As a children’s book illustrator, you never know what you’ll be drawing next, but a bull on a bicycle? Is that even possible? Bicycles are one of the hardest things to draw but to put a bull on a bicycle? That’s even harder. Will he wear biking gloves? Will he ride a clip in pedal or a pedal with a strap. Some details are in the manuscript but a lot is left up to the picture you see in your head. The illustrator has to read the words and then make the pictures believable. That is the fun thing about making pictures out of words. You read the words and create a world that will go with the story. All things are possible for the children’s book illustrator just as all things are possible for the child reading the story. How do you draw a bicycle? Like I tell my students, “Go look at a bicycle and draw the shapes.” It’s that simple. Where do you get an image of a bull on a bicycle? Maybe that’s why I don’t sleep at night. It’s all in my head like the pigs, running amuck.
Fun, fun!