Illustrator Spotlight: Claire Powell
Three Troupe 21 members are authors and illustrators - Anne Appert, Leah Hong and Neesha Hudson. You’ve seen their incredible art on our website and social accounts, including this graphic for new picture book FREAKY, FUNKY FISH!
You’ll continue to get to know all about their stories here on Troupe Tales! We also want to introduce you to the illustrators of the books by our other Troupe authors, through our Illustrator Spotlight feature!
This week, we’re featuring Claire Powell, illustrator of FREAKY, FUNKY FISH, the debut picture book of Troupe member Debra Kempf Shumaker (Running Press Kids), which published May 4, 2021.
Claire Powell is an illustrator and picture book maker based in London. In a previous life, she was a graphic designer, who spent many years in the world of brand identity. Her clients include Andersen Press, Barrington Stoke, Bloomsbury, Hodder, HarperCollins, Little Tiger, Simon & Schuster, Running Press Kids, Apple, and Vital Arts.
Want to know more about Claire and how she approached illustrating FREAKY, FUNKY FISH? You’re in luck! Claire has stopped by the Troupe Tales blog for an interview to share exactly that. Before you swim on down to the interview below, give a warm welcome to fin-tastic illustrator Claire Powell!
Illustrator Spotlight
CLAIRE POWELL
What drew you to this manuscript?
I loved this text from the moment I read it. The rhyme that Debra constructed flows so wonderfully and, as I'd never illustrated a non-fiction book before, I was excited by the idea of illustrating real marine life, rather than imaginary. I also liked that every page was wildly different and it made a lovely change to be able to draw a different species for each spread, rather than following the narrative of one central character, as with my other books.
What qualities of character and/or concept did you want to convey in the cover?
I decided early on I didn't want to show the water but rather focus on the diversity of fish that I felt Debra's text introduced the reader to. Non-fiction doesn't mean the fish shouldn't have lots of personality and I wanted each fish to have something humorous about it so I chose the funniest and most unusual fish for the cover (some of which are in the text, some I found myself like the unicorn fish) and created a wrap around composition that flows from the back to the front. I wanted it to feel as though we were in the ocean watching all these different fish swim past us. It took a while to create the composition - Photoshop is a useful tool for things like that! I drew all the fish I wanted to use and then moved them around until they all fitted... like an aquatic version of Tetris!
How did the text/story influence your color choices when creating the illustrations?
Well, the lovely thing I've discovered about non-fiction is that the choices of colour are decided for me! Choosing and balancing colour palettes for picture books is a big, sometimes daunting, task; with Freaky, Funky Fish I didn't have to make as many colour decisions - if a Catfish is shades of brown in real life then it's shades of brown in the book! What I did do was decide to take colours based from a similar tonal range so that I could use as many different colours as I liked and they still all worked together and felt balanced.
What about the story did you most enjoy/was your favorite to illustrate?
I particularly enjoyed illustrating the big opening spread... so many fish! It was such a delight to see the spread come to life in colour and some of the expressions on the Batfish still make me chuckle. I can almost imagine what they're thinking. That's always my ambition, to add a touch of humour and personality to the smallest of details.
What was the hardest part to illustrate?
I find in every book there is always one spread that, no matter what I do, just doesn't feel right. In Freaky, Funky Fish it was the penultimate spread with the Coral Reef Frogfish hiding in the coral. Oh, I did that so many times over and I'm still not happy with it. In the end, I had to admit defeat. I actually changed it after I'd seen the proofs - the background was originally blue but I felt it looked too murky and so I asked the brilliant designer, Frances, if I could change it and she was happy for me to. I did, but I'm still not sure it's the best it could be... I know you're all going to turn to that spread now and have a good look, I should have stayed quiet 😂
Do you have a favorite spread or illustration?
The expression of the Mudskippers. Have you seen them in real life? If not, google them! They are so weird and I imagined they would be a little bit grumpy - I probably would be too, if I had to live in a mud swamp every day!
What was the process like for illustrating this book? What medium did you use to create the illustrations?
In my research, I looked at old zoology and ichthyology (study of fish) posters and drawings, and I came across lovely seafarers expedition journals. This gave me the idea to treat each page like it's from a different explorers journal using old vintage paper that I made myself or found. I thought it would be cool to give each fish a rating of how freaky or funky it is - it's my hope that children will agree, or disagree, with my rating and they can give each fish their own points out of 5. Once I'd decided on the treatment of the overall book I roughed out my ideas for each spread and then I artworked the book using a mix of hand drawn techniques and adding colour in photoshop. I drew each fish in pencil on normal printer paper, nothing fancy, and created my own textures using ink, charcoal, graphite and crayon. I changed the colour of the pencil drawing in photoshop and added a layer of colour underneath and then I played around with the hand drawn textures in photoshop until I got something I felt represented the real life fish using a photo as reference. It's mostly trial and error and I couldn't repeat it if I tried! A lot of the time it's happy accidents that get the best results.
Have you illustrated other books we should check out?
Yes! The King's Birthday Suit is my most recent picture book. It was out in April and is a retelling of The Emperor's New Clothes, written by Peter Bently and published by Bloomsbury. It was probably the hardest book I've illustrated to date with so many people and crowd scenes, although seeing as I came up with the ideas for each spread I guess I've only got myself to blame for that! I also have a new middle grade book in the series with Simon Farnaby coming out in October which is fun, called The Warrior in my Wardrobe.
Where can we find your work?
I'm mainly on Instagram at @misspowellposts and my website is www.claire-powell.com.
And, of course, check out FREAKY, FUNKY FISH! Get your copy today through one of the following retailers:
Get to know Troupe member and FREAKY, FUNKY FISH author Debra Kempf Shumaker!
Website: www.debrashumaker.com
Twitter: @ShumakerDebra
Instagram: @debrakshumaker
