One Illustrator’s Journey
By Marjorie van Heerden
A talk with slide show/power point - given at the Children’s Book Forum annual meeting - July 2003
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| Photograph of The Parthenon |
Before I can tell you about my experience as an illustrator in Greece
I need to take you back a few years, twenty years to be exact. In 1983 I did my first professional illustrations for a book that was published. At that time we were living in Stellenbosch and it was a different time and a different world. The book was Soetlemoen en Nartjie by Cecilia Saayman.
I need to take you back a few years, twenty years to be exact. In 1983 I did my first professional illustrations for a book that was published. At that time we were living in Stellenbosch and it was a different time and a different world. The book was Soetlemoen en Nartjie by Cecilia Saayman.
I fell in love with people like Maurice Sendak and the brave creativity of their work.
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Illustration from Jack and Guy
(Maurice Sendak)
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Our two children were still very young and fortunately very keen “readers”, in inverted commas at that age, but nevertheless this provided me with the perfect laboratory to test the new books I discovered every day in the vast bookshops of Chicago
I realised that a picture book relies as much on its visuals as on its words, if not more so. This may seem obvious, but you will be surprised at how many writers do not share that view – this is one of the things that struck me when I got to know our colleagues in Greece
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Illustration from Where the
Wild Things are (Maurice Sendak)
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Illustration of Peanutbutter
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Studio in Linden
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I worked in that studio, under a huge Eucalyptus tree for ten years. These were very important formative years in my work as an illustrator and writer. They were also very important formative years for our two children. We were fortunate enough to have a large Jacuzzi on the stoep outside the bedroom. This became the scene of our daily family gathering. Every evening after work the four of us met in the warm bubbling water and discussed the day. This was a ritual we followed 365 days a year, summer and winter. Sometimes for only fifteen minutes and sometimes for hours. And so the years passed.
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Illustration of Monasteraki (Papas)
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21 Euripides Street
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He was working for M-Net at the time and they had offered him a contract job with a sister company in
Those were two very busy months! When I touched ground again, we had moved into a lovely house in Dionysos, about 30 kilometres north of downtown Athens 21 Euripides Street Mount Pendeli
This is where the ancient Greeks mined the marble to build the Parthenon and many other Athenian landmarks.
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| A Marble Mine on/in Mount Pendeli |
This is where the ancient Greeks mined the marble to build the Parthenon and many other Athenian landmarks.
The house had an attic room just perfect for an artist’s studio, with windows facing north towards Marathon and Thessalonica.
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My Studio at 21 Euripides Street
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| The View |
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Sanctuary at Delphi
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I unpacked my library of children’s books and all my art stuff and could feel the ancient magic all around me – so different to the African magic which was my earliest influence and inspiration.
My dear friend, Joan Rankin has the normal sixth sense that all women have, but then she has a few more. When I told her about us moving to Greece
Anyway, we settled in and I quickly got to know the lie of the land. Within the first week I got the hang of the busses and trains and I worked out my own version of sign language along with a few badly pronounced Greek words. Trying to communicate outside of the tourist areas gave a new meaning to the old saying, “It’s Greek to me.”
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Pencil
drawing of the Market (Papas)
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And then I went out and, wandering through the winding narrow streets of Athens Johann bought me a bright yellow Volkswagen beetle...
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Photograph of the Yellow VW Beetle
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Our life in Athens Europe gave us the opportunity to travel a lot, and relatively cheaply. We explored the Greek islands on scooters, the best way to get around.
We visited Santorini
and
and Italy...
Amongst ancient ruins and old monasteries built in the most unlikely, but heavenly spots, I spoke to the spirits of oracles and gods. Sculptures and gargoyles watched me passing by in my purple jacket. We climbed up castle staircases and felt the presence of knights long gone and we wandered through medieval buildings and old market places.
We ate the regional dishes and we slept under 2,000-year-old olive trees.
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Johann under an
Olive Tree
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| Johann, Markus & me |
We loved this new life and this new environment.
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Illustration from The King’s Equal
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| Illustration from The King’s Equal |
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| Illustrations from Greek Books |
I finished the final illustrations in my new Greek studio.
