Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Q&A Interview with Nick Tankard - Illustrator

How did you become an illustrator?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be an illustrator. I drew all the time when I was a kid, everything else was boring, I just wanted to draw. I couldn’t wait to leave school and enrol onto a course in Art & Design at Bradford College and then an Illustration course at Middlesbrough College.
I was fortunate to have some great tutors including the illustrator Chris Mould who was a great source of support and encouragement and has remained so in the years since I completed my further education. It was Chris who gave me a nudge in the right direction (or kick up the backside!) just when I needed it most. I was beginning to think I might not make it as an illustrator but Chris encouraged me to continue sending work to publishers and hey presto, it paid off when Helen Boyle (then at Templar Publishing) commissioned me to illustrate the ‘Henry Hunter’ books. I couldn’t have been happier and I’m eternally grateful to them both.

Do you think an illustrator needs a style?
I think it helps Editors and Art Directors to commission illustrators who work in a particular style, however I think it’s good to be adaptable and willing to attempt new methods and to push yourself. Some of my favourite illustrators have the ability to produce work that is very recognizably their own but they also adapt and develop it to move in new directions. A good example would be someone like Shaun Tan who has a very distinguishable style, but with every new book he seems to push and challenge himself to produce new and unique illustrations.

Do you have tips on developing an illustration style?
For me it’s a process that comes about through experimentation and channelling influences. It took me a good while to find a method of working that was comfortable and felt like my own. I’m influenced by something new everyday and forever pondering how it was
produced. By experimenting it’s possible to integrate certain aspects of those influences into your work and little by little you develop your own style, it should be a natural, on-going process.

What is your favourite medium to draw/paint with?
Initially I’ll sketch roughs and final compositions in pencil and then crack on with the good part…inking-in. I use a Micron 01 black fine line pen and work in a crosshatch style. The technique is a painstaking process and one which does my eyes no good at all! With the fine line pen I make a tiny mark in one direction and then turn the image around and add another layer in another direction to create shade and depth or leave bits out to hint at light and space. The image might turn ten to twenty times until it’s finished. It’s a very enjoyable process but a bit mindboggling at times.

Could you tell us a bit about any of your upcoming projects?
I’m really excited about my plans for this summer. I have the third book in Charlie Fletcher’s ‘Dragon Shield’ trilogy to illustrate for Hodder, it’s been a fantastic series to work on, a real privilege. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed exploring London and it’s statues through Charlie’s eyes, I’ll see London in a different way from now on.

I’ve been working in my black & white crosshatching style quite a lot these past couple of years so I’m really looking forward to doing some experimenting with colour techniques. I really like the little pots of ‘Magic Colour Acrylic Ink’ as you can fill the empty cartridges of Rotring pens with them and this enables me to do- wait for it…colour crosshatching! It’s something I’ve been hoping to play about with so I can’t wait to get cracking.

I’ve also got a couple of ideas for Picture books rolling around in my head. Writing and illustrating my own books is something I haven’t attempted yet but the ideas are up
there somewhere and they’re refusing to go away so I’m going to finally put pen to paper to see what comes out. I’d love to illustrate a picture book, it’s a long held ambition so I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Who are your favourite illustrators and why?
There are three illustrators/authors whose books inspired my own ambitions to become an illustrator; they are Raymond Briggs, Tove Jansson and Maurice Sendak. Their work made a huge impression on me when I was a kid to the point where even now looking at the books they made brings back thoughts and feelings I had about them as a child. They were a little bit unsettling, frightening even. Stripy monsters, mysterious islands, lighthouses and bogeymen populate my childhood memories, it explains a lot! Aside from being scared witless I could also see the beauty in these books and I return to them again & again.

A contemporary illustration hero of mine is Shaun Tan. His illustrations have the same ability to unsettle, fascinate and inspire me much the same as Raymond, Tove and Maurice did in my childhood. I think his work will stand the test of time; ‘The Red Tree’ ‘The Arrival’ and ‘The Lost Thing’ already feel like Classics.
There are lots of other artists, authors and illustrators whose work I love and take inspiration from; Levi Pinfold, Jim Kay, David Roberts, Neil Gaiman, Jon Klassen, Aardman Animation, Carson Ellis, Gustave Dore, Faye Hanson, Philip Pullman, Chris Riddell, Alan Lee, Heath Robinson, my old tutor Chris Mould and tons more.

What helps you to be more creative?
I love listening to audiobooks when I’m in the middle of a project. I’ll work in silence when I’m sketching the initial roughs and ideas (for me that’s the worst part, agonizing!) but when it comes to inking-in the final illustrations give me a long night, tea and an audiobook and I’m a happy man. I know I need to get out more!


