Activity 8: 'I'm illustrating a very long and complicated text about a business, which was historically very important, but nowadays people know nothing about - the whaling business.'

• Do you think the mark of a good illustration is that the details are right (what is called 'authenticity')? Or do you think an illustrator shouldn't have to travel and observe, but can just draw what they feel or imagine?

Patrick Benson's View

JE: What is it that you really enjoy about being an illustrator? What's going to make you keep on illustrating?

Patrick Benson: The buzz for me is to come across good writing. When I read a manuscript I like I get pictures in my head. As I probably said before, the measure of an illustrator is both in his visual interpretation of the text and in his ability to convey those ideas successfully on a piece of paper, creating this world in which the story happens.

I had illustrated books as a child, about subjects like Napoleon, Louis XV or Joan of Arc. As a child I was fascinated by these images and I think that's where the idea of being an illustrator came from. I'm interested in illustrating for a wide age group. I'm interested in doing stuff for young children because I think books are very important to them. Lots of the books I've done are about being small, frightened, different, being nervous of the world and how, as a small, frightened, lonely person do you overcome that fear and survive. I like the challenge of having to come up with a visual solution to illustrate that problem in a way that children will look at and understand.

JE: Do you have a very good memory of your own childhood?

Patrick Benson: Yes. I think I do. When you read text it reminds you of those feelings you had. And then the interesting thing to do is to try and put that down as an illustration. That's one sort of work that one is asked to do. I'm working on Moby Dick at the moment and this is a different sort of thing. I'm illustrating a very long and complicated text about a business, which was historically very important, but nowadays people know nothing about - the whaling business. They don't know about the sort of ships people went out on; what it would've been like to be on a boat of that size; what it would've been like to kill a whale of that scale, three times longer than the boat you were in. How do you capture the whale, tie it to the boat, and cut it up in order to render into oil for domestic lighting purposes? As an illustrator I've got to be able to do that.

JE: So there's a lot of research?

Patrick Benson: There's a certain amount of research, and a certain amount of technical problems you need to overcome.

JE: You went to America didn't you, to do some research? Do you often travel to do research?

Patrick Benson: No, but as an illustrator you are constantly absorbing what you see. It all goes into the visual memory bank and when you read, it's like you're given keys to your memory file. I've travelled quite a lot, which has been a good thing. I've been to New Zealand and seen sperm whales, so for Moby Dick that was useful. I've been to Egypt and in one book I had to illustrate the line 'Roger the Rich went stilt walking down the Nile', in a Baron Munchausen book. In order to convey to the reader that this completely ridiculous thing was true, I had to illustrate the Nile, which I've been to. I've walked down the banks of the Nile in the evening sunlight and I've seen the colour the palm trees go when the sun sets over the desert. I've got this visual memory in my head and so it's an interesting thing to be asked to illustrate. And that excites me.

JE: So do you think that will continue to excite you? You can't see yourself changing direction, writing for example?

Patrick Benson: No. A lot of illustrators are good at writing. I'm not. It's not the thing that I do naturally. I'd love to be able to write well because, apart from anything, one is then in control of a project.but it's a very hard thing to write for children. And, boy, do you know it when you come across good writing.

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