Making of It's Behind You!
I said no more but then I said yes...
When I finished illustrating The Blue Umbrella (written by Emily Ann Davison), in which I had drawn about 230 human figures (including the repeated ones), I promised to myself I wouldn’t illustrate another cumulative story for a while. But when my Andersen Press editor sent me the text of fantastically hilarious It’s Behind You! written by award-winning author, Jeanne Willis, in which the child and their* grandparents go for a walk and they are soon joined by a long line of fantastical characters only for the child to notice, I knew I had to say yes.
*I’ll explain why I use non-binary pronoun. Read on.
Interpretation
In the text, the trio was meant to walk towards the sea. At first, I interpreted the story literarily, reminiscing the walks I had done with my grandparents who had lived near the sea. I imagined the walk would be through a seaside town to the beach. However, my editor thought it would be odd that townsfolk noticed the fantastical characters while the grandparents didn’t. Instead she suggested a walk through woods, but I thought the setting would loose the humour of the story.
Then an idea hit me. I suggested a walk through a park and that all the characters would be the child’s imagination inspired by things they saw in the park (or is it?). For example, the pond in the park became “the sea”. Once my editor and art director got on board with the idea, I enjoyed planting the “inspirations” throughout the illustrations.
Character Designs
This story was written in the first person ("I", "me") and it wasn't gender specific narrative. The main character could be a boy or a girl. So, I suggested to make the child intentionally gender-neutral looking so the reader could decide it themselves. It was interesting. In my mind, the child was a girl, but my AD kept referring the child "he/him".
