Let's Talk Illustrators #366: Byron Eggenschwiler

I am so pleased to present my in-depth chat with Byron Eggenschwiler about the gorgeous-from-top-to-bottom Unnaturally Blue, written by Dorson Plourde! This book is seriously beautiful with a keen attention to design detail, and it was an honor getting a chance to talk to Byron about how it all came together. Enjoy!!

About the book:

A young swimmer panics in a crowded community pool, and it feels like there isn't even any room for her tears. Out of place where she was once at home, the girl swims down, down, into the deepest deep ... and embarks on a surrealist journey to the swampy world under the under. As she rests there with her feelings, the girl finds power in embracing who she is - even the swampiest parts. And her triumphant return to the pool inspires the other children to be their truest selves, too.

Peek underneath the dust jacket:

And check out the endpapers:

Let's talk Byron Eggenschwiler!

LTPB: How did you become the illustrator of Unnaturally Blue? What were the first images that popped into your mind when you saw Dorson Plourde’s text?

BE: I have worked with Kids Can Press on a few other books over the past years and they thought I would be a good fit for this one so they reached out to me. I was really drawn to the flowing and abstract elements of this story and how it addresses the topic of anxiety. The idea of a character travelling through this unexpected emotional and physical transformation is what got me excited to work with it.

I think one of the things I thought of was Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”. When our story starts our main character is in a swimming pool suddenly experiencing this new feeling out of nowhere. Though my work looks way different, I wanted to capture a small amount of that swirling dread and emotion he conveys with that painting in the beginning of this story.

LTPB: What did you find most difficult in creating this book? What did you find most rewarding?

BE: A trickier part working on this book for me was that for a lot of areas our main character spends a bit of time floating along in water. It took a lot of playing and reworking elements on the page to make sure these sequences were as engaging as possible and conveyed the emotions needed for Dorson’s poetic words.

This book was a highly collaborative process between me, the editor, and the designer from beginning to end. Having that input was incredibly valuable—sometimes you really need another set of eyes to help you see the work in a new way. I had a few pages that were not quite working and finally they suggested flipping the perspective to the reader and characters viewpoint, not something I had thought of but it really helped bring much needed life to those areas.

Another of my favourite parts of this book came about at the end when the designer, Andrew Dupuis, suggested we do some varnish for the cover to help give more of a underwater vibe to it. It’s the kind of detail that makes me love holding and owning physical books, those extra little tactile touches that you can’t experience when viewing on a screen.

LTPB: What is the first thing you do when you receive a new project? How do you make a conscious effort to tailor your illustration style to each new manuscript?

BE: I really don't know what kind of book it will be until I have spent a bit of time with it. The best part of a new project is the beginning, when I have no concrete ideas about what it will turn into and am just throwing things at the wall until something sticks. But for me, each project starts out the same, with a lot of sketching little thumbnail images and letting my mind meander. I don't really like getting too far ahead of myself with a drawing or idea until it feels good in a small stamp like size. Most of the time I don’t like having the character's design too locked in until I have a basic blueprint for the story.

I think a big part of how a book will look is where I am at the time. Sometimes I am coming off doing a book that has a certain approach and I want to try something new or maybe I want to use a technique from my personal work. But mostly the look of each book sort of emerges on its own. In this story the main character descends into an old swamp and left alone in a vast emptiness. I think the image for that came about as a quick sketch while reading through it the first time. I love the swamps from movies from my childhood like “Labyrinth” or The Princess Bride” where they look very clearly like a stage set with big styrofoam trees and smoke machines pumping out fog just off camera. That inspiration helped serve as a jumping off point for the visual mood I wanted for this book.

LTPB: What did you use to create the illustrations in this book? Is this your preferred medium? How does your process change from book to book?

BE: I usually start with sketches in a sketchbook, but most of the book was created in Photoshop using a Cintiq tablet. Being able to bump things around and play with colour, maybe to a fault, is something I like to be able to do during the whole process. I still get a little nervous about starting a final piece and having this freedom to play around and undo things if needed allows me to jump in a lot easier.

I spent many years mainly as an editorial illustrator working on a variety of articles. I found having just one approach was hard, sometimes I would work with silly light stories and other times very dense emotional or serious articles. I find it freeing to be flexible in how I approach these different subjects with different techniques.

When I have the time, I love working with paint and screen printing. Experimenting with tactile elements has affected how I work digitally. A lot of the way I work is based on screen printing and layering flat colours on top of one another. The computer just lets me push that a lot farther than I can otherwise. That said, I’d love the opportunity to create a book one day using a fully screen printed approach because you just can’t replicate how the ink blobs onto a real piece of paper.

LTPB: What are you working on now? Anything you can show us?

BE: I am juggling a few projects at the moment in varying stages. In a few months I have another book called The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt's Winter Surprise coming out in August, a sequel to The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt with Riel Nason, and I am just getting started on a third one. Plus I am wrapping up a tale of a little spider’s adventure, but I can’t share anything on that just yet.

LTPB: If you got the chance to write your own picture book autobiography, who (dead or alive!) would you want to illustrate it, and why?

BE: This question brings pure panic because I wouldn’t even know where to begin, there are so many amazing illustrators out there. He is not a children’s book illustrator but I love the work of Jon McNaught. He captures the quiet and simple moments in life so well and it would be fun to see his take in the picture book world. I recently got a nice book on Kay Nielson so he is on my mind. His classic fairy tale inspired imagery is definitely an overly dramatic choice for my life story but i'd love to see it.

 

A pool-sized thanks to Byron for stopping by to share more about this book! Unnaturally Blue publishes today from Kids Can Press!

Special thanks to Byron and Kids Can Press for use of these images!

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