Author-2-Author with Richard Jesse Watson

When I first picked up a copy of ´The Magic Rabbit´ at the local library I was blown away by the artwork. The pictures truly told a story and you could almost feel the magic that the rabbit was creating. It was no surprise to learn that Richard Jesse Watson has won the Golden Kite Award and the Parent Choice Award for his illustrations. I though… man, I need to interview this guy! So here we are.

Richard has turned his passion into a career, first studying art at the Pasadena City College and Art Center College of Design. Before becoming a freelance artist he held positions at World Vision International and as an illustrator for Hallmark Cards.

As his illustrating took off he earned several awards for children´s books, including the Waldenbooks Illustration Award, Best Book Design from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and Best Children´s Book from the Printing Industries of America. In 1995 his illustrations for Ruth Bell Graham´s, One Wintry Night, was picked as the C. S. Lewis Gold Medal Winner for Children´s Picture Books and has sold over 700,000 copies.

C. L. Vaughn: Richard, I wanted to first thank you for taking the time to be interviewed by a fellow Washingtonian. Since I began writing I´ve found that I am able to be inspired by the Puget Sound area and I´ve incorporated that into many of my stories. Do you have a specific place that you pull inspiration from?

Richard Jesse Watson: Thanks so much, Chris, for the opportunity to chat with you. Regarding sources for my inspiration...hmm. Inspiration comes to me constantly from my immediate environment, family and friends, but also from a myriad of other sources. For instance, dreams present and dreams I had as a child. I still draw wonder and fear from those archetypical images. I am nourished and inspired from music (an eclectic range that's all over the map). Nature constantly humbles and amazes me and fuels my imaginative explorations.

I do take inspiration from the Puget Sound region, in fact, The Night Before Christmas was set in Port Townsend. I used our courthouse and other houses and buildings in the book, as well as local artists as my models for St. Nicholas and the large cast of elves. In The Boy Who Went Ape, I also used some of the buildings in Port Townsend; the library and the bank turned music store. The Waterfall's Gift, gave me an excuse to go for hikes in the Olympic Mountain range and along the beaches of the Sound.

CLV: Do you have a favorite medium to work with when creating illustrations for children´s books?

RJW: My favorite medium is to experiment. I work in oils, acrylics, pen and ink, egg tempera etc. I often mix different kinds of art supplies and techniques. For instance, my latest book illustrations were done on elephant dung paper with Sumi ink and acrylic paint.

CLV: I noticed that one of your recent projects, The Boy Who Went Ape, was written by your son Benjamin. Can you tell our readers a little about what it is like to work on a children´s book with your son? Were there challenges that you did not expect?

RJW: Ah, yes there were challenges. This book was such a wacky romp. Ben and I had a lot of fun playing with the ideas and characters. I found it necessary to step out of the usual role as father, and become a team member as we hacked our way through the book-making jungle. I learned from Ben and his storytelling abilities and I think he learned from my experience.

CLV: What steps do you take in planning your school visits? Do you include hands-on activities for the kids?

RJW: I like to read up on each school and try to connect with the area, environment and any class projects or curriculum emphasis. I do an interactive, collaborative story development activity with the students.

I guide them through brainstorming and selecting characters which helps demonstrate plot development and plot twists. I do cartoon sketching to show how I might flesh out their fun characters. Then they have a turn to draw scenes from the unfolding communal plot with their choice and interpretation of protagonist and ending.

CLV: Can you describe to our readers how you got into writing and illustrating children´s books? Was it years of hard work followed by a big break or did the Fairies of Literature set you on your way first try? Either way, congrats! There seem to be a plague of Literature Gremlins running amuck.

RJW: You've seen them then? Those flighty, cherished little flitty Fairies of Literature are hard to catch. I too see much more of the grubby gremlins of gobble-de-gook. I got into making books for kids by attending The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference back in 1984. Although, really my quest began as a child when I started drawing and writing stories of my own. I signed up for a portfolio review, and was fortunate to have Tomie DePaola critique my work. He gave me the business cards of two editors who were looking for illustrators. I sent portfolios to both, and eventually ended up working with them, one at Harcourt and the other at HarperCollins. A great beginning, but it took fifteen years of preparation getting to that point.

CLV: How much of your own promoting do you do? I noticed that you have a blog, http://richardjessewatson.blogspot.com/ have you seen an increase in sales since you´ve began blogging?

RJW: Every author and illustrator absolutely must be involved in self promotion. School visits, book signings, library presentations, web sites, blogging, Facebook, etc. are all part of the necessary networking and promotion that we must do to help our books find an audience. There are numerous resources available to help authors promote their work, starting with SCBWI's website (www.scbwi.org) and Children's Writers and Illustrator's Market, edited by Alice Pope.

CLV: When creating your illustrations, such as those in Magic Rabbit, roughly what type of time table are you working with? Are you the type of artist to sit at the table and hammer out a painting in one sitting or do you take nibbles at your projects until they´re completed?

RJW: I get lost in my work, so a painting can happen in a day or it might be many weeks if it has a lot of complexity. I always do extensive research before beginning the illustrations. From character development/sketches, actual models, or getting live animals, as in The Magic Rabbit. I bought two rabbits, built a large cage allowing room for me to sit and draw them. We still have Sniffy and Chewy. For One Wintry Night, we went to the Middle East to do research, and for The Boy Who Went Ape, we spent time at the Oregon Zoo, sketching and photographing chimpanzees.

CLV: Just for fun… If you weren´t an author-illustrator extraordinaire, what would you be?

RJW: A French pastry chef. Or a folklorist, in particular documenting village music and dancing from around the world. Making robots would be fun, too.

CLV: I really enjoyed your illustrations in ´The Night Before Christmas´ by Clement C. Moore. How much creative freedom did you have for your illustrations in this book? Do you ever build models of what you´re painting to help with add details to the illustrations?

RJW: I had nearly total freedom to interpret Moore's poem. Did you know that there have been over a thousand different versions made of The Night Before Christmas since it was written in 1822? I set my version in my own village, as mentioned earlier. My dad was the inspiration for St. Nick, as he was an aviator and used to make his own airplanes using Harley Davidson motorcycle engines. Yes, I do make models, and for this book I made a model of Santa's sleigh, which I called, Polaris, and "tricked out" with the latest ultra high-tech gismos.

CLV: Last but not least, would you like to share any wisdom for other authors and illustrators who are working on becoming published? Any new projects for your fans to know about?

RJW: I am currently illustrating The Lord's Prayer for the Master Illustrator Series. I am also writing and developing several stories. If you want to make a book, you need to read a lot, write a lot, and if you are an illustrator you need to draw and paint a lot. We're talkin' LLLlllotttssss! And you will need Industrial-Strength-Costco-Quantity Patience. It's a long haul to make and deliver a good book to readers. But so, so worth it.