Illustrating A Best Friend for Bear

It’s true, that an idea for a picture book can come from anywhere and at any time, but in my case, it usually comes to me when I’m away from my studio, when I’m alone and when I’m walking.

Every autumn I travel to the Czech Republic where I stay for a couple of weeks on my own in my friend’s summer cottage. The cottage is on a hill by the woods, far from people and any distraction.

During the day I walk in the woods and I paint landscape. At the same time, I try to think about new ideas for a book. I write things down, I sketch, and I make notes. These moments when I am on my own with my own thoughts are very special to me and although I don’t always come back home with a finish book, I always have enough material to work with for the rest of the year.

Image

Now that I explained how much I love walking in the woods, it won’t be a surprise that my new book takes place in the woods and is about bears.

I like bears and I like drawing bears. I always wanted to write a picture book about a bear, but I had to wait for almost twenty years (that’s how long I’ve been writing and illustrating picture books).

Some books take absolutely ages to write and and some books are easy. A Best Friend for Bear was one of “the easy books to write”.

I had the idea for A Best Friend for Bear as I was mushroom picking. I came back to the cottage, made a fire and coffee, and I wrote it down. From the first notes to the final version, the story changed only a little.

Yes, of course once you show the idea to editors the hard work begins. The text needed small changes and tweaks, but I am very lucky to work with the great publisher Denise Johnstone – Burt and art editor Louise Jackson. We understand each other and they don’t let me start to illustrate until the story is absolutely ready and everything is in the right place.

I mentioned how much I like to draw bears, so I thought that illustrating this book would be easy, but it wasn’t.

I was halfway through the book when I had to admit to myself that the pictures were not what I wanted. The artwork was strangely tired, careful and boring. I wasn’t happy.

When I’m lost like this, I often look for inspiration in the art material I use. Trying something new, something I haven’t used before, usually helps. I threw the pictures in the bin and started again.

Image

Image

I took out cheap oil pastels. Drawing over the acrylic painted background and printing over the drawings did the trick. Suddenly I discovered a new colour pallet. I enjoyed painting the hairy bears, scratching their fur with the other side of the brush.

I also made the shape of the bears simpler. Suddenly I liked these two fellows and they made me laugh. I actually smiled a lot as I was illustrating the book. 

Discover A Best Friend for Bear by Petr Horáček, published by Walker Books...