Shirley Hughes What Do Artists Do All Day?

"Dear Shirley Hughes,

"I have loved all your books that I have ever bought

"but Alfie ones are my best.

"I like them because they are funny and nice to read."

"I'm going to write a book review about Dixie O'Day,

"which I can read to other children to encourage them

"to read your book."

Oh good.

"I write half on the bed and half on the table.

"Where do you?"

"I love them" - in big letters.

"Please write more."

I pride myself most on the letters that I get

saying, "We liked your books."

Or, you know, "I remember Dogger when I was little girl

"and now I'm reading it to my kids."

That's lovely. Cos, of course, I've gone through a whole generation.

Dogger was a one-off story, of course,

about the terrible moment when Dogger is lost at bedtime.

I don't use real models for my children in my books,

but I do use real models from toys.

And Dogger is very old, I mean, he is an absolute icon, Dogger.

I mean, he's been...

He's been on show in museums but he's retired now from these.

He's sick of the celebrity circuit.

He just lives quietly in this box.

But, as you see, he belonged to my elder son.

He was given by...

He had him when he was about three.

When he first arrived, his ears were correct, like that.

But he was slept and, of course, as one does, pressed against.

So this ear got forced upwards.

And there it is.

There's Dogger.

When my working day begins,

I get up, do a few exercises,

have some breakfast and then I go upstairs to my workroom

to get ready for the day's work.

So...

Starting off at the drawing board.

It's a moment I always look forward to.

Get my drawing apron on.

And I use gouache colour.

It's got quite a lot of body in it.

It isn't so fragile as watercolour.

This is quite fun squeezing out, you know.

The moment of promise, really, when you think,

"This is going to be the colour of the day."

Hooray.

So, it's a lot of fun.

It's very tactile, this, you know.

And then I'm ready to start.

This is an Alfie book, of course, which I'm working on.

You know, there are many Alfie books out there.

What I am doing is translating a rough

into the finished artwork.

And I think one of the great challenges

is to get that freedom of the rough, which you've done at great speed

and in a high state of excitement,

and here, of course, I'm slowing down

and I've got to do this very meticulously.

This is the very last illustration of a book I'm just finishing.

And it's all about Alfie and Dad.

They have a very close relationship.

And this one is about a little lost cat

and they take in this little lost cat,

and their cat, Chessie, gets very jealous and cross.

It's all about him and Dad and how they resolve the situation.

If you have a character that everybody knows already,

it's a great help.

And Alfie, he'd be...

What? 24 years old now...

SHE LAUGHS ..if he was in real time.

But of course he's still a perennial preschooler

up against the terrible battles, the very serious things

that they have to battle with, which mean a lot,

like getting your shoes on the right feet,

going to a birthday party without your security blanket,

all that kind of thing.

It's very important to a small child.

I'm checking the colour of his sweater

and the fact he's got a check collar. I've got to remember that when I put...

You keep repeating it, you see, and we've got to have continuity.

It's like a little play. He can't come on in a different costume.

Here's the cat, Chessie, looking very, very upset.

Black.

I'll put it on with paint.

All the skill of the storytelling is in the drawing.

And I was taught to draw. I did a lot of life drawing in my time.

Thank God.

You know the way a hand works,

you know the way little fingers stretch.

And the source of everything is keeping a sketchbook.

The text says, "'I think Dilys is a much better name than Tibbles,' said Alfie.

"I wonder if she'll ever come back and visit us again?

"But she never did."

I get a lot of inspiration, of course,

from things that happened in my own family at that age.

We did have a Dilys who went...

She was terrible. She kept disappearing and hearts were broken,

and then she'd turn up again.

And she'd got two people on the go, she'd got two homes on the go.

That's where this story came from, actually.

I always end with a picture

and I will have... the final bit of text will be up there.

A little bit of conversation, just above there.

Right, I think I'm going to have a breather now.

It's a lovely light today.

Marvellous.

We came here in 1954, I think it was.

We moved here when my elder son was a baby, a tiny baby.

