Five Questions with illustrator/author Lily Emo

 

Lily Emo
Image by Braden Fastier

1. What is your writing or illustrating day like? When and how do you create?


My time to work on illustration generally happens in the mornings after our daughter is dropped off at daycare before I need to pick her up after lunch. My teaching work does take up some of this time as well so I don’t have a lot of time to work on my own illustrations. My husband and parents are very supportive. My parents pick my daughter up a couple of times a week when they can and my husband steps in and allows me more time on the weekend to get things done if it is needed. Parenting has changed the way I work, I am unable to do the same long hours that I used to do. My last book which was published earlier this year, B is for Bird, is the first book I completed since becoming a parent and it took around two years to complete. 


2. Where do your best ideas come from? How do you develop them further? 


I am not exactly sure where my best ideas come from. I am always reading and thinking about art and illustration. Teaching at the local Art Gallery means I look at a lot of art. I read a lot of picture books with my daughter. I think these things feed into how I see the world and think about solving visual storytelling problems. 


I find that if I start to draw, my ideas grow. I will draw very rough thumbnail compositions and sketches knowing that they are not quite right, but I draw them anyway. Getting those initial drawings out on paper enables me to get past those original ideas and work through to better possibilities. I mull over them and quite often new ideas and solutions come to me when I am not at my desk, while I am walking or lying awake with my daughter as I wait for her to go to sleep. 




3. What is the work you are most proud of so far? Why?


I am proud of all three of the books I have worked on for different reasons. But I think for me, B is for Bird is the one I am most proud of. It is the first book that I have written as well as illustrated. I don’t think of myself as a writer and so it was a challenge putting the words together. With this book, I also explored a new illustration process, working in collage. I decided to do this as I wanted to simplify the amount of detail I usually put in illustrations and to play with the shapes of the birds. I feel like working on B is for Bird pushed me to grow and learn a lot.


4. What is something you dream of achieving with your work?


I have a few dreams, firstly I would like to actually make a living from illustration.  It’s really hard to do in New Zealand. I would like to work with a few more publishers both in New Zealand and overseas. I have only worked with Little Moa books, who are the most amazingly supportive and wonderful team, but it would be nice to expand out and have the experience of working with other publishers. I would like to go to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and share my portfolio there and just soak up all of its illustration magic.  


5. What is one thing you would say to aspiring children’s writers or illustrators?


Draw. Draw as much as you can and follow what interests you. 


Enter competitions. I entered the Gavin Bishop Award twice before winning the Margaret Mahy Illustration prize.This was how I learnt to make a book and how I first got published. I know so many other illustrators who started out this way as well. 


Try and learn as much as you can, there are so many wonderful resources out there, a good place to start would be the resources list on the NZ SCWBI blogspot. https://scbwinewzealand.blogspot.com/p/resources-for-authors-and-illustrator.html




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