to do the Illustration MA at Kingston University while I worked at an advertising agency.
Initially I did conventional illustration for magazines and reports but thought it was too much of a fashion industry for my taste... so I wrote and illustrated a picture book and took it to the Bologna book fair and sold it to a French publisher and that was how it all started.
Q: What was it about this text, Fairy Tale Pets, that you enjoyed as an illustrator?
A: It's absolutely bonkers! It made me laugh instantly. Laughing is very important to me.
Q: How did each of the characters develop?
A: I did some quick sketches of Rex and Bob. I got Rex quickly but Bob too a bit longer. I realised that he had to be a bit funkier than my initial sketches showed so I gave hime a Peruvian hat and a stripy shirt, that's my idea of a funky kid, and that was it.
Q: The pages are also very busy with quite a lot of text compared to some picture books - how did you plan how each pages would look?
A: I did some very quick rough thumbnails to see how the spreads worked next to each other and I worked very closely with Sadia, the designer, to make sure that things flowed and looked great.
Making picture books is not as solitary an endeavour as many might think. It's a team effort. Having a good working relationship with the designer and the editor is crucial.
Q: Which spread are you most pleased with?
A: My favourite spread is when the three little pigs turn up with their wolf pet. Just when you think things could not get any worse these bonkers pigs show up with their naughty looking wolf pet... You just know how this is going to end...
Q: Can you tell us how you developed the images for this text, do you use digital devices or work by hand etc?
A: All the roughs are done by hand in graphite pencil. Once these sketches are signed off, I create the artwork with a graphic tablet.
Fairy Tale Pets