And once again the gods on Olympus smiled on me; one of the writers Voula Mastori, was looking at some of my work over her coffee and suddenly she said, “I have just finished a children’s book, how would you like to illustrate it?”
The book was called The Moon Story and for the first time my name appeared on the cover of a book in Greek letters!
And so began my involvement with the children’s book world in Greece
I illustrated a lovely book for the writer Vangelis Eliopoulos.
Then a very exciting opportunity came my way – again those smiling gods on Olympus ! The publishing house Pataki got the Greek rights for Katherine Paterson’s The King’s Equal.
Unfortunately the publishers could only afford black and white illustrations and a full-colour cover, but I actually enjoyed the discipline of showing Katherine’s interesting characters in monochrome drawings.
I have always admired the work of this brilliant American author and I was very happy to do a set of new illustrations for her book. 
Unfortunately the publishers could only afford black and white illustrations and a full-colour cover, but I actually enjoyed the discipline of showing Katherine’s interesting characters in monochrome drawings.
While working with these Greek publications I also started the Greek branch of the international Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators with another writer I met in Athens
Years ago, when we moved back from the USA South Africa island of Hydra
Our theme was May the Myth be your Muse and it all turned out to be great fun. We were fortunate to get excellent speakers like the brilliant writer/illustrator Tony Ross and there are few more beautiful spots for such a happening as this lovelyIsland near Athens
Our theme was May the Myth be your Muse and it all turned out to be great fun. We were fortunate to get excellent speakers like the brilliant writer/illustrator Tony Ross and there are few more beautiful spots for such a happening as this lovely
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Steve Mooser, President of SCBWI in Hydra
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I found that I was depending more and more on my memory for reference material and for colour and light. My illustrations became a world where all the emphasis was on the characters living in an environment of very little real or interesting background. The educational books were important and it felt good to be able to make a contribution, but somehow my world as an illustrator was becoming smaller and less interesting.
Now, living in Dionysos amongst those timeless indigenous pine forests, my vision and my imagination started opening up again.
These trees do not grow fast and straight like the pine trees in South Africa
In these natural Mediterranean forests the trees grow much more slowly and they weave up towards the sun whose beams peep through the pine needles and, like fingers, touch the forest floor.
Or I would walk around in Athens
My paper, pencils, crayons and paint were not media to use for illustrating, but they became vehicles to take me on a journey. I became obsessed to try and work out exactly what the light was doing and how to replicate the colours, the light and the shadows around me.
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| Me at Apollo’s Temple (Delphi) |
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Me at Apollo’s Temple (Delphi)
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While the family went exploring I sat down on the steps at the remains of Apollo’s temple and I took out my pencil and my draft text. The muses came out from behind the trees, smiled at me and the words just started to flow.
And so every place we visited, every person I met, every scene I saw became another thing I could learn from. Yes, it was not only the natural beauty around me that was responsible for the changes in my head and in my illustrations; some of the people I met also had a profound effect on my work.
I remember a conversation with Harriett Barton, an art director from America
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Illustration of Grandpa and Boy
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The past four years were wonderful, but eventually it became time to pack up again. As my husband always says, “When you reach the end of a chapter, turn the page and read on. The next chapter may just be even better than the one you have just read!” Johann never looks back. He is always on the lookout for what may be waiting around the next corner. He also has a saying he often quotes, “When you’re on a journey and the end keeps getting further and further away, then you realise that the real end is the journey.”
So, it became time to pack up again and to leave Dionysos. It was time to turn the page. It snowed on our forest while I was packing and while the movers were wrapping our things and putting them all into a huge container to ship across the ocean. And when we arrived in Cape Town Cape , where my journey started.
The most exciting thing is that, although I have turned the page, all those feelings have not gone away. All around me I can see colours, shapes, light and shadows that are, if not more so, just as exciting as the ones I experienced during my four years stay in Greece
We now live in Gordon’s Bay and once again I have my studio in the attic and I have a window over my desk, this time with a view of the Atlantic Ocean , of False Bay .
My work area is new, but very familiar. I have started working again and the first book I have illustrated is already with the publisher.
and the journey continues...