And my other two children were born while we were here

and we've been here ever since.

It's a lovely place to work.

Very quiet, you see.

Been terribly happy here, you know, all the time,

John and I, while John was alive.

And now, you know, I'd hate to go anywhere else.

Hate to go anywhere.

I love it here.

Hopefully here till I pop my clogs.

SHE LAUGHS

I knew that my own books were going to be rooted in reality

because I had this feel for drawing young children, I suppose.

Alfie has a mum and a dad

and a little baby sister who is only just beginning to walk and talk,

Annie Rose.

And he has a perfectly ordinary family.

He's got a best friend, Bernard, who's pretty cool, really.

Somebody once said to me, of course, when they're 16,

Bernard's going to get the girl.

Poor Alfie will be a bit more...

This is about the moment when Alfie gives the door a big slam,

just like that.

"'Open the door, Alfie,' said Mum.

"Alfie didn't know how to open the door. He couldn't reach the catch."

A lot of the time, you're trying to pretend

that that gutter, where the sewing is down the middle, isn't there.

You flow across it.

But in this case, I used it as part of the story.

Of course, I was thinking of the old silent-movie trick, you know,

where they had a split screen

with those Marx Brothers films and everything.

You could see one person inside and the other person outside.

I mean, a book is a wonderful piece of technology.

Absolutely superb.

I mean, you can do anything with it.

And even the tiniest child knows that this is outside, here.

And he's inside.

And all I had to do was draw that line there.

They can look at pictures long before they learn to read.

And that's what's so nice about being an illustrator.

The thing about a picture book, of course, is it is a little theatre

except you've got complete control over everything.

You're the lighting,

costume designer,

stage director, the lot.

I want children to learn how to look, how to linger over a picture

and not rush through,

flicking from page to page.

They have a lot to cope with in terms of having to be quick reactors

and I think the enjoyment of art

is something that you enjoy just by looking carefully

and looking as long as you like.

One of my great heroes was Arthur Rackham.

He was one of the classic illustrators

from another era, of course.

And I really pored over these.

These were colour plates, you know.

They have a text and then you turn this tissue paper

and there was this lovely colour plate.

Wonderful illustrator, he was, very classic.

There's Peter Pan. He's flown off out of the window

and he's gone into Kensington Gardens

and having a conversation with a crow sitting in a tree.

And there's some mice down below.

Complete contrast would be Edmund Dulac.

Fairy tales, Cinderella.

Look at that.

Beautiful illustration.

You read the text and then you came to this wonderful moment

you got the colour plate.

So, it's a lot to look at.

I mean, you're looking at the main scene,

and you're also looking at all these people aghast in the background.

I used to try and learn something from them.

A tremendous influence on me, of course, were comics.

We had very nice little comics,

you know, Tiger Tim and the Bruin Boys and all that.

And then suddenly the moment came when I was in the Second World War,

and the GIs arrived in Liverpool

and with them came the American comics.

And of course, these were for adults.

I was in my late teens, really starting to look at art.

It's an amazingly funny...

But look at that.

I mean, just one picture with the little silhouette of the city below

and there's somebody floating off in a bath tub, then whoosh!

They're all coming out and woke up in bed.

It's a dream, of course.

Oh, they were such good artists.

Full of ideas.

You learn about line but most of all you learn about telling a story.

Which is what I'm doing, in a different sort of way.

Of course, the whole emphasis in this picture

is that Alfie's legs are too short.

His legs are just dangling.

His little legs don't reach the ground.

That... SHE SIGHS

Dad's got to look very relaxed.

There we are.

Oh, we've got his mug.

I thought we'd have the old trad.

Blue and white stripes, I think.

Then we've got a bit of a glow, a bit of shine on the mug.

So, there's Dad's cuppa.

Of course, all the interest of the story

and a lot of the story is told, particularly to the non-reader,

is in the expression on the faces.

This has got to...

Their faces have got to express a sort of real contentment

and happiness that it's all come off right in the end.

I do lick my brush, I'm sorry to say.

Bad habit, really.

OK.

