Illustrating the spooky and bewitching world of Aveline Jones

In this interview, Keith Robinson, illustrator of the Aveline Jones series, tells us about his inspiration and how he illustrated the the covers for these bewitching stories.

Hi Keith, thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions about what it is like to be an illustrator. We’d love to start by hearing about how you came to this work! How long have you been illustrating for? What inspired you to become an illustrator? Did you go to art school, or are you self-taught?

I’ve always enjoyed telling stories with pictures and I used to write and illustrate my own ‘books’ when I was little. I've been a children’s illustrator since 2012, but I came to it the long way round. After graduating in graphics and illustration in 1992, I worked as an animator on some of the earliest digital media productions. In 1995 I joined the BBC as a designer and later set up a creative agency with a group of friends. Then finally I returned to my first love and decided to pick up my pencils in earnest again. An art school education gave me a solid foundation in drawing, but after such a long break from it, I suppose I also became self-taught, in a way. I’ve always kept a sketchbook, but I wanted to get better at drawing from imagination – especially the human figure, so I bought a lot of anatomy books and ‘How To’ manuals. I practised and experimented a lot and produced some really awful work along the way! It’s only been in the last five years or so that I’ve been making work I’m relatively happy with. But I love the fact there’s always more to learn and things you can improve. That’s what keeps it interesting!

You create incredibly atmospheric covers, with a strong sense of seasons and nature. Where do you get your inspiration from?

I live in the Southwest of England, near the seaside town of Lyme Regis. The beautiful coast and countryside here, and the wilds of nearby Dartmoor are a constant source of inspiration. I try to get out walking as much as I can and I’m always aware of the rhythms of the natural world – the habits of birds and animals, changes in the light and the weather, the turning of the seasons. It’s a very atmospheric place to live and I hope some of that comes through in my work.

Actually, the settings of the Aveline books feel very familiar to me. Lyme Regis shares many similarities with the fictitious town of Malmouth, which Aveline visits in the first book and there are also lots of mysterious ancient sites and stone circles on Dartmoor, much like the ‘Witch Stones’ in Aveline’s latest adventure. I think that familiarity was a big help when illustrating the covers.

We’d love to know about your process – how do you go about illustrating book covers like those in the Aveline Jones series?

Before illustrating a cover, I like to read the book – which seems obvious but it’s not always possible, as sometimes I’ll be doing the illustration before the final text is ready. Luckily, I was able to read both Aveline books and was inspired by them straight away! I begin by making notes and very rough scribbles in my sketchbook before doing more detailed sketches to share with the publishing team. At this stage I also do lots of research to find reference material. When everyone is happy with the sketches I often do a colour rough to establish a basic palette, as the choice of colours is important to the overall mood and atmosphere of a piece. I paint the final artwork digitally in Photoshop, but I usually combine this with hand drawn textures and elements that I scan-in, like the crows for example.

Did the final covers look very different from initial sketches? How easy was it to visualise Aveline? Do you like that part of the evolution of design?

The designer at Usborne, Katharine Millichope, gave me a very clear brief for the first book, which set the tone for the whole series. It made visualising Aveline much easier. It’s actually one of the smoothest projects I’ve worked on. There can often be several sketches and revisions before everyone’s happy with a cover, but with Aveline, we pretty much hit the ground running. Both covers are unusual, in that I went straight to roughing things out in colour, rather than doing pencil sketches first. Apart from becoming more refined, the final covers didn’t change too much from those initial colour roughs - largely thanks to the clarity of Kath’s initial guidance. It’s not always that straightforward!

The early sketch stage is exciting, as anything is possible, but I also find it quite taxing for the same reason! I think I’m happiest when all the tough choices have been made and I have a clear idea of where I’m going. Then I can just enjoy the process of bringing the final illustration to life.

 Are there illustrations from books you read as a child that have stayed with you?

Oh, there are lots! I think the earliest is probably from the Pogles Wood Annual, based on the old children’s TV show. I still have the book and the illustrations instantly transport me back to being a 5-year-old. There was one story about a witch that I found very scary and those illustrations in particular stay with me. (I can’t find a credit for the illustrator, but they’re based on the designs of Peter Firmin, who with Oliver Postgate also created The Clangers and Bagpuss, amongst others.) As a young reader I devoured the Narnia books and the illustrations by Pauline Baynes were a big part of getting lost in that world. In The Voyage of The Dawn treader, the children are transported to Narnia through a painting of the eponymous ship. I remember carefully copying the ship from the cover of the book and staring at my picture in the hope I would get to Narnia as well!

Did you feel a sense of responsibility creating spooky images that would stay with this generation of readers?

I hadn’t thought of it like that, but you’re right, it is a responsibility!

Somehow, the editions of books that you grew up with are the ‘right’ ones, aren’t they? I’ve gone around second-hand bookshops, looking for the versions of much-loved books that I had as a kid – the ones with the ‘right’ cover instead of later imposters! (In particular, the Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper with wonderful covers by Michael Heslop.)

With the covers and inside illustrations for the Aveline books, I’ve tried to capture the atmosphere of the stories in a way that does justice to Phil’s brilliant writing and adds something to the reading experience. It would be amazing to think that in years to come, readers might look back on them with the same fondness that I have for the illustrations I grew up with.

When you’re not illustrating book covers, what other projects do you work on? Do you have a favourite kind of project?

As well as making covers I love doing interior illustrations. I really enjoy working in black and white, especially for making spooky images like the illustrations for the Aveline books. My favourite projects are those with spooky, fantasy, folklore or nature themes. Basically, I love drawing the same kinds of things that I love reading!

I also have an ongoing personal project, which I call ‘Liminal’. It’s a series of drawings which explore the ‘rural eerie’: The uncanny feeling you sometimes get from the natural world - maybe on a desolate hillside or in a shadowy wood – the sense that something else is going on, just beyond reach. It’s quite different to my illustration work but also connected. The more of these drawings I make, the more it feels like there’s a story waiting to be told, so I’m hoping to turn it into a book someday.