Bryony Thomson
About Author
Bryony Thomson studied Fine Art, took a four year diversion as a Political Risks Insurance underwriter, and then finally discovered what she should have been doing all along when she embarked on the MA Children's Book Illustration course at Cambridge School of Art.
She graduated in 2016 with a Distinction and that same year received a Highly Commended in the Macmillan Prize and was shortlisted for the Bridgeman Studio Award.
Interview
THE WARDROBE MONSTER
APRIL 2018
OLD BARN BOOKS
In her debut picture book THE WARDROBE MONSTER, author and illustrator BRYONY THOMSON takes a gentle peek at an area that unites most children; a fear of the dark - and especially a fear of the wardrobe in the dark...
In this story, little Dora and her toy friends are tired and grumpy but too scared to go to bed because of the noises that come from Dora's wardrobe each night. Eventually, they are brave enough to open the door to discover what is making the noise. In doing so, they realise they don't need to be afraid - and they make a new friend.
We asked author and illustrator BRYONY THOMSON to tell us how THE WARDROBE MONSTER came about.
Q: How did you discover that you wanted to be an illustrator?
A: I first studied Fine Art in Wimbledon and then ended up working in insurance underwriting. It wasn't really what I wanted to do and eventually I plucked up the courage to do an MA in children's book illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.
I had always had a strong narrative side to my artwork, so I was trying to find a more commercial angle for it and to do something that felt like it had a point to it. During my course I began producing a lot of graphic novels that became progressively younger. Then I decided to try and make a picture book and had the challenge of writing and illustrating for younger children, and trying to get into their heads.
Q: So what sparked the idea for your wardrobe monster?
A: The story stems from my own experience of going to boarding school when I was eight. The school was at a really old fashioned, stately Georgian home and the dormitory had this massive wardrobe in it. During the night the hot water pipes would make terrible noises and I imagined terrible things lurking in the shadows.
I never told anyone I was scared, though, because I wanted to make a good impression, so I decided to write a story that would let children know that it was okay to be scared, and to encourage them to talk about it with someone.
Q: Each of your characters has a very distinctive look, how did you go about creating them?
A: This also started with me as a child, I had always wanted pink hair so I gave Dora pink hair. But I wanted Dora to have some friends around her and each of these characters are based on people I know. Bear is my mum, and he's calming and unsuspicious; Penguin is a bit like my dad, he loves melodrama; and Lion is my husband who is always ready to dive in. So there's something that everyone can identify with because we all react differently to scary situations, plus it needed to be a proper gang.
Q: How do your story and images develop?
A: The story was in my head for quite a long time and I have lots of scraps of paper with bits of story on them; I tend to write bit by bit as I get 'blank paper fear' if I think I need to write down an entire story.
Then I did some rough storyboarding with stick men characters and that helped me finish the script. I also try to draw a finished piece of artwork to help me get to know the characters a bit better. Finally, I do the roughs for the entire story.
I add all the details in the final artwork which also helps to build the world. I draw on things I remembered from my own childhood like the breakfast scene in the story, where the characters each have their names on their mugs. My name, Bryony, is quite unusual so I didn't get a mug with my name on until I was in my 20s when my parents found one at a local pottery shop.
Q: A lot of picture books use animals as characters; why did you decide your main character would be a human child, if all the other characters are animals?
A: Because it was such a personal story for me, I wanted it to be brought back to a human child. Although I've seen animal characters used very successfully in children's books, I like to have the human voice with the animals.
Q: What about the monster in the wardrobe - how did you decide what he would look like?
A: I tried lots of different looks for him. At one point he was blue with pink blobs but then I realised he looked too much like a character in Monsters Inc. Eventually I decided to mirror the colour of the girl's hair and then the monster wouldn't be so threatening.
Q: Your picture book deals with children's fears of the dark. How do you explore that without scaring the child reading the picture book?
A: I find it fascinating, how you deal with difficult subjects for children. I think we tend to sanitise things a lot; in Scandinavian countries they are much braver about the subjects they will tackle in picture books. My feeling is that, as long as you can provide a satisfying conclusion, you shouldn't be afraid of tackling difficult subjects.
Q: There's a lovely texture to your images, how do you achieve that effect?
A: I use a form of mono printing where you roll out the ink onto perspex and put blank newsprint on top of it, then draw on top of that. The pressure of the pencil picks up the ink onto the newsprint and you get that slightly fuzzy image. I might also use some wax crayon. That's scanned into Photoshop in black and white and then I add the colour.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have just finished the artwork for another book with my publisher Old Barn Books, it's by different author and it's the first time I've illustrated someone else's text. It was a challenge because you haven't had those immediate images in your head that you get when you're creating your own story. It's called Peter and the Bear by Alan Pollock and it's publishing in the autumn.
The Wardrobe Monster