Now, the final thing is to have a very sharp pencil.

And just crisp up all the detail,

particularly important on the expression.

Because where I've put a little bit of the paint

may have covered up a little bit of the expression

and I have to bring it back up again here.

This is the finale.

This is the end piece. So, of course,

they've achieved what they hoped to achieve.

The stray cat is now restored to its owner,

and Alfie's got his dear Chessie back...

..on his lap,

so they are very relaxed and pleased with themselves

that it's all worked out so well.

So, this is a lovely moment where, like at the end of the film,

you leave the happy ending.

OK, that is the last...

There he is.

There is...

There it is. Finished.

There we are.

Last brushstroke.

And there they are,

happy at the end.

Happy ending.

And for me, the end of about nine months' work.

Good.

So, my hat on.

I always wear a hat.

They say...

..if you want to get ahead...

..get a hat.

I think I'll go down the market now.

I've never held down a regular job.

SHE LAUGHS I can't write an office job.

I can't write a sort of Mad Men-type story, can I, really?

As much as I might want to.

I just write family stories because that's what I know about.

It's a marvellous day.

Perfect weather today.

I mean, I walk about a lot and I wander around in the afternoons

and sometimes ideas come to me.

MUSIC: All That Meat And No Potatoes by Fats Waller

Hello, there. Here I am again.

-So, we have this one...

-This one's all right, yeah, I'll have this one.

-Yeah?

-That's great, yeah. OK, wonderful.

Thank you very much.

In earlier times, I used to go to Italy a lot with John,

with my husband. He was an architect.

He did a lot of architectural drawing

and he was a very good photographer. I can't use a camera.

So, I was always sitting around, just drawing the people.

I just have done a lot of life drawing,

a tremendous amount of observation.

I don't take photographs.

I do look very hard at people

and I've done a lot of sketching.

These books are for what you call, I think they call, emergent readers.

It's like the moment when you...

you've enjoyed picture books

and you start to move on to something

which you read to yourself.

-Hello, darling.

-Hello, how are you?

-I'm fine.

-Good, good.

-Come in, come in.

The sun is shining.

Clara, my daughter.

We together got this idea about the Dixie O'Day stories

and I knew from the start

that I was completely unable to illustrate these myself.

I can't do cars and all that stuff.

I haven't got the right comic feel.

You need to go through the proofs and check with one last eagle-eye...

-Yes.

-..before they get sent off to the printers.

-Yes,

-because they're going to go off soon, aren't they?

-They're going to go off, so we'll do that.

-Yes.

This is the new one.

-Yes.

-I really do like the way you've done the bike.

-Thank you very much.

-It was a bit of a masterstroke.

-They're really hard to draw.

-The spokes, the pedals, the whole thing.

-A nightmare.

-That's why I...

-It's very challenging.

But it's a specially adapted bicycle.

-Yes.

-For Percy's little legs.

-Yes, it's good, isn't it?

This is all looking fine.

Yeah, it's looking...

That, I love that.

As it's a summer book, he's in his warm tweeds.

Yeah, and he's got his tweeds on!

They've got good helmets which allow for the ears to come through.

That was the big question we asked ourselves, wasn't it?

Ears out or ears in the bicycle helmets?

-And I'm glad we opted for out.

-I do, because the ears are rather expressive.

-They're good. Dixie's ears streaming back, Percy's ears perkily out.

-SHIRLEY LAUGHS

I think the next one really

is going to be Dixie O'Day On The Move.

-On The Move.

-Yes.

-That's fantastic.

-He thinks he wants to go and live in this new place and leave his home

-and start up there in a beautiful house.

-Mmm.

What was it called?

-We called it...

-Windy Ridge.

-It's very remote.

-Yes.

There's a lot of going away

and finding you don't want to be where you are and coming home again

-in these stories, isn't there?

-Yes, I'm afraid that's rather my childhood experience.

I didn't like going away from home much.

Neither did you.

No, neither did I.

I always remember when you were little, fetching you from places.

-Yes.

-Where was it you had to go to?

