Simon Bartram

Bob's Best Ever Friend
Simon Bartram

About Author

Simon Bartram studied Graphic Design, specialising in illustration, at Birmingham Polytechnic.

He has gone on to write and illustrate a number of picture books, including Blue Peter Award-winner The Man on the Moon: A Day in the Life of Bob. Bob's Best-Ever Friend was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Award. He has also written and illustrated another Bob picture book, Bob and the Moontree Mystery, and a series of young fiction books about Bob, which have been nominated for a number of prizes.

Author link

www.bobmanonthemoon.co.uk ; www.templarco.co.uk

Interview

BOB AND THE MOONTREE MYSTERY

OCTOBER 2012

PUBLISHED BY TEMPLAR

It begins as an ordinary day for Bob, the man who works on the Moon, until he tries to land as usual on the moon - only to find his rocket has landed in an enormous tree. When the tree sprouts some strange golden pods, Bob knows he has a mystery on his hands. But it can't have anything to do with aliens - can it...?


Bob and the Moontree Mystery is Simon Bartram's first picture book about Bob since Bob's Best Ever Friend as the author / illustrator is currently working hard on Bob's chapter books. Bartram explains, "Most of the ideas I have for Bob fit into that category. Picture books have to be quite streamlined, lean ideas while the reading book ideas can go off on tangents. Picture books also take a lot longer and are a big commitment, they are a whole year of work."

Bob and the Moontree Mystery also started out as a chapter book story but, when he was going over the ideas he had scribbled in his sketch book, Bartram felt it would work better as a picture book and he started to write the story.

"When I am developing ideas I like to juxtapose everyday, ordinary things with big, cosmic ideas so I wanted something ordinary to start with - and what is more ordinary than a tree?, he says. "I had done a few postage-size doodles of a tree so then I had to find a reason to have a tree. I knew the tree was going to be where aliens come from but I didn't know how to get there and that took a bit of working on."

As a trained illustrator, Bartram thinks "very visually". "I always draw my ideas first. Once I know the storyline I will map it out in my sketchbook, I decide what will be a full page and what will be a single page and then draft out the story in bullet points and concentrate on the visual side, what do I want in each picture?"

When he comes to write the text, he feels the words are like the 'straight man' in a sketch while the images are the funny man, that is where he plants the things that will make children laugh. There is a crowd scene in the Moontree Mystery, for example, where the text says Bob will look after the Moontree, so that's what the adult reads. However, in the illustration children who are looking will spot a picture of men with a ladder, a saw and an axe. On the next page you see Bob is quite inept at looking after the tree - it's the aliens who are doing all the work to protect it, they know what the tree is about. Bartram adds, "I suggest the idea early on in the story that the aliens know what the tree is about as you see them holding hands around it, so children can follow that thread in the pictures."

The picture books take a long time to create because of his technique, says Bartram. "I draw out my images for Bob picture books very precisely. Bob features prominently at the centre of spreads and I usually start with his face and then I finish the rest of the page quite quickly before I go back and tidy it up, add things in etc.

"I use acrylic paints to colour the pages because they are fast drying and I work on thick, watercolour paper. I build up the image using many layers of thin paint so you can see each layer below. I may have nine or ten layers in parts and that gives the page quite a luminous quality."

This is a very different technique from the way he was taught to work at school, he adds. "The tutors always wanted us to use big canvases and to slap on paint but I gravitated towards using rotary pens and making small, neat drawings as a child. I wanted to put lots of things in and for pictures to be looked at again and again and to find lots of things to do in the images," something that still works for him today. "You have to stick with who you are and the big brush strokes is not me."

Bartram planned to train in graphic design but a number of projects he did in children's illustration at school and in college remained with him. "In the real world, working as an illustrator for magazines and newspapers meant getting a brief and delivering your work two or three days later. I really wanted to have projects that lasted a longer time than that. Eventually I got a picture book project, to illustrate a version of Pinocchio, and then I wrote and illustrated my first picture book, which was Man on the Moon." He is now completely focused on children's books - a place he loves to be.

He now knows Bob "very well". "He's quite an old fashioned and conscientious and I know how he would react in different situations. I have even started to tweet as Bob so that the real world can get to see how he'd react to certain news stories or things on television... Were he ever to meet 'Bob', Bartram thinks they would be mates, "although I'm not sure he'd want to have a nice pint with me, he's more of an apple juice kind of guy. I also like his tank top - there's not enough people wearing tank tops these days..."

