Recap - July 23
What Momo has been up to
Hello! How are you? The last month was too hot for me. Fortunately for me, July was much cooler in the UK. I was more functional apart from having persistent summer cold on and off. This months, I was mainly working on colour artwork for a picture book and writing for my next authored book, but the highlight was definitely the Illustrators’ Fair.
The Illustrators’ Fair is a pop-up marketplace, that takes place twice a year in King’s Cross, London, for all things illustration. It’s a great opportunity to buy directly from artists. My friends (Rachel Bone and Sangeeta Bhagawati) and I have been participating in the fairs organised by Illustrators’ Fair team since 2017. This year I spotted many fellow children’s illustrators, such as Sharon King-Chai, Ruby Wright and Harry Woodgate also taking part in the fair. The stall opposite mine was Hayley Wells (but I was too shy to say hi…)
The prospect of the fair was gloomy (bad economy and thunderstorm). I was just hoping to recoup the table fee, but actually the fair was buzzing all day and my overall sales was much better than I had expected!
More importantly, I had a lovely day. Writing/illustration is essentially a solitary job. That’s why I always enjoy the human interactions at markets. I particularly enjoyed chatting to both aspiring and working kidlit illustrators/writers at the fair. Quite a few designers from publishers dropped by too. One of them told me that she visited the fair every year to check out new artists. So, if you’re an aspiring illustrator, this is a good, if not the easiest/cheapest, way to get noticed by publishers.
Without doubt, getting direct feedback on my work from people was the best thing. I hope I can come back to the Illustrators’ Fair again this winter!
Talking of solitary work, I had a writer’s existential crisis of sort recently. I’m working on my next authored book at the moment. It’s not that I don’t have ideas. It’s more a case of losing confidence in my writing. Ever since I watched an Orange Beak talk on writing by picture book editorial director Maria Tunney, questions swirled in my head - “What’s my writing voice?” “Do I have one?”
Picture book making is a team work and your editors are there to help and guide you. But my head went into this downward spiral thought of “Where dose my voice/idea end and where do theirs start?” and it ended up at “I can’t write on my own = I’m a bad writer!”
I have a tendency to overthink things if left alone. So I’m grateful that I had chances to talk this over with my writer/illustrator friends. They helped me put my thoughts in perspective. It reminded me how helpful for us all to share our experience and worries time to time.
On the other hand, the other project has been going well. Its roughs have been signed off so I’m working on colours now. It feels strange to illustrate autumnal scenes in the middle of summer but I’m loving the colour palette. Scenery is my nemesis. I usually opt for white or block colour backgrounds, but, I’m pushing myself a little bit with this book. I’ve been drawing leaves after leaves… It’s driving me a bit crazy but I’ve discovered Cobra Kai and Detectorists recently and they’ve been keeping me company during this process.
This month I read…
Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth by Jarvis
This is probably my favourite book by Jarvis. (Odd Bots is my favourite but he didn’t write it.) The big twist is so unexpected (and very funny) that I didn’t see it coming.
Dumpster Dog! by Written by Colas Gutman and Illustrated by Marc Boutavant
I’m a big fan of Boutavant’s work, but it was Gutman’s dark humour that won me over (and Boutavant’s interpretation is spot on).
These two books definitely reminded me what makes me tick and they helped the search for my “voice” (though the search continues).
I’d like to wrap up this letter with a special mention to the wonderful, independent children’s bookshop, Tales on Moon Lane in Herne Hill. Tales was an institution among South London residents and UK children’s book community. The shop was particularly dear to me. They had been so supportive ever since my debut picture book, Avocado Asks, was published. My very first book launch party would have been there (unfortunately, it was cancelled because of the pandemic). And my very first window painting was at Tales.
Sadly, the original shop bid adieu to Herne Hill this week after twenty wonderful years. But I’m excited for their new adventure in Whitstable. Kids in the town will be in for a treat! Luckily for me and fellow SW residents, there is still lovely ChocoLit in Clapham. Also, the Guardian reported that independent bookshops were on the rise again, so let’s hope more children’s bookshops will pop up in near future!
That’s all for this month. Thank you for reading!
Momo x
Any comments and question will be welcome!
And much appreciated if you could spread the word!
The illustrators fair sounds like it was great.
Ooo I haven’t actually read dumpster dog, didn’t realise there was a translation, going to seek it out.
:-)