Where do you begin when illustrating a story?
After I’ve read the story I imagine I’m the narrator. I then pull back as if I’m in the narrator’s mind’s eye, then further back, and higher, too. Now I can imagine seeing both in and outside the narrator’s thoughts. I can see, smell, taste, hear everything. Then I begin to doodle. I do lots of doodles, moving in and out of what may be in the narrator’s imagination – their feelings and their thoughts. I then begin to map out the parallel story – the visual story – the story that isn’t being told in the text but is happening nevertheless.

When did you become an illustrator?
I’ve been drawing and painting since I was a child. Clubs is the first time I’ve collaborated with a writer and actually illustrated a book.

Why do you not write?
I don’t feel fluent enough with language to write, although I do adore words and I love typography (how the lettering of words actually looks). Often before I paint I instinctively order my thoughts with words, but my real language is shapes, colours and symbols. This is the language I use to express an understanding of relationships with people, places, memory and emotion – to tell story.
In the most abstract form, colour can evoke strong emotions. Likewise, with shapes. Some of the portraits in Lolly’s class were shapes that instinctively rang true to the sounds of the children’s names. The shape of the sound matched my feeling for the shape and emotional colour of the person, or the idea of the person formed a shape.

Are the characters in Clubs people you
have known?
The characters that Kate and I create are sometimes based on people we know. The character instinctively feels right for a particular role. Sometimes I wonder if the characters are like our alter egos (our other selves). Typically, Kate developed the characters – the kind of people they are – and then I came on board and together we shaped them further. At some point the characters develop a life of the own – actions, gestures, attitude – they become their own people entirely. As time goes by I get a strong sense that they are real.

Other than working on Lolly Leopold books what do you like doing?
I love to spend as much time in my studio mucking about with paint and ink. Even better if my children are somewhere nearby. Sometimes I show my work at galleries. It’s a different kind of story telling, a very personal one.

How much of yourself is in the story?
There is probably quite a lot of myself in the story. I prefer to keep exactly what to myself. I enjoyed the process so much – as I worked there was lots of laughter, giggles, sniggers and mischievous and weird noises coming from me. I tend to perform a bit as I’m working. It’s very pleasurable. I guess it’s about getting into the role.
Sometimes I had to feel like Ms Love – swagger and lope a little just to feel how her jeans might fit. Or, I had to imagine how it feels to be Laughing Stock, the obese, breathless lump of fur, waiting on the operating table in anticipation of surgery performed by Lolly. In this respect I guess the characters move through me onto the paper.

How do you put it all together?
I create masses of doodles to map out the actual story. I always want to understand the literal situation first, then I start to let the imagination run riot. By creating drawings and backgrounds, I collect endless ‘things’ that are part of that world. What I can’t find, I make. I’ll work feverishly all day and night making the craziest things – like the badges. Finally, I cut everything up and arrange the pieces like a play – all the parts, characters, props and scenery carefully laid in place, as if on a stage. I literally orchestrate all the visual information, attaching everything that belongs to the parallel story of Lolly Leopold. This collage then goes off to be scanned for printing.

Did you belong to a club and are you anything like Lolly?
As a girl I didn’t belong to a club, and I still don’t. I guess I discovered comfort in skirting around the outside of groups – never committing to anyone else’s rules, making my own. At school I loved leading things, standing up in front of the class to tell a tale or demonstrate something crazy. I certainly had a voice and a lot to say. Special teachers gave me a platform and if they didn’t I still found one. When Kate first introduced me to this story she’d written – to Lolly – I certainly identified with her.

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