It’s a PUBLICATION DAY! Keith’s Big Leap (Andersen Press) written by Mike Barfield and illustrated by me is out in the UK today!
The seasons have changed, and Keith is the last leaf on the big oak tree. When his friend Tod the blackbird suggests he might want to float down and join his fellow leaves on the ground, Keith refuses. Why should he, when he’s happy where he is? But when he learns how everything is connected in one big ecosystem, Keith thinks it might finally be time to take the ride of his life . .
When I pick a text to illustrate, I have two rules: 1) the text should share my sentiment (I don’t like overly sentimental stories) and my humour (I don’t like toilet jokes), and 2) the text should give me some (good) challenges. The second rule is particularly important to me. I would spend about 4-6 months of my life working on the project. It should be interesting and beneficial to me as an artist. Life is short. There’s no point doing the same thing again and again. Right?
When I read the Mike’s manuscript sent by the publisher, I liked the way the story was fictional but part non-fiction. And I liked the main character who reminded me of my grandfather. I could also tell this story would give me some challenges.
Character Designs - Accuracy vs Art
The story is a fiction with anthropomorphised leaf and animals but it’s packed with nature facts. So how to approach was the biggest question. I decided to aim for somewhere in between fiction and non-fiction but leaning towards fiction. Striking the right balance was the main challenge for this project.
Designing Keith was relatively straightforward. I originally suggested Keith with a “painter’s” moustache but Mike preferred the Keith with bushy eyebrows and no tach. I love autumnal colour palette and from the beginning I knew I wanted red, orange and yellow. So, even though Keith was described as “old and brown” in the text, I went for burgundy rather than russet or tawny (artistic licence).
The animals (blackbird, jay and squirrel) required a bit more thinking. Mike is a multiple-award-winning author, cartoonist, poet and performer but also has a first-class science degree. According to my publisher, he “is something of a non fiction expert”. I originally thought of making the animals really stylised as you see in many fiction picture books (e.g. Jim Field’s squirrel) but I decided to not stylise too much.
It turned out Mike was really keen on biological details than I had expected. One of his comments was “Juno’s beak is not jay-like but looks more finch-like”… I was worried Mike wouldn’t approve the blackbird’s legs being blue (they are grey in reality) but I held on to my artistic licence (because it looked better in the colour palette) and I had my way at the end. For projects like this, we need to find a fine balance between accuracy and art.
I also gave the animal some personalities with human items (e.g. head scarf). Coincidentally, I had just finished reading one of the Thursday Murder Club books by Richard Osman at that time and Keith and his three friends reminded me of the four main characters in the book series. (Although they don’t resemble the Netflix film cast at all - the film was announced way after I had finished this book anyway) I imagined stubborn Keith was Ron Ritchie, a retired union leader (personally I think Pierce Brosnan was a miscast), wise Todd the blackbird was Ibrahim Arif, a retired psychiatrist (look at the bow ties - coincidence much?!), forgetful Juno the jay was deceivingly ditzy Joyce Meadowcroft, a retired nurse, and Grace the squirrel was Elizabeth Best, a retired spy.
The Setting and Limitations
The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.
- Orson Welles