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WRITTEN INTERVIEW WITH MARJORIE FOR CALLIOPE MAGAZINE, SCBWI Greece's Newsletter/Magazine
Athens – June 2001
Calliope: Please tell us a little about your background and how you got interested in children’s books?
Marjorie: I grew up on a farm near Cape Town in South Africa and from an early age I loved reading and I loved drawing. In South Africa there was no television before I was 26 years old, so reading books was one of our main sources of entertainment. I also had lots of time to spend in my studio. After school I studied Art at university and later worked as a graphic designer in advertising. It was only when my daughter was born and I started reading to her (literally from the day that she was born!) when I re-discovered children’s books. That is when I became fascinated again, this time as an adult and a mother, by the illustrated picture book. I realised, through the eyes of my young child, the unique power and the beauty of picture books and it became my dream to write and to illustrate my own books for very young “readers”.
Calliope: Which came first, the writing or the illustrating? And for you, how are they related?
Marjorie: My first breaks were to be commissioned to illustrate picture books written by other authors. At this stage I was quite happy to only create visual images for the written word. To be honest, I doubted my own ability to write really good books for kids. I had learnt to realise how truly difficult it is, while it seems so, so simple. My first editor, however, encouraged me very strongly to try. And my husband, who is an academic and an avid reader, always believed in my ability and always supported my efforts. And that is how I eventually took the plunge and wrote my first picture book. Maybe because I am so visually oriented, my stories often start with a very strong visual image. The story lines, the characters and the words form around the images in my head. To me a good picture book has to result from a perfect harmony between the text and the illustration. Neither is more important than the other. Like the voices in a canon the words and the pictures flow together. The words create the visual images, their form, their colour, their flow, their rhythm and their energy. The illustrations should become the words, their narrative, their humour, their irony, their emotions.
Calliope: In your workshop, “Getting Started”, you made many helpful points. Could you summarize what advice you have for new authors who aren’t sure how to begin?
Marjorie: You have to know yourself. You must always remember that you are an adult writing for a child. You have to also know your reader. Never read your own work as an adult – read it as the open young mind it is created for. Try to find the child inside yourself again. See and experience the joy and, above all the wonder of life as a child does. See and experience things for the very first time, the way a young child does. Never, ever underestimate a young child’s intelligence or intuition. Keep in mind that these kids were designed to absorb and to learn and to enjoy – all they need is the right stimulation, the right triggers. The seeds of thousands of wonderful stories are there right inside your head. And you are gathering more each day. Your strongest and most influential memories are almost always those of your childhood. Just forget about trying to be a “writer” and simply tell your story to that child inside of you.
Calliope: Many new writers and illustrators complain about time management. Can you tell us how you manage to produce so prolifically? Any advice for others, especially those who also work at other jobs?
Marjorie: Conceptualising, writing and illustrating picture books, like many other ventures, is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. It is damned hard work! And it takes a lot of self-discipline. I am in the very fortunate position that my writing and illustrating is my full-time occupation. So, every weekday morning at about eight I go to work and I work a full day of between eight and ten hours. My studio, my “office”, happens to be in my house, but that does not change the fact that I go to the office every day. I also have other responsibilities. I do not have a maid or a housekeeper, so if there is washing or ironing or shopping or other chores to be done, then I schedule (budget) my time for those jobs. In this respect I function like many other women who also work full days and still manage to keep the house.
