Catherine Rayner
About Author
Author and illustrator Catherine Rayner studied Illustration at Edinburgh College of art, where she still lives with her husband and young son, as well as a handful of pets including Shannon the horse, Ena the grey cat and a goldfish called Richard.
Her first picture book, Augustus and His Smile, was published by Little Tiger Press. Her second book, Harris Finds his Feet, won the 2009 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and she has now been shortlisted four times for the award. She was also awarded the Best New Illustrator Award at the Booktrust Early Years Awards in 2006. In 2012 her book Iris and Isaac won the UKLA Children's Book Award.
Author link
Interview
PUBLISHED BY LITTLE TIGER PRESS
MAY 2015
This month, publisher Little Tiger Press is celebrating award-winning author and illustrator Catherine Rayner whose picture books feature a lively cast of characters from Harris whose feet are too big, to Abigail, a giraffe who loves counting, and Iris and Isaac, polar bear friends who fall out.
Her picture book career began with Augustus and His Smile, a story about a tiger that had lost its smile, which she created while still a student and which Little Tiger Press went on to publish in 2007.
We spoke to Catherine about how she creates her distinctive stories and stunning artwork.
Q: When did you know you wanted to be an illustrator?
A: Illustration has always been in my bones. We had a lot of books around us growing up and I was always drawing; I loved the wet playtimes at school when I could stay in the classroom and draw. I trained at Leeds College and then at Edinburgh College of Art, where I still live with my family.
As well as making picture books, I create artwork for its own sake, which I exhibit. It's very freeing having a big canvas to do something with, to paint whatever I want, and it's refreshing sometimes not to have to think about a narrative.
Q: Why do so many of your picture books feature animals?
A: I think animals are wonderful and I focus on them in my artwork outside of illustration, too. It's something that goes back to my childhood, I just always liked animals. We had lots of pets, a rabbit, dog, hamster, goldfish, and when I was 13 I loaned a pony from someone; I still have a horse. The only animals I'll avoid drawing if I can are monkeys and gorillas.
When I am going to work with a new character or animal, I do lots of looking first. If I can, I will go and look at the animal in real life. For Augustus, I spent a lot of time watching a tiger in a zoo. These days you can see a lot of animal footage online.
If you can't see a particular creature in real life - say you want a moose - then use something similar like a horse and watch that. If it's a made-up creature, like a dragon, then I will use parts from lots of different creatures. The dragon in Sylvia and Bird was mainly inspired by my cat and a Weedy Sea Dragon which is a kind of a sea horse.
I will pencil draw a character over and over until I have it right; that may take 30 or 40 attempts. Then I use liquid acrylic to paint it or a water colour pencil crayon to get the right texture, like I did for Solomon Crocodile because he was spotty and spiky.
Q: Do you have a soft spot for any of the picture books you've created?
A: Augustus feels like an old friend because it was my first picture book but I also like Solomon Crocodile and another picture book called Abigail, which is about counting and is good for reading aloud because you get audience participation. Ernest, about a moose who wants to squeeze into a picture book, was also a lot of fun to create and the whole concept was so ridiculous.
One of the most challenging books I've done was Iris and Isaac, about two polar bears who are friends and then fall out. The challenge was to make it as colourful as possible but it's set in the snow, which is flat and white, while I'm used to using lots of different shapes and textures, so that was tricky.
Q: Where do you find ideas for new picture books?
A: If I'm looking for inspiration I'll go for a ride on my horse but mostly it happens when I'm not looking for it. There's no recipe for getting an idea. I usually get them when I'm working on something else and I have a deadline I have to meet, but I find my hand stretching to write down something else...
I often begin with a character that pops into my head and I start thinking about that character. Recently I posted a picture of a polar bear online and people thought it was a badger and I thought I'd do something with that, maybe just a big print of a badger or maybe a book about a badger.
I got the idea for Louis When I was pregnant and my sense of smell became overwhelming. Anything made me feel terrible and because I could smell so much, I wondered what it must be like to be a dog when their smell is 7000 times more powerful than ours. I wondered if I could draw smell.
Now I'm working on something about a lion, something that I always wanted to draw because I love their manes. I have to make sure that I have at least two ideas in the pipeline or I panic.
I write and illustrate my texts at the same time and it takes me about nine months to finish a book.
Q: What do you think makes your style so distinctive?
A: It always surprises me when people ask about my style because I think each of my books is so different. It could be because screen printing is a big part of what I do. I love the process; I think it's a bit addictive. I like the way the colour sits on the page and the fun you can have with colour.
I enjoy every part of the process from mixing the ink to applying it and pulling the ink through the screen. It's very immediate although the preparation can take hours.
I screen print my backgrounds because I like the way you can create backgrounds and outlines of the shapes of nature with blocks of colour. I create between two and five backgrounds for each page, so that I have some spares, and usually each one is different because I do a lot of blending so I will use the one I like the best. Then I will add the characters to the page.
I don't work digitally because I like having the actual object and you can't get this effect, the spontaneity of printing, digitally. I worry that people will think I'm working digitally so I keep the mistakes to show that it's real!
Q: Do you spend a lot of time deciding how your stories will be laid out?
A: I decide what text goes on which page as I lay out the story. I read the pages out aloud over and over and over again, sometimes hundreds of times, to make sure it reads well and that the text doesn't say the same thing as the picture. For example, if you draw something like a fish swimming in the deep blue sea, you don't need to say the 'deep blue sea' because the picture tells you that.
I try to keep each page as different as possible, so it's not just about reading the story but finding out about the characters in the story. That's how I try to keep a child's attention and make them look at the page. Sometimes I think of the pages as different theatre scenes, so you zoom in and out again and that also makes it more interesting for me to work on.
I often go back to Augustus because the book reminds me to keep it simple. Publishers often want to have more on the page and for me to fill the space but I think that breathing space on the page is important. It's refreshing and it helps in making the text form part of the artwork.
Q: Where do you do your work?
A: These days I do my screen printing at Edinburgh Printmakers. It's got a really good workshop and a few artists work there alongside hobbyists and professionals. Otherwise I work from a room at home and listen to Radio 4 if I'm drawing, but I can't write and listen to something at the same time.
When I'm relaxing like to go out for coffee and cake with my family.
BOOKS BY CATHERINE RAYNER INCLUDE:
AUGUSTUS AND HIS SMILE
Augustus the tiger was sad. He had lost his smile. So he did a huge tigery stretch, and set off to find it....
HARRIS FINDS HIS FEET
Harris was a very small hare with very big feet. 'Why do I have such enormous feet, Grandad?' Harris sighed. So Grandad shows Harris how to hop high into the sky, to climb to the tops of the mountains, and to run very fast. Harris not only learns about the world around him but also the importance of finding his own feet. This book won the 2009 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.
SYLVIA AND BIRD
Sylvia is the only dragon in the whole world, and she is very lonely - until one day, she meets Bird. Tiny and chirpy, so different from the huge dragon, Bird somehow changes Sylvia's life for ever.
IRIS AND ISAAC
Iris and Isaac are NOT FRIENDS. Off they stomp, in a big huff, as far away from each other as possible. And as they stomp, they see funny, strange and wonderful things. If only they were together to share them . . . This one the UKLA book award in 2012.
ABIGAIL
Abigail loves to count. It is her very favourite thing. But when she tries counting Zebra's stripes and Cheetah's spots, they just won't sit still. It's hopeless! What will Abigail do?
Augustus and His Smile
