Congratulations on being the Illustrator of the Fair at The London Book Fair 2023! Your illustrator debut, Look Up! was published in 2019. How have the last few years been for you?
The last few years have been an amazing rollercoaster of events. I’ve gone from having the one book out to having what will be my 14th book on the shelf once Speak Up! publishes this May. Aside from being constantly busy, I’ve also been in this weird space of gratitude for everything, awe at what’s been achieved and dread at my inability to recognise my own life anymore.
So much change has happened in such a short space of time, that I’m having to put in effort to find my footing each time something shifts, and things have definitely been shifting a lot around here. Learning the importance of saying “No thanks” has definitely helped a great deal.
Your new young fiction series Aniyah & The Dragon was recently announced. How did this idea take shape? And how have you found the process of writing and illustrating your own story? Does one inform the other as you create?
The origins of this story I’m trying to tell are a bit sad. Last summer a group of us lost our friend to a long battle with cancer. She left her 4 year old daughter Aniyah behind and I wanted to do something to help celebrate her memory. I haven’t actually started the writing process yet so I don’t know how it’s going to go, but I imagine it’s going to have its own set of privileges and problems now that I’m in the driving seat as both author and illustrator.
The illustration always informs the writing for me, drawing out my characters and world always provides me with something to look at and be informed when I’m trying to get the words to come out. I do my concept art in such a way that the drawings tell a story all on their own, the words are just there to lock it down and focus you on key points so you know which story I’m trying to tell.
Could you talk us through the journey of illustrating to a brief? When a publisher approaches you to create illustrations for a picture book, and you’re keen, what happens next? We appreciate each project may differ, but how does a ‘usual’ collaboration work?
The first thing I do is have a mini panic, for some reason it never gets easier the more you do it, it’s like you have to learn how to draw all over again each time. After the panic is over, I start drawing my characters and locations so I can establish the feel of the story and the style of artwork I’m using. Once those are locked in, I try and do thumbnail drawings to help me lay out the story, sort out any problems between text and image and see how the page turns will work. All of these stages need to be sent off for approval from the publisher. Once I get the approval, I move from thumbnail to draft art stage, where I’m locking everything in. Once the publisher approves the draft stage, I move on to the finished colour artwork.
Throughout this whole process, it’s important to me that the text remains malleable, so we can adjust/edit it where needed to make it work perfectly with the pictures. This should be ok to do as long as it doesn’t massively shift or change the story. That trust that the illustrator is also capable of making edits is where the true collaboration lies.
I read in a previous interview that you’ve been drawing since you were seven, when you drew characters from your favourite video games. So, who are some of your all-time favourite characters?
I’m a huge Marvel comics fan, so pretty much all the Jim Lee era X Men designs were my fave. I’m also a big fan of the Mario and Zelda world designs. I grew up loving shows like Biker Mice From Mars, Swat Cats, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Samurai Pizza Cats, Dungeons & Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He Man, The Phantom, Defenders Of The Earth and so on and so on…the list could potentially go on for a good while.
I grew up in what some might call a golden era of cartoons for children. These laid the foundations for my imagination, but more recent cartoons like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, The Owl House, Amphibia and Over The Garden Wall really cemented my desire to become a storyteller.
You have created many memorable characters in children’s books, especially the iconic Rocket. How do you develop your characters, and build upon their traits and mannerisms, as an illustrator?
I always start off with a small written description of the character that gives me a foundation of who they are. This can be as short as a few key prompts, or a paragraph. I then go online and do some visual research using words from that description to gather images to make a visual mood board for reference when drawing. And then I get to exploring how the character looks visually by drawing them.
I also find it a great help if you can base your character on someone who actually exists, it gives you a great source to pull from when informing their mannerisms and personality. This is the case with both Rocket and Aniyah, who are based on my niece and my friend's child respectively.
Finally, what advice would you give to illustrators who are at the beginning of their creative career? What do they need to know?
My number one piece of advice is to try and learn how the industry works. Learn what happens behind the scenes. How are books sold? Who are the booksellers? How do agents work? How do designers/editors work? Who commissions books? How do bookshops operate? How do schools and libraries engage with your work?
It’s important to understand that there’s so much more to your job than just drawing or making art. The more informed you are about all this, the easier it will be for you to navigate the landscape and take some control of your direction. My experience so far has been an education in how things work. I don’t think I’d be where I am now if I didn’t take the time to find things out.
Dapo Adeola is an illustrator, author and character designer who was awarded Illustrator of the Year at The British Book Awards in 2022. Dapo rocketed into the picture book world with his greatly acclaimed illustrator debut, Look Up!, written by Nathan Bryon and published by Puffin in 2019, which won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2020. Dapo illustrated My Dad is a Grizzly Bear and My Mum Is a Lioness written by award-winning author Swapna Haddow (both published by Macmillan Children’s Books), and collaborated with Malorie Blackman on their picture book We’re Going to Find the Monster!
Dapo made his author debut in 2021 with the Puffin published picture book Hey You!: An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black, featuring 18 talented Black British illustrators, which also went on to win Illustrated book of the year at The British Book Awards in 2022. Born in Britain and of Nigerian heritage, Dapo is an avid believer in the importance of equal representation in the creative arts. He currently lives in London.
Comments