Before I start on a new book I spend quite a lot of time working out a realistic work schedule, with specific set targets and specific target dates – I draw up a “project plan”. And then I try to stick to it. This is not always possible, but for me it is the only way to work. It is not that I am overly flexible with the “project plan” and the schedule but I try to remain realistic and I never lower the standards by which I measure my final work. The artistic quality of the end product is the ultimate measure and not the efficiency of successfully sticking to a time schedule. Often a publisher’s deadline dictates the final drop-dead date. Then, sometimes, I simply have to put in lots of overtime and weekends. Fortunately I am blessed with a husband who does not mind preparing the odd dinner and he loves washing up dishes. When I do have to push hard to meet a deadline, the challenge is to remain creative and to meet the deadline without compromising quality – this is when I remind myself that once the book comes off the press it stands against my name for ever…
I have huge admiration for anybody who can successfully write or illustrate part-time. I wish I could offer a magic formula for a writer or an illustrator who has to earn a living at doing another day job, but I can not. If your aim is to be published, then I absolutely believe that you and others should take yourself as an artist, and your work as a writer or illustrator seriously. If you want to do it as a hobby, then remain an amateur and love it, as the word “amateur” indicates – there is nothing wrong with that! You may not succeed in being published, but you can still enjoy the wonder and the satisfaction of creative work. If you do have the ambition to be published, then my only advice is to make the time, even if it is only two hours a night and ten or twelve hours over weekends. But then dedicate yourself to spend those hours “at the office” – make a contract with yourself and your family. Like an adult part-time student, who works at a profession every day and who has to set aside the time for dedicated study every evening, you will have to create those set blocks of time for your 10% inspiration and your 90% perspiration!
Finally, never think about the money! If you are destined to be the next JK Rowling, it will happen. In the meantime, even if you cannot get your book published, you can still create a lovely work of art that you can enjoy yourself and that you can share with your own or your friends’ children in the one and only original artist’s copy.
Calliope: Can you talk a bit about that illusive ‘inspiration’? For illustrations? For stories?
Marjorie: I have already alluded to the 10% inspiration. I honestly believe in that ratio. And I do not believe that inspiration is “illusive”. If one immerses oneself in the world of children’s stories and pictures for eight to ten hours every day, then the "inspiration" just magically happens. Scientifically it might be slightly inaccurate, but I believe the strongest muscle in the human body is the brain. The more you exercise it, the more it thinks and the more it creates ideas! I have also surrounded myself with illustrated children’s books for the past twenty-five years. My personal collection numbers more than 50,000 titles. I dip into them over and over again and I often exercise my brain muscle by reading the words and savouring the pictures. What is illusive, though, are those wonderful moments of spontaneous inspiration, which come from suddenly seeing and noticing a thing of beauty. I find beauty very, very simulating and, yes, inspirational. To see a really good work of art. To see the beauty in a simple everyday thing in nature. To see a child laughing. Inspiration lies everywhere in the everyday things in life around me. Sometimes a single visual image can inspire a whole story line, with characters and plot complete. Sometimes a person or a character can inspire a story - or an animal or a flower or an ancient monument or a single news item in the morning paper. Or a tiny, lost kitten on the steps of the Parthenon. An innocent comment by a child or a simple question or an observation can lead to a story. It all comes from life all around me. When my daughter was six, she had heard and read so many stories that she made up a wonderfully original story herself and she told it to me. Quite a number of years later that story became a published picture book with her name on the cover as the author and mine as the illustrator.
The story and the pictures are so interrelated in my head that I cannot say that the inspiration for one is different from the inspiration for the other. Sometimes a story idea is the germ of the book and very often a single visual image is.
Calliope: What was your favorite project so far and why!
Marjorie: My favourite project tends to be the one I happen to be working on. I always feel that it is going to be better than the last one. I find that I am growing all the time, as a writer and even more so as an illustrator. Each new book I work on is an exciting new experience. And always different!
Although creating picture books is my first love and not so-called educational readers, I do feel very proud of the reading series I conceptionalised, wrote and illustrated, the Bright Books. This series of sixteen fully illustrated picture books takes the child from the very first day of reading at school, through to the end of the third school year. It was specifically designed for the historically disadvantaged kids in South Africa and it is currently prescribed in many schools there. The project took me five years of hard work, lots of research and a solid 90% of perspiration! Not only do I feel proud as a writer and illustrator, but I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to contribute in my own small way to the education of the kids in my country where historically, through the whims of politicians, so many of them had to go through life totally illiterate.
Having said that, I have to repeat that every new project is an adventure. The most exhilarating part is that Eureka! moment of inspiration. The fun part is the long slog and many hours of taking one step at a time up that high mountain of putting it all into words and pictures. The hard part is pouring my first cup of tea in the morning and looking through yesterday’s work and then realising that I have to redo it all, because it simply is not good enough. The frightening part is when I look through the proofs and am given my final chance to give my last input. And the moment of gratitude for having been given this gift of creativity is when the publisher hands me the first copy off the press.
