Local illustrator and author Laura Shallcrass will launch her latest book for children at the Queenstown Writers Festival this November.
It’s an exciting time for the author, who has already had great success with her first book for children, Hare and Ruru.
The book is about Hare, who’s suffering from a mental malady Hare describes as ‘noise’. His symptoms include runaway thoughts, loud feelings and general anxiety. Luckily, Hare’s friend Ruru has a solution.
It’s published by Beatnik and there’s an English language and a Te Reo Maori edition. The book won the Russell Clark Award for Illustration at the 2021 NZ Book Awards.
Laura’s next book, What Colour is the Sky? will be released in November. But Laura very nearly didn’t become an illustrator.
When she was younger, Laura didn’t think of herself as an artist. She enjoyed design in high school so chose to study it at university. There, she started exploring different technical areas of design, like computer graphics. During her studies, Laura saw an art exhibition that inspired her to delve into the wonderful world of illustration.
“Every year, Massey University does an exhibition of the final year students’ work. I went along to that and I realised that what I was drawn to most was the illustration work.
“From then on, I decided I was going to add illustration into my degree. It was a little bit last-minute. I was halfway through a term studying computer graphics when I switched to illustration. And I loved it. I knew as soon as I started that this was what I wanted to do.”
Laura’s had a portfolio career, oscillating between creative pursuits. She’s held art exhibitions and created designs for many well-known brands.
“I’ve switched from full-time artist to full-time illustrator and back again about five times over. Just when I think I’ve found my trajectory, it changes again. But I love that. I’d get bored if I didn’t change. I love art and I love illustration and though they are different, they complement each other.”
Hare and Ruru
Laura came up with the idea for Hare and Ruru ten years ago, around the time her eldest son was born. It was her first foray into the world of storybook writing and publishing.
“A lot of that time was spent turning ideas over in my head. Then there were about two years of really solid production stuff – churning out illustrations and finding the right style.”
In the end, Laura found the perfect illustration style through using a mix of design disciplines gleaned from her creative and commercial work.
“I went through a couple of different styles before I found the one that really stuck. […] I’d done some commercial illustrations for the local craft beer brand Cargo Brewery in this style and I thought it would work for the book.
“The illustrations are a little bit like Japanese woodcut in style, but the way they are produced is quite different. The flat colour is a Vector image. Then I do an outline using a pencil effect on top. So it’s a combination of Vector and Bitmap, which I really enjoy using and I find I’m easily able to communicate through that.
“I like flat colour and very simple colour palettes. Too much colour freaks my eyes out, I’m drawn to muted palettes. The beautiful pencil lines add texture. I’ve managed to bring together two different parts of my art practice in the one image.”
Laura pitched to publishers and eventually found Beatnik, a New Zealand publisher known for its immaculately produced books.
“I really click with the people at Beatnik, there’s never a drama and I feel we’re on the same page.”
What colour is the sky?
Beatnik is also the publisher of Laura’s upcoming book, What colour is the sky?
In it, Hare and Pihoihoi are enjoying a beautiful dawn breaking over the meadow when Pihoihoi wonders aloud, ‘What colour is the sky?’. Hare thinks it’s blue but soon discovers that the other creatures have different ideas.
“It’s about perspectives and respecting other people’s opinions. It’s about realising that everybody has reasons to believe in different things and that’s okay.
“I came up with the idea before 2020, but it is a response to everything that happened that year too. My mum is American and I have lots of family in the States and I was appalled by the Trump presidency. And how divided everything has become. I’m a pretty staunch lefty, but I don’t write off the opinions and thoughts of people who think differently to me. And I feel like that is something we have lost a little bit… I think a bit more bridge-building is required and that’s where I was going with this.
“[…] I go through this in the back of the book – there is a legitimate reason why the hedgehog thinks the sky is brown.”
What colour is the sky? will be launched in November 2021 at a Queenstown Writers Festival event, where Laura will talk about her writing, illustrations and the process behind creating books for children. Registration is recommended. Copies of the new book will be for sale at the event.
This article is by Bethany Rogers and was originally published in the Lakes Weekly Bulletin. It has been republished with permission.
