IGI features
PJ Lynch Interview
| Mar, 26, 2009
Illustrators Ireland member Scalder talks to children’s book illustrator PJ Lynch about his new book on Lincoln.
PJ, congratulations on another beautiful publication. You’ve been at this a while – how many books have you illustrated now?
Thank you. I have been at it a while alright, Scalder, but I haven’t done that many books. Less than one each year. I have a list of about twenty titles.
How did you come to illustrate ‘Lincoln and His Boys’?
The author, Rosemary Wells, asked specifically for me to illustrate her story, which was very flattering as she is a very well-known illustrator of children’s books herself.
What attracts you to a text? Do you ‘pass’ on many manuscripts?
I do pass on a lot of scripts, I’m afraid. Some of them I would love to illustrate, but I work so slowly that I just can’t fit them into my schedule. I also get sent a lot of stories that aren’t well written at all, and since the success of “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey”, I get sent a lot of very religious texts that just wouldn’t be right for me. I am attracted to a story that has compelling characters, and situations, and a well thought out overall structure. ‘Lincoln and His Boys’ certainly has all of those.
You visited Lincoln’s homeplace in Springfield, Illinois to research the book. What did you get from that trip, and would this be a regular approach of yours?
I do like to do a good deal of thorough research for each book, and over the years this has meant traveling to a lot of different countries and visiting a lot of Folk parks. I love the kind of open-air museum where examples of old and vernacular architecture have been preserved. One of the best is at Cultra, near Belfast in Northern Ireland where I am from.
The Americans are very good at that kind of museum, and they also preserve any relic or building they can that is associated with their major historical figures. Lincoln’s home has been conserved quite forensically, in the condition it would have been when he lived there, and the Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield is full of interesting Lincoln stuff. I find it both inspires me visually, to visit these places, and it gives me a lot of confidence that I am going to get the details right in my pictures.
How do you know when the research phase is completed – you have to start drawing sometime?
You are right. There is undoubtedly a large element of displacement activity in all the research I do. We all do it, don’t we? For most people, it’s a bit of unnecessary paper arranging or pencil sharpening, before they get down to work, but with me it’s weeks and months of all sorts of research to put off the dreaded moment when I finally start drawing. I think it’s because the book I envisage in my head can be a perfect, beautiful thing in every way, but as soon as I start work on the actual book, that vision is compromised every step of the way. Lincoln and His Boys’ was great though, because I had a very tight deadline and had to get on with it pretty quickly.
Do you keep a sketchbook for visual ideas?
No. I’m very envious of sketchbook people. I’ve started lots of them off over the years, but I never keep it up.
You regularly use models – as well as photographing yourself in reference poses. How did that work for this book? Are you in there somewhere?
Yes. I modeled for the baker who gives the boys muffins. Working with models was particularly tricky in this book because it was important that my characters looked like the historical personalities they represent. Also the boys age a certain amount through the book, so I stuck less closely to the photo reference I took than I have in other books. With Lincoln himself, I wanted to show the man in unusual poses and lighting, and from surprising angles rather than just working from the very well known studio photographs that exist. They are very static and somber, whilst the character of Lincoln revealed in Rosemary’s text is very animated and good natured, if not always cheery, which is entirely understandable in the circumstances. I used a friend of mine who has a slim frame and a bit of a look of Lincoln about him to model for me. But I kept referring to the archive photos and the photos I took of the Lincoln life masks that I saw in the US. In the end, I was prepared to give a little on the likeness, to achieve the characterization that I wanted.
You have used watercolours and gouache for most of your colour illustration work in the past. Is this the first book you’ve illustrated in oils?
Yes. A few years ago, I was asked to do a couple of large panels in oils for the new Johnston Central Library in Cavan. You can see them at here.
I enjoyed the process of working in oils so much, and it felt so natural to me, that I decided to start illustrating my books in that medium. Obviously it’s less convenient to use than a water based medium, but I use a lot of Liquin, a fast drying medium, and I can produce work surprisingly quickly. The Lincoln paintings are all about 20 x 30 inches and the book itself is tiny, so a fair bit of detail is lost in the printing. However, publishers often do books in different formats, and I’m hopeful that this one will be done in a larger Gift Book format some day.
Do you see this as a permanent shift in medium?