Athens – June 2001
Calliope: Please tell us a little about your background and how you got interested in children’s books?
Marjorie: I grew up on a farm near Cape Town in South Africa and from an early age I loved reading and I loved drawing. In South Africa there was no television before I was 26 years old, so reading books was one of our main sources of entertainment. I also had lots of time to spend in my studio. After school I studied Art at university and later worked as a graphic designer in advertising. It was only when my daughter was born and I started reading to her (literally from the day that she was born!) when I re-discovered children’s books. That is when I became fascinated again, this time as an adult and a mother, by the illustrated picture book. I realised, through the eyes of my young child, the unique power and the beauty of picture books and it became my dream to write and to illustrate my own books for very young “readers”.
Calliope: Which came first, the writing or the illustrating? And for you, how are they related?
Marjorie: My first breaks were to be commissioned to illustrate picture books written by other authors. At this stage I was quite happy to only create visual images for the written word. To be honest, I doubted my own ability to write really good books for kids. I had learnt to realise how truly difficult it is, while it seems so, so simple. My first editor, however, encouraged me very strongly to try. And my husband, who is an academic and an avid reader, always believed in my ability and always supported my efforts. And that is how I eventually took the plunge and wrote my first picture book. Maybe because I am so visually oriented, my stories often start with a very strong visual image. The story lines, the characters and the words form around the images in my head. To me a good picture book has to result from a perfect harmony between the text and the illustration. Neither is more important than the other. Like the voices in a canon the words and the pictures flow together. The words create the visual images, their form, their colour, their flow, their rhythm and their energy. The illustrations should become the words, their narrative, their humour, their irony, their emotions.
Calliope: In your workshop, “Getting Started”, you made many helpful points. Could you summarize what advice you have for new authors who aren’t sure how to begin?
Marjorie: You have to know yourself. You must always remember that you are an adult writing for a child. You have to also know your reader. Never read your own work as an adult – read it as the open young mind it is created for. Try to find the child inside yourself again. See and experience the joy and, above all the wonder of life as a child does. See and experience things for the very first time, the way a young child does. Never, ever underestimate a young child’s intelligence or intuition. Keep in mind that these kids were designed to absorb and to learn and to enjoy – all they need is the right stimulation, the right triggers. The seeds of thousands of wonderful stories are there right inside your head. And you are gathering more each day. Your strongest and most influential memories are almost always those of your childhood. Just forget about trying to be a “writer” and simply tell your story to that child inside of you.
Calliope: Many new writers and illustrators complain about time management. Can you tell us how you manage to produce so prolifically? Any advice for others, especially those who also work at other jobs?
Marjorie: Conceptualising, writing and illustrating picture books, like many other ventures, is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. It is damned hard work! And it takes a lot of self-discipline. I am in the very fortunate position that my writing and illustrating is my full-time occupation. So, every weekday morning at about eight I go to work and I work a full day of between eight and ten hours. My studio, my “office”, happens to be in my house, but that does not change the fact that I go to the office every day. I also have other responsibilities. I do not have a maid or a housekeeper, so if there is washing or ironing or shopping or other chores to be done, then I schedule (budget) my time for those jobs. In this respect I function like many other women who also work full days and still manage to keep the house.
Before I start on a new book I spend quite a lot of time working out a realistic work schedule, with specific set targets and specific target dates – I draw up a “project plan”. And then I try to stick to it. This is not always possible, but for me it is the only way to work. It is not that I am overly flexible with the “project plan” and the schedule but I try to remain realistic and I never lower the standards by which I measure my final work. The artistic quality of the end product is the ultimate measure and not the efficiency of successfully sticking to a time schedule. Often a publisher’s deadline dictates the final drop-dead date. Then, sometimes, I simply have to put in lots of overtime and weekends. Fortunately I am blessed with a husband who does not mind preparing the odd dinner and he loves washing up dishes. When I do have to push hard to meet a deadline, the challenge is to remain creative and to meet the deadline without compromising quality – this is when I remind myself that once the book comes off the press it stands against my name for ever…
I have huge admiration for anybody who can successfully write or illustrate part-time. I wish I could offer a magic formula for a writer or an illustrator who has to earn a living at doing another day job, but I can not. If your aim is to be published, then I absolutely believe that you and others should take yourself as an artist, and your work as a writer or illustrator seriously. If you want to do it as a hobby, then remain an amateur and love it, as the word “amateur” indicates – there is nothing wrong with that! You may not succeed in being published, but you can still enjoy the wonder and the satisfaction of creative work. If you do have the ambition to be published, then my only advice is to make the time, even if it is only two hours a night and ten or twelve hours over weekends. But then dedicate yourself to spend those hours “at the office” – make a contract with yourself and your family. Like an adult part-time student, who works at a profession every day and who has to set aside the time for dedicated study every evening, you will have to create those set blocks of time for your 10% inspiration and your 90% perspiration!