Where should a person start if they want to pursue a career in illustration?
Ooh that’s quite a difficult one and I guess I can only speak from experience. As I said, it took me quite a few years to achieve my ambition of becoming a published illustrator with a few wrong turns along the way. Persistence and self-motivation are good strengths to have. Editors and agents are the folks you need to approach but they’re very busy people so you need to try and stand out. Sending emails with loads of jpegs probably wont get you very far. There are so many hugely talented illustrators out there all trying to get published so we have to use our imaginations to make an impression. If it seems you aren’t getting anywhere don’t give up (like I almost did) just keep trying.


What do you read for pleasure?
Unfortunately I don’t get much time to read nowadays, that’s where audiobooks come in useful. I quite like ghost stories on audiobook, ‘Dark Matter’ by Michelle Paver is a favourite as is ‘Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad’ by M.R. James. Both are great on a dark and stormy night. Other favourites include ‘Watership Down’ and ‘The Box of Delights’.
I haven’t read the ‘Harry Potter’ series yet but I’m clearing a space in my diary for the forthcoming new editions which are being illustrated by Jim Kay, it looks like he’s done an amazing job from what I’ve seen so far.

All images on this post subject to copyright.....

Web Site: http://nicktankard.co.uk/
Twitter: @NickTankard 

Daniela Sacerdoti: The Sarah Midnight Trilogy + Spirit Extract - Published by Black & White Publishing

Seventeen year‐old Sarah Midnight has never had a normal life. To the outside world, she is a typical teenager but, inside, Sarah and her family hold an unimaginable secret. Her parents are demon hunters, part of a web of Secret Families who have sworn to protect the world. But when they mysteriously die, Sarah realizes that this fight is bigger than she ever anticipated.

Unprepared for the task ahead, she now finds herself thrust into a world of incredible danger, full of things she never even knew existed: including her enigmatic long‐ lost cousin who, out of the blue, turns up on her doorstep when she most needs him. He claims to be there to help and protect her, but how will she know who to trust in this new perilous life of hers? And how is she supposed to stay alive long enough to follow her parents’ quest when they have left her totally clueless?

Sarah has to learn, and learn fast – the demons are all around her and death waits for no one.

Spirit – Extract Reveal

Sarah blinked over and over. There was a strange taste in her mouth – soil, she realized, and brought her arm to her mouth, cleaning her lips. The darkening sky came into focus, and then so did Sean’s face. Sean. He was there. He was alive. 

“Was it a vision?” he asked, helping her sit up. She saw that the others were standing in a circle around her, facing out, watching for danger. She nodded. 

“Yes. It just came over me…”

“Can you tell me what you saw?”

“All of us were standing on a beach somewhere. On the waterline. Three waves came, and with each wave more of us were gone. Until everyone was dead. Except me.”

Sean frowned. He couldn’t say what he thought that if that was going to be the end result – they’d all die and Sarah survived – he was too relieved that Sarah would be alive to entirely mourn the loss of his own life, and the others’.

He held her hands and helped her stand. “Can you walk?”

“Yes. I’m okay,” she said. But she wasn’t. 

In the dream everyone had died except for her. Another sign that she had to be kept alive. Why? What did they want from her? And who were  “they”? Nicholas? The King of Shadows? Both? Something else?

Elodie stepped beside Sarah and Sean. “In the book Harry gave me,” she began, “one of the tales talked about two children on a quest to free their parents’ souls from a witch. In order to free them, the children had to face three waves of evil. I read that book twice, but there were so many other stories… I can’t remember exactly what the waves were. And then there was this spirit who held a mirror to the children’s faces and made them see horrible things.”

Sarah gazed at her. Those black, black eyes, in place of Elodie’s warm chocolate ones, unnerved her. “What happened to the children?”

“They died. Their souls turned into flowers. Bluebells.”

“Great,” said Niall. “It’s a good sign, for sure.”

As soon as the others were out of earshot, Sarah took Sean’s arm.  “Sean. In the dream, only I survived. They have a plan for me. That’s why I’m not dead yet.”

Sean felt cold. He wished he could dismiss Sarah’s fears, but he couldn’t. “Do you think Nicholas is betraying us? That he still wants you as his wife?”

“I don’t know. But I want you to promise something.”

“What is it?”

“If this is still what he’s planning… don’t let him drag my soul away. Kill me before he can take me.”

Sean took hold of her wrist, gently. “I won’t let him take you,” he whispered in her ear. When he looked up once more, his eyes met Elodie’s. She turned around and was looking at Sarah with those new, obsidian eyes. Looking straight at her with an expression neither of them could decipher. 

They walked on for another while, the freezing air cutting their skin. All of a sudden dazzling light flooded their eyes – there were no more trees. They stepped into a clearing, the white, frozen sky hanging heavy over them, high grass swaying in the wind. A circle of grey stones – double Sarah’s height – rose from the grass, and three enormous boulders stood in the middle. They were roughly sculpted to resemble crouching figures. Two were beasts, one that looked like a monkey, one a kind of lizard, and another was an etched human being with a small body and an enormous face. They were like statues in a long-abandoned temple, moss half covering them, the elements having rounded their corners and smoothed the carvings. 

