In the Author's words

Aesop's The Fox and the Grapes, retold by Pauline Mackay.

Several years ago I was looking for fruit related ideas to build up activities to complement my book ‘Fruit Lane’. One of the characters in that book is called ‘Mr Grape’ and as I was following a fruit trail on the internet, I stumbled across Aesop’s fable ‘The Fox and the Grapes’. I’d already been writing little poems and songs to accompany my different characters, so it’s perhaps no surprise that a ‘Fox and Grapes’ poem started formulating in my head. I rewrote it a few times, but the opportunity to actually use it with reference to my book never arose. Years later, just before Christmas, I was due to run a fruit-related storytelling session with a group of multicultural children.  I remembered my poem but felt it might be a little too advanced for non-native English speakers. So I rewrote it as a short, simple story with plenty of repetition, which mirrors the repetitive jumping of the Fox as he tries to get the grapes.  As it turned out, I didn’t read my retelling of ‘The Fox and the Grapes’, but a different story I’d written about a snowman with a fruity twist! 

Now, finally, it has been produced as a book in many language editions and this fits perfectly with why the story came to exist in its present form. The repetition of language is a crucial element, aiming  to encourage confident reading in native speakers and build familiarity of language in children learning a second language. 

In the original Aesop’s Fable, the Fox is hungry, but mine is thirsty, which gives scope to make the sun almost akin to a character. This is particularly helpful when you only have one character to begin with! This aspect is exploited to maximum effect in Dylan’s illustrations as his fabulous sun gets bigger and more dominant as the story evolves. By the time the Fox is lying on the ground with his tongue hanging out -one of my favorite pictures- the sun is at its most impressive. 

 

Almost, but not quite!

In rewriting the fable, one of the important aspects for me was to expand on the Fox’s attempts to reach the grapes. I imagined the Fox giving himself little pep talks and trying to work out why he wasn’t succeeding. This led to his coming at the grapes from different angles, which was very challenging to depict successfully in the illustrations in a way that could hold the readers’ attention and not be repetitive pictorially although repetitive textually. The many expressions and close-ups of the Fox as he moves around the grapes capture his frustration perfectly. The moment when he just manages to touch them with the tip of his tongue has always been my favorite in the story, so the corresponding illustration never fails to make me smile.  The additional humor of convincing himself the ground is a little higher from one approach to the grapes can be fully appreciated because in the previous picture where ‘the sun is a fire’, Dylan has shown the ground is totally and utterly flat. 

The Sun on fire.

As with many of Aesop’s fables, there isn’t a happy ending. The Fox doesn’t get the grapes. This amazing little tale has reverberated down through the centuries and is still as valid today as it was long ago. Human nature, which Aesop’s animal characters reflect, has not changed! We still have a tendency to turn up our nose at something if we can’t have it and say it wasn’t worth having anyway. Only this time, in ‘The Fox and the Grapes’, the final impression is not necessarily the Fox’s handling of his disappointment, but perhaps the redeeming qualities of that wonderful little hedgehog running after him with a grape!

On sale now from Ablekids Press Available in English and bilingual English with French, Gaelic, German, Italian, Malayalam, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Turkish versions.

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Child's Play

A brilliant little local job came my way recently for a client only a ten minute walking distance away in town.  The closeness of this project allowed me to dust of my folder and bring my I pad and sketch book to the meeting for a face to face meeting to discuss the job.

Most of my work is done via the phone and email, I listen or read the brief make comments, send concepts, respond to feedback and draw finished illustrations a process I’m very good at.  My objective when working remotely is to give the impression to the client that I’m just another part of their workspace, easy to contact and talk too with ideas and artwork ready when needed.  That they can in a sense look over my shoulder and see what I’m doing by giving them updates and sketches to progress the project.  Working remotely can be for the client as involved with what I’m doing as they want to be or if they prefer I can create something with greater latitude then that’s good too.

Lots of commissions can involve me to project manage a lot of what the final art will be and its context.  As some people can be new to asking a freelance illustrator to work with them, with only a bare outline of what they need provided.  Its great and I get a buzz out of guiding this kind of project.  Developing the rapport and work to give them something they wanted but maybe couldn’t articulate preferring me to get there on my own as part of the commission as much as the finished illustration.  

Some of my clients will express a feeling about the kind of image they want and if I can capture that impression the result is very satisfying.  The specifics and detail are left to me and these elements if correctly interpreted in the artwork can capture those feelings and give them the emotional connection to the work that they desired.  

My recent local project to draw the shop front for the children’s shop Puddles and Sun was one such project with latitude to create something the client felt they wanted for their store.  As it was for a local independent retailer I wanted to capture that uniqueness and feel of a special one off experience you get when entering that outlet.  I rendered the illustration in a children’s book style to deliver that sense of magic complete with toys that come alive, children playing, a dragon and of course given our location in Perthshire a Highland cow.  It’s not a typical shop illustration but it suits the shop’s identity and the clients feeling that the artwork needed to have a sense of wonder and creativity.   

 

Puddles and Sun 2013

Puddles and Sun 2013, illustration created in pen and ink with art pen and pencil for some textures with colour added later on the computer.  The artwork was fully layered so that characters could be taken away with new details added.  The flexibility was created to allow a change in format for Facebook and Twitter banner use and for seasonal variations for postcards for you never know when Santa might show up.

Puddles and Sun Facebook and Twitter Banner

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