I’ve always loved writing and illustrating. I’ve got sketchbooks filled with weird little characters I made up when I was little. My favourite is a comic I made about an egg called Smeg. It was a word I used to find pant-wettingly hilarious. I was also obsessed with cringy jokes as a kid. My earliest creation was a plagiarised version of the Marks and Spencer Jolly Joke Book, which was for a long time my favourite book. I loved the drawings in them and spent way too many hours staring at them and learning the jokes by heart.
I have a really strong memory from when I was about 8 or 9 where I was drawing and thinking : «When I grow up, I want to do this ALL day!» It was remembering that memory - after my son, Oscar, was born - that spurred me on to give illustrating a go.
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| My first book, aged 5 |
I’d always been more confident about writing and when I left university, I started writing a children’s novel, I thought it was going to be the next Harry Potter (I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what my submission letters actually said). I sent off the first few chapters and got interest from quite a big agent who wanted to see more. THIS IS IT! I thought. There was only one HUGE problem : I hadn’t finished it! I had done the worst thing a writer can do. Then I did the second worst thing a writer can do. I rushed off an ending, sent it off and never heard from her again...Of course.
I carried on after that but I was also on the verge of setting up my own business - an English language school for French kids, which then grew very quickly. In between running that, I went on two excellent Arvon courses and received great encouragement from Carol Ann Duffy and Malachy Doyle, to whom I am indebted. It wasn’t until I started doing short illustration courses in Paris that I thought I was actually capable of illustrating my own work. Then I joined SCBWI and went to my first Winchester conference in 2012, where I was given the Best Up and Coming Portfolio Prize. It was just the boost I needed to keep going. I came away from that conference with fantastic advice, namely from Barefoot Books Art Director, Vic Tyler.
Over a year later and I am developing one of my stories with a UK publisher - thanks to the 2013 SCBWI conference. I can’t say anything yet, but hopefully I’ll have good news soon...:-) It all depends on how it does at Bologna. In any case, it’s been such a learning curve and I have received so much valuable advice from the editor and art director I’m working with.
TIPS
I feel a bit of a novice to be giving out tips but what I’ve learnt so far is : make time and space for your creativity and make sure you’re in the right frame of mind for it. I think it was John Cleese who gave a very good talk about creativity and how the brain needs to be relaxed (This is how I convince myself not to work and watch The Good Wife instead, anyway...)
Also, perhaps most importantly of all, don’t give up!
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See Jion's work in the Featured Illustrator Gallery. Her personal website is here, and blog here. She can be reached at jionsheibani@gmail.com
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