I think I’ll alternate between oils and watercolours. It’s like anything, when you are away from something for a while, you miss it. So when I was doing all those oil paintings, I’d be itching to do a nice watercolour wash. I’m also very keen to do a book digitally, which would be a really big change for me.
What do you like about using oils? Are there corresponding difficulties?
It’s a bit messy, but I actually like that part of it. The fumes can give you a headache if you don’t have good ventilation. All in all I really like the medium. The range of tones you can achieve, and the depth of the colours are the most important things for me.
You’re based in Ireland, but your agent and publishers are in the UK (and US?) How do you find that? Do you feel at any sort of a ‘remove’ from the publishing mainstream?
That’s getting to be quite a problem for me. There is no substitute for talking to people face to face, and I just don’t get over to see them often enough. What’s worse is that ‘Lincoln and His Boys’ was done by Walker Book’s American sister company, Candlewick Press, so I had even less direct contact with the editors and designers than usual. There are a few other authors and illustrators who produce picture books dotted around Ireland, but we really don’t get together often enough to simply shoot the breeze and gossip about the industry.
Are you required to undertake promotional duties for your books ? Do you do book tours?
Yes, but “required to” implies that it’s a real chore. I usually enjoy doing interviews etc. It’s hard enough to get some attention for the illustrating side of the book business, so I’m glad to do them when they come up. I have done lots of book tours in the United States. It’s a great way to see aspects of a country that you wouldn’t normally see. The down side is that sometimes publishers line up lots of little events , and you don’t get to do very much else that’s interesting. Since the mid-nineties, I have spoken at a lot of Children’s Book Conferences in the US. Last time I was over I was in Utah, and after my event, I took off for a few days in a pick-up truck I borrowed from one of my Mormon hosts and drove all around Yellowstone National Park. That was an amazing experience.
Sounds like it! You’re involved in the Illustrators Guild of Ireland, Children’s Books Ireland and several other organisations. What are the issues that interest you?
In the world of Children’s Books, I’ve always felt that authors are privileged unfairly over illustrators, but I’ve never been too vocal about it as I’m good friends with a lot of authors and don’t want to come over as being peevish. But after twenty five years as an illustrator, maybe I can afford to spout off a bit.
Recent years have seen you undertake projects beyond the world of books; posters for opera, exhibit design in W5 Belfast, etc. Do these inform your book illustration at all?
Ideally it all feeds in, and overlaps. The Nutcracker exhibit in Belfast will be turned into a book this coming Christmas, and the posters are a very useful outlet for trying new techniques. I’ve just done one for the Dublin Book Awards, where I‘ve been blending digital effects and watercolour elements together.
I look forward to seeing that! So, which illustrators from the past would you consider as influences? Which of today’s illustrators do you admire? Or do you look equally to painters in the fine art world?
I look for visual inspiration anywhere. TV adverts and music videos can be very exciting visually, but the work of great illustrators like Arthur Rackham and Norman Rockwell has been a strong influence on my work since college. I also love the work of Lizbeth Zwerger and Gennady Spirin in picture books, and Alan Lee, who won an Oscar for his design work on the Lord of the Rings movies, has always been a favourite of mine. I would also add to the list a couple of younger artists who both produced ground breaking books illustrated almost entirely in monochrome in the last year or so. They are Shaun Tan, whose book is called The Arrival, and Brian Selznick, who created The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
I’m a huge fan of Shaun Tan too. Finally, what’s on the horizon for PJ Lynch? Do you know yet what your next book will be ?
I’m just getting into work on a text by Douglas Wood. It’s the second book by him that I’ve illustrated. Beyond that, I am determined to start writing and devising my own books. I want to do something with a very pencilly, organic feel like those two books by Tan and Selznick. I always think my pencil roughs have a quality that finished paintings can never have. So hopefully I’ll do a book with digitally tinted drawings. The next book in the shops will be the Nutcracker book I mentioned, which we will be doing at first as a fairly limited release in Ireland only. Also out for Christmas 2009 will be a nice boxed set of my three Christmas Books, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, A Christmas Carol, and The Gift of the Magi.
Thanks PJ, it’s been a pleasure.
Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells (Author), P.J. Lynch (Illustrator) is available in bookstores and online now.
See more of PJ’s work on his website or blog.