Bartram used to create his books and work at his home but once his family arrived he was transplanted to the shed at the bottom of the garden and that's where he works now. "It's got a skylight, a working desk and an easel. I listen to a lot of music when I'm drawing things and when I am writing I have to have things very quiet. I drink endless cups of tea and if it's cold, I've got a nice hot water bottle." Bob would certainly approve.

BOB AND THE MOONTREE MYSTERY

Simon Bartram, creator of the picture book Man on the Moon, tells us about his latest picture book, Bob and the Moontree Mystery.

Bob and the Moontree Mystery begins as an ordinary day for Bob, the man who works on the Moon, until he tries to land his rocket on the Moon - only to find they have landed in an enormous tree. When the tree sprouts some strange golden pods, Bob knows he has a mystery on his hands. But it can't have anything to do with aliens - can it...?


Bob and the Moontree Mystery is Simon Bartram's first picture book about Bob since Bob's Best Ever Friend as he is currently working hard on black and white chapter books about Bob's adventures. Bartram explains, "Most of the ideas I have for Bob fit into that category. Picture books have to be quite streamlined, lean ideas while the reading book ideas can go off on tangents. Picture books also take a lot longer and are a big commitment, they are a whole year of work."

Bob and the Moontree Mystery also started out as a chapter book story but, when he was going over the ideas he had scribbled in his sketch book, Bartram felt it would work better as a picture book and he started to write the story.

"When I am developing ideas I like to juxtapose everyday, ordinary things with big, cosmic ideas so I wanted something ordinary to start with - and what is more ordinary than a tree?, he says. "I had done a few postage-size doodles of a tree so then I had to find a reason to have a tree. I knew the tree was going to be where aliens come from but I didn't know how to get there and that took a bit of working on."

As a trained illustrator, Bartram thinks "very visually". "I always draw my ideas first. Once I know the storyline I will map it out in my sketchbook, I decide what will be a full page and what will be a single page and then draft out the story in bullet points and concentrate on the visual side, what do I want in each picture?"

When he comes to write the text, he feels the words are like the 'straight man' in a sketch while the images are the funny man, that is where he plants the things that will make children laugh. There is a crowd scene in the Moontree Mystery, for example, where the text says Bob will look after the Moontree, so that's what the adult reads. However, in the illustration children who are looking will spot a picture of men with a ladder, a saw and an axe. On the next page you see Bob is quite inept at looking after the tree - it's the aliens who are doing all the work to protect it, they know what the tree is about. Bartram adds, "I suggest the idea early on in the story that the aliens know what the tree is about as you see them holding hands around it, so children can follow that thread in the pictures."

The picture books take a long time to create because of his technique, says Bartram. "I draw out my images for Bob picture books very precisely. Bob features prominently at the centre of spreads and I usually start with his face and then I finish the rest of the page quite quickly before I go back and tidy it up, add things in etc.

"I use acrylic paints to colour the pages because they are fast drying and I work on thick, watercolour paper. I build up the image using many layers of thin paint so you can see each layer below. I may have nine or ten layers in parts and that gives the page quite a luminous quality."

This is a very different technique from the way he was taught to work at school, he adds. "The tutors always wanted us to use big canvases and to slap on paint but I gravitated towards using rotary pens and making small, neat drawings as a child. I wanted to put lots of things in and for pictures to be looked at again and again and to find lots of things to do in the images," something that still works for him today. "You have to stick with who you are and the big brush strokes is not me."

Bartram planned to train in graphic design but a number of projects he did in children's illustration at school and in college remained with him. "In the real world, working as an illustrator for magazines and newspapers meant getting a brief and delivering your work two or three days later. I really wanted to have projects that lasted a longer time than that. Eventually I got a picture book project, to illustrate a version of Pinocchio, and then I wrote and illustrated my first picture book, which was Man on the Moon." He is now completely focused on children's books - a place he loves to be.

He now knows Bob "very well". "He's quite an old fashioned and conscientious and I know how he would react in different situations. I have even started to tweet as Bob so that the real world can get to see how he'd react to certain news stories or things on television... Were he ever to meet 'Bob', Bartram thinks they would be mates, "although I'm not sure he'd want to have a nice pint with me, he's more of an apple juice kind of guy. I also like his tank top - there's not enough people wearing tank tops these days..."

Bartram used to create his books and work from his home but once his family arrived, he was transplanted to the shed at the bottom of the garden and that's where he works now. "It's got a skylight, a working desk and an easel. I listen to a lot of music when I'm drawing things and when I am writing I have to have things very quiet. I drink endless cups of tea and if it's cold, I've got a nice hot water bottle." Bob would certainly approve.

Author's Titles