Late last year I took a trip to Holland and visited the Anne Frank house. Suffice it to say, walking through the house was one of the most impactful moments of my life. When I received The House on the Canal by Thomas Harding and Britta Teckentrup a few months later, it felt like fate to interview prolific illustrator Britta about her process. It's my honor to share that process with you all today. Enjoy the read!
About the book:
In the middle of Amsterdam is a house on a canal with a green door. Over four hundred years, it has quietly witnessed love, desperation, and historic change. Sometimes the narrow house was splendidly decorated, humming with life and love; other times, it stood empty, in near ruins. Sometimes the green door was open and inviting; other times, it was closed against cold and plague or to conceal the victims of wartime persecution. The house’s last occupant, a young girl with a sweet smile, would famously document her time there. In her diary, Anne Frank wrote of “the old house on the canal,” and today people come from far and wide to visit what stands as a universal symbol of hope and resilience
Let's talk Britta Teckentrup!
LTPB: How did you become the illustrator of The House on the Canal? What were the first images that popped into your mind when you saw Thomas Harding’s text?
BT: I had already illustrated the first book in this series The House by the Lake – a book about the history of a little wooden house that Thomas Harding’s grandfather built on the outskirt of Berlin in 1927. When the Nazis rose to power the family had to flee Germany and Thomas Harding went back to Berlin in 2013 to visit the abandoned house for the very first time. He researched what had happened to the house during and after WW2 and started to rebuild it. The house is now a Centre for Education and Reconciliation.
Walker Books had asked me to illustrate the book at the time. I am German and live near the house in Berlin and I think that our collaboration is also a symbol of reconciliation. Thomas and I have worked together ever since‚ and The House on the Canal is the second book in a series of currently three books. I am working on the fourth title at the moment.
When I received the text, Thomas also sent me a large number of photographs from the Anne Frank archive. So, there wasn’t really a few first images that popped into my mind – but many. It was fantastic to have all this reference material to work from.
But one of the photographs that touched me the most was an image of Anne Frank’s father standing at the window of the attic where his daughter used to stand, when she was still alive. That photograph holds all the grief he must have felt and touched my heart deeply. I used the image as inspiration for a spread in the book.
LTPB: Can you talk a little bit about your visual research process? Were you surprised by anything you found? What were you most keen to draw into the book?
BT: Getting all of the historic details just right was by far the biggest challenge and a lot of research went into the book. Thomas Harding visited the Anne Frank Huis and various historical archives in Amsterdam and supplied me with lots of reference material – old photographs, old maps of Amsterdam, and architectural details from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The house was built in the early 17th century and we could only roughly imagine how the house might have looked back then. I looked at many Dutch paintings and engravings from that time to be as accurate as possible.
Getting all the costumes and interiors just right was quite a challenge. But illustrating the construction of the Prinsengracht in 1600 was one of the hardest things to research and it took me a little while to get it right,
LTPB: What did you find most difficult in creating this book? What did you find most rewarding?
BT: Illustrating Anne Frank was by far the most difficult as I really wanted to do her justice. I listened to the audio book of the Anne Frank Diary whilst illustrating the book, which helped me to feel close to her. I also created a lot of artworks inspired by the portraits provided. It was difficult and rewarding at the same time.
I have learned so much about Anne Frank, WW2, the history of Amsterdam, architecture and human connection – the whole book project was rewarding!
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?
BT: It always starts with textured, hand-printed papers, which I import into Photoshop to create ‘digital collages’.
My process does not really change that much from book to book. But as I write and illustrate for different age groups the colours and simplicity of my illustrations vary quite a bit. The House on the Canal is for an older age group and the illustrations are quite detailed and the colours are quite subdued.
LTPB: What are you working on now?
BT: I have just received the text and the images for the new book in the’ House series’ – but I can’t tell you which house it is yet, I am afraid. But I do hope that you will love it.
I am also working on a book about loneliness, which is almost finished.
There is also a new book with Walker Books that might involve whales?
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?
BT: Wow – so many great illustrators to choose from. Where do I start?
I have recently bought the book The Bird in Me Flies by Sara Lundberg. It is the fictionalised biography of the Swedish artist Berta Hansson. I do really like Sara’s work - so right now, I would like her to be the illustrator.
A big thank you to Britta for talking to me about this important series. The House on the Canal published in January from Candlewick Studio.
Special thanks to Britta and Candlewick for use of these images!
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