Drawing for children – Seeking the magic

When I have a walk around the library or the bookstores, I can see that many of them just tell stories in a funny way. And that’s OK! Since children love fun.

But I think they’re not very special for me. I mean, what about the magic, what about the feeling? What about the feeling you have when sometimes your eyes stop on a different cover and that’s when you realize that you’ve found one of the others? I mean, the magic ones.

I remember my favourite books when I was a little girl. I was a lucky child, since they used to be chosen and bought by my aunt Mari Carmen, and I’m still delighted with her good taste. They’ve always been my little treasure and I have never stopped loving them. In fact, I think they’re the guilty ones of me being an illustrator.

I can say they’ve inspired me because, when I look at them, I don’t see just illustrated children’s books, but also magic images which transport me to different, nostalgic, empathic, deep sensitive worlds. And that’s not about the text: that’s about the pictures.

How can we create this magic?, I have wondered many times. Well, I think every artist has his own way to looking for it, trying to find it. There are artists who master this magic and shine with they own light. However, any of us, even the beginners, have the right to seek it. In my case, I just try to draw and colour from the emotion, letting myself flow once again through these magic worlds that I have been rising since I was a child, feeling its joy and its tenderness as well as its melancholy and mystery, not just limiting me to express the happy-funny-joyful-carefree side of the life. That’s why I feel fully inspired by movies like Song of the Sea. Sometimes music helps me to connect with this feeling or state. I love to listen piano songs or musicians like Keith Kenniff or Yann Tiersen while I work. If my worlds within had an OST, it would be them. However, I must confess I also listen Disney soundtracks when I'm working on a "happy" picture.

Speaking in a more physical way: lightning is, to me, the strongest spell to invoke the magic on a picture. But not just it. Recently, looking at my old storybooks once again, I have discovered a particularity that many of them have in common, also have in common with my own drawings. That’s the desaturated colours. Maybe they have had a stronger influence over me than I thought, but the fact is that I feel that too much vibrant/plain colours break the sensitivity a little. So I use not-so-saturated colours in addition to a careful lighting and try to make expressive faces with which we can emotionally empathize. That is my own recipe to pursue the magic when I draw for kids.
Let me share with you some of the pictures that I grew up with  :- )

El unicornio y el mar, Fiona Moodie. Bohem Press / Ediciones SM

El primer baile de Agarico Pasaflor, Genevieve Huriet & Loic Jouannigot, Editions Milan

The Enchanter's Daughter, Antonia Barber & Errol Le Cain. Editorial Lumen

Le premier bal d'Agaric Passiflore, Genevieve Huriet & Loic Jouannigot, Editions Milan

Peter rabbit / El cuento de Perico, el conejo travieso, Beatrix Potter

"The High Hills", Jill Barklem. Harper Collins Publishers / Ediciones B

"Mousewing" / "El ratón que voló", Willian Mayne & Martin Baynton. Walter Books / Editorial Anaya

"La visita de Osito", Else Holmelund MInarik & Maurice Sendak, Ediciones Alfaguara, Altea, Taurus

"Las memorias de la Bruja Aburrida", E.Larreula & R.Capdevila. Editorial Ariel

"Comienza la aventura" (Nana Bunilda), Agustí Asensio & Mercè Company. Ediciones SM

"Pequeño cerdito, más problemas", Eve Tharlet. Editorial Everest