-Oh, the horrid residential music camp.

-Residential music camp. THEY SIGH

-Right, let's get some lunch.

-Lunchtime.

-Lunchtime.

I think we need something to eat, don't you?

So, this is very smelly cheese, is that all right?

No, it smells good.

-Lovely.

-Yeah.

She was the one that always knew she wanted to be an artist, you know.

I used to...

I didn't teach her.

I didn't teach her anything. She used to watch what I was doing.

But one thing I did do was,

when I had the paints left in my palette at the end of the day,

I used to leave them there for her.

And she used to come and use my brushes

and she did her own painting.

It was rather like scraping the icing round the bowl

when you've made a cake, you know.

You give it to your kid to scrape the bowl.

She was using up my paints.

I don't know whether you deliberately or accidentally

put us into your books when we were young.

-Put our faces into your pictures.

-No. No.

-You didn't put our stories into your stories?

-No, no.

I didn't particularly want them to be you or Ed or Tom. Mmm.

-But when I look at Annie Rose...

-SHIRLEY LAUGHS

-..with her round face and her reddish brown curls...

-Yes.

..I'm sorry, I've got to challenge you

because I just think...

I just see myself in that little face.

I do. I just...

-I just do.

-Yes.

Alfie is very patient with Annie Rose, really,

-cos she can be a bit of a pain.

-Mmm.

So, I'll see you at the weekend.

-Saturday or Sunday?

-Yes.

People always ask me, are the children in your stories...?

Is Alfie one of your own children at that age?

And I say, the answer to that is absolutely not.

He's not.

He's a pure figment of my imagination.

Right.

Well, I'm just going out in the garden.

I've got my sketchbook.

And I'm going to see what's happening out here.

Drawing is terribly important.

I mean, the memory of the real sketchbook work I do all the time...

..feeds into the work that I do when I'm trying to imagine

what Alfie's looked like when he's running...

very excited, or standing where he's looking rather unsure of himself.

You know, all that is...

That comes from observation.

So, I sit around with a sketchbook...

..and draw real children.

The emotion comes from observation of people.

You go out into the park

and there are all these children playing, you know.

They are actually... Their gestures, it isn't just their face,

it's the way they crouch, all crouched down together

when they're looking at something very intently

and then they all jump up and run off like a flock of starlings,

you know. Or the way they stand when they're rather unsure of themselves,

and somebody's playing and leaving them out, you know

and this kind of thing. And all those gestures.

The way their feet go when they're a bit nervous, you know,

and then when they're wildly joyous

and they're flinging themselves into the air.

It's lovely.

Can I see your writing?

-Yeah.

-That's good.

Yes. Do you like it?

I'm drawing Thomas. He's been very patient.

Do you want to go and stand in the picture?

We've got two now.

In olden days, you know, if you've ever been in an art gallery,

you see these little princes and princesses

in terribly posh clothes and they stood there for hours and hours.

Without moving for hours.

SHE CHUCKLES

I think it's done now.

-Can I see?

-You can.

Do you want to come round and have a look?

So, when I'm next drawing a book in a story in a book,

I won't have any models at all.

But I will look through my sketchbook

and I'll see this picture of you and I'll see the way you're standing,

and, you know, I might just work it in somewhere.

-So, that's how I do it.

-OK.

-That's what illustrating is about.

-So, like, you get your ideas from your sketchbook?

-Yes, that's absolutely it.

-Thanks so much, boys.

-Bye.

-Bye.

Crikey.

I can't imagine a life without drawing.

And you're touching wood when you get old like me.

Your sight... My sight's OK.

Yeah.

I think there's another Alfie book on the way.

Yes.

I keep thinking maybe I'll come to the end,

maybe I won't be able to think of one,

but I think there is an idea at the back of my mind.

But I'm not talking about it the moment. SHE LAUGHS

If my imagination dried up, then I'd have to retire, wouldn't I?

But it hasn't yet.

I'm glad to say.

Fingers crossed.

MUSIC: My Very Good Friend The Milkman by Fats Waller