Finally, never think about the money! If you are destined to be the next JK Rowling, it will happen. In the meantime, even if you cannot get your book published, you can still create a lovely work of art that you can enjoy yourself and that you can share with your own or your friends’ children in the one and only original artist’s copy.
Calliope: Can you talk a bit about that illusive ‘inspiration’? For illustrations? For stories?
Marjorie: I have already alluded to the 10% inspiration. I honestly believe in that ratio. And I do not believe that inspiration is “illusive”. If one immerses oneself in the world of children’s stories and pictures for eight to ten hours every day, then the "inspiration" just magically happens. Scientifically it might be slightly inaccurate, but I believe the strongest muscle in the human body is the brain. The more you exercise it, the more it thinks and the more it creates ideas! I have also surrounded myself with illustrated children’s books for the past twenty-five years. My personal collection numbers more than 50,000 titles. I dip into them over and over again and I often exercise my brain muscle by reading the words and savouring the pictures. What is illusive, though, are those wonderful moments of spontaneous inspiration, which come from suddenly seeing and noticing a thing of beauty. I find beauty very, very simulating and, yes, inspirational. To see a really good work of art. To see the beauty in a simple everyday thing in nature. To see a child laughing. Inspiration lies everywhere in the everyday things in life around me. Sometimes a single visual image can inspire a whole story line, with characters and plot complete. Sometimes a person or a character can inspire a story - or an animal or a flower or an ancient monument or a single news item in the morning paper. Or a tiny, lost kitten on the steps of the Parthenon. An innocent comment by a child or a simple question or an observation can lead to a story. It all comes from life all around me. When my daughter was six, she had heard and read so many stories that she made up a wonderfully original story herself and she told it to me. Quite a number of years later that story became a published picture book with her name on the cover as the author and mine as the illustrator.
The story and the pictures are so interrelated in my head that I cannot say that the inspiration for one is different from the inspiration for the other. Sometimes a story idea is the germ of the book and very often a single visual image is.
Calliope: What was your favorite project so far and why!
Marjorie: My favourite project tends to be the one I happen to be working on. I always feel that it is going to be better than the last one. I find that I am growing all the time, as a writer and even more so as an illustrator. Each new book I work on is an exciting new experience. And always different!
Although creating picture books is my first love and not so-called educational readers, I do feel very proud of the reading series I conceptionalised, wrote and illustrated, the Bright Books. This series of sixteen fully illustrated picture books takes the child from the very first day of reading at school, through to the end of the third school year. It was specifically designed for the historically disadvantaged kids in South Africa and it is currently prescribed in many schools there. The project took me five years of hard work, lots of research and a solid 90% of perspiration! Not only do I feel proud as a writer and illustrator, but I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to contribute in my own small way to the education of the kids in my country where historically, through the whims of politicians, so many of them had to go through life totally illiterate.
Having said that, I have to repeat that every new project is an adventure. The most exhilarating part is that Eureka! moment of inspiration. The fun part is the long slog and many hours of taking one step at a time up that high mountain of putting it all into words and pictures. The hard part is pouring my first cup of tea in the morning and looking through yesterday’s work and then realising that I have to redo it all, because it simply is not good enough. The frightening part is when I look through the proofs and am given my final chance to give my last input. And the moment of gratitude for having been given this gift of creativity is when the publisher hands me the first copy off the press.