Sarah looked around her. She knew that place. It was her place of dreams, the one she’d gone to in nearly every vision since her parents had been killed. She remembered the first time she’d been there, how she’d been trapped under those stones, and then crawled out to stand under the twilight sky, the wind on her face, every colour heightened, vivid, the way it was in the Shadow World. She recalled the demon attack, and then Nicholas, the pale, black-haired boy she used to call Leaf because he gifted her autumn leaves, saving her life.

Everything was meant to bring me here, Sarah realised suddenly. Since it all started, this was ultimately where she was supposed to be – in the Shadow World. She stared into the white sky, the lilac light of dusk spreading from the west, and then around her at the swaying grass, the visions that had taken place there going through her mind one by one. 

“Sean…” she called. Sean came to stand beside her, gazing at her profile as she kept looking around her, astonished and still somehow accepting, as if some part of her had always known. “This is my place of dreams,” she whispered.

“The place you see in your visions? Are you sure?”

Sarah nodded. “I am sure.”

At that moment, a deafening noise exploded in their ears, and blue light swallowed them. Lightening had struck right in the clearing, and then another, and another, hitting the three boulders and disappearing into the ground. 

“The King of Shadows is here,” Sarah said, and everyone stood still.

“Is that right, Nicholas? Is this the place?” asked Sean.

Nicholas nodded and remained silent, his chin slightly raised as if listening for something. At that moment a long, deep, growling filled the air, and it wasn’t thunder – it came from the ground beneath them. The earth shook, the boulders trembled as they all lost their footing and fell in the long grass.

Nicholas called to his father. She’s here. I brought her to you.

Dreams – RRP £7.99 – ISBN 9781845023706 – Paperback ‐ 2012 

Tide – RRP £7.99 ‐ ISBN 9781845025397 – Paperback – 2013 

Spirit – RRP £7.99 – ISBN 9781845025403– Paperback ‐ 2014

Ransom Riggs - 'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children' Sequel Hollow City and Other News

                                   

                                       

This is an image possibly from the front cover of "Miss Peregrine's" sequel, "Hollow City," which picks up right where the first book left off, following the merry band of peculiar orphans as they travel to London in search of answers.

Who is this stern young man, and why is he lurking in this open door in a pair of the world's most high-waisted trousers? We've no idea, but you can bet the answer is something strange—in the "Miss Peregrine's" universe, it's always something weird. (Perhaps he's come in from out-of-doors to tell us that there's a hollowgast lurking in the yard.) Either way, he'll be waiting to meet you in the pages of "Hollow City" when it comes out January 2014.

Also other connected news: Fox also announced that Peregrine's Home for Peculiars will hit big screen July 31, 2015. The film, based on Ransom Riggs' debut novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, will be directed by Tim Burton from a script by X-Men: First Class writer Jane Goldman. The story follows a teenage boy who is transported to an island where he must help protect a group of orphans with special powers from creatures out to destroy them.

BOOK COVER REVEAL: DANIELA SACERDOTI - TIDE - BOOK TWO IN THE SARAH MIDNIGHT TRILOGY

                                             

Walk this way to discover the unveiling of this interesting book cover - the next instalment of the particularly popular series by Daniela Sacerdoti 'The Sarah Midnight Trilogy'. It's certainly an eye catching cover, but what do you think? 

The book hits the shelves on the 21st February 2013 and is being published by Black & White Publishing. The synopsis is listed below in order to tempt you to order your copy in advance before they run out.

Sarah Midnight is no ordinary teenager. She is a demon hunter, caught up in one of the deadliest wars unknown to man. Orphaned at the age of sixteen, Sarah learned the family trade of hunting without her parents to guide her but under the watchful eye of her ‘cousin’, who was revealed to be Sean Hannay, no relative at all, but a dear friend of the real Harry Midnight.

Now, in the exciting sequel to Dreams, the fight continues. Sarah and Sean may have defeated the Scottish Valaya, but the rest of the war still rages on, and Sarah, Sean, Nicholas and their companions must unearth the identity and location of the Enemy – the leader of the demons – before the world plunges into the Time of Demons once more. Their quest leads them to Sarah’s family home, the Midnight mansion in Islay, and there they discover horrible truths about the demon ruler, his plans,

and Sarah’s own personal history.

Along the way, Sarah must battle not only the demons but her hurt toward Sean and her feelings for the enigmatic Nicholas, who has plans of his own.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Daniela Sacerdoti is the bestselling author of Watch Over Me. She was born and raised in Italy but has lived in Scotland for the past ten years. Daniela holds a degree in Classics from the University of Turin and has taught Italian, Latin and Greek – her great-uncle was the renowned Italian writer Carlo Levi. She lives in Glasgow.