Capturing the vision of an author is an extremely challenging job as an illustrator. Perhaps the most challenging of all. I liken it to being a translator of a foreign language, or a codebreaker who is tasked to unlock a secret message.
Many authors have a particular vision in their minds that are born of visuals that they may have come across in other illustrations or movies or artwork. The illustrator is then tasked with taking that vision, mushing it down into a ball of goo, cleaning it up (removing the licensed bits or similarities), and reshaping it to a point where it truly becomes personalized and original.
Not an easy job.
Unless that is, you get to work with Andrew Stewart.
Andrew is so passionate about his stories, his ideas, his characters that it is easy to get drawn into his concepts (pun completely intended) and share his vision.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see him share his story with a class full of kids, and that passion, vibrancy and commitment to his work is evident in his presentation.
His passion is also contagious! Not only did I get to help realize his dreams and ideas, but now I’ve welcomed into my family a brave heroic cat (The Pook), a crazy playful leaf pile (Stanley) and an adventurous boy and his monster best friend among all of the other characters in his three books. It makes for a stuffy house, but I feel like they are my own.
I’m very excited to see that his third book is generating buzz and soon to be released. It’s OUR best work to date and I’m sure everyone will agree.
That also means it’ll soon be time to work on book number four. 😉
– Rob Langille, Artist
Get to know more about the work Rob has done with Andrew HERE