I can fully vouch on how characters can come to life and act outside of your control. I think that was what drove me to draw so much as a child. I would let my hand design and my brain fill in the story gaps. After the session, I'd come away with a backstory and a new world!
I love Jon Klassen's art and stories, they're very ethereal and enchanting. I feel like I could walk into the pictures and suddenly I'd be part of them, look like them, breathe like them.
Great interview, thank you Jon and Jason, so interesting and helpful. I'm currently asking myself a lot of the same questions. It feels like people want you to be everything to everyone and it is difficult to retain your own voice amongst the craze. I love the picture book world too and feel it is the right place for me, I love the process and the freedom of it. I LOVE Cat's Night Out, I take it to show everyone, it's hilarious!! I also find illustrating comes more naturally and feel I overwork my writing, driving it into the dust is a great analogy. It's so true that as the characters develop they have a life of their own. I'm glad to hear other artists experience this too! I think they come to life as they are realised on the page. At this point they have essentially become real. They are no longer an idea in your head, they are a creation in their own right and they're out there in the world. Like a child, you have to allow them to grow and blossom.
The back and forth with these talks is nice. You two have really made my think inward about what I'm doing and where I want to go with art.
It’s so good to hear Jon speak about the painful/negative side of writing.
To be a 'fly on the wall' in this conversation has been inspiring. Thanks for sharing.
I can fully vouch on how characters can come to life and act outside of your control. I think that was what drove me to draw so much as a child. I would let my hand design and my brain fill in the story gaps. After the session, I'd come away with a backstory and a new world!
I love Jon Klassen's art and stories, they're very ethereal and enchanting. I feel like I could walk into the pictures and suddenly I'd be part of them, look like them, breathe like them.
Great interview, thank you Jon and Jason, so interesting and helpful. I'm currently asking myself a lot of the same questions. It feels like people want you to be everything to everyone and it is difficult to retain your own voice amongst the craze. I love the picture book world too and feel it is the right place for me, I love the process and the freedom of it. I LOVE Cat's Night Out, I take it to show everyone, it's hilarious!! I also find illustrating comes more naturally and feel I overwork my writing, driving it into the dust is a great analogy. It's so true that as the characters develop they have a life of their own. I'm glad to hear other artists experience this too! I think they come to life as they are realised on the page. At this point they have essentially become real. They are no longer an idea in your head, they are a creation in their own right and they're out there in the world. Like a child, you have to allow them to grow and blossom.
"I want my hat back" A child's first noir mystery. Hahahaha!