Email Interview with Paul Morin

    1) What are some of the important
considerations for you when you are
deciding which books you will illustrate?
 

“Personally, I have always chosen stories which have spirit or perhaps nudge us toward an understanding into the spirit of culture.

I strongly feel we need to preserve cultural diversity and exposing children to all cultures through picture books can help erase prejudice before it gets its ugly little fingers into their minds. I believe it also can expand ones appreciation and at the same time illustrate the universally similar aspects of culture to help show we are all fundamentally the same.

On a personal growth level I have learnt many important life lessons traveling to the countries where the stories are based and this has certainly be a motivator. This process has enriched my ability to see and feel. I really need to "get into" a project to be able to spend upwards of a year painting and the travel experiences as well as the location recordings, photos and video I make while doing the research all help sustain an environment (feeding my inspiration) which gives me the energy to paint.”

    2) How you feel about collaboration between an author of a children's book and the illustrator? (for example, does the illustration change the author's vision for the book? etc.)

“As you know, many times the author and illustrator never talk or meet. I guess that publishers realized early on that artist prefer to have their own vision and are chosen specifically for the way they interpret a subject or setting.

It was a unique experience for me to both write and illustrate "Animal Dreaming" (the Australian Dreamtime story) and I was thinking of the images while I was writing the story...which I did while I was camping around the north of Australia.

For "What the Animals Were Waiting For" I had created most of the art over 8 years earlier and pitched the idea to Scholastic then to Jonathan London (with whom I had just done 2 animal books) who wrote the story around the art. Then I did another batch of paintings to fill in his ideas, it was the only true collaboration I have done like that.

I have been lucky in that most writers are pleased with my vision....or at least that is what I am told.”