Part 1: Life as a Picture Book Illustrator
Miyakoshi Akiko and Sydney Smith are two children’s book illustrators, both in their thirties and who live more than an ocean apart. Akiko’s The Way Home at Night won the 2016 Bologna Ragazzi Award, and Sydney’s Town Is by the Sea won the 2018 Kate Greenaway Medal. They met at the Bologna Book Fair and became fans of each other’s works. And they’ve been friends ever since.
In this interview in three parts, we asked Akiko and Sydney to talk about their work and their day-to-day lives as illustrators. This interview was conducted in July 2019.
Interview by Okimoto Atsuko
Translation by Nina Raj
How many years have you been a picture book illustrator?
Akiko: I made my debut with The Storm (BL Shuppan) ten years ago. But I was already creating picture books when I was in art school.
Sydney: I illustrated my first book when I was still in art school, in 2004. So that would be fifteen years ago.
Did you always want to become a picture book illustrator?
Akiko: As I child, I simply loved to draw. I’d do drawings of Nausicaa from Miyazaki Hayao’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind or Komattasan, the character from Teramura Teruo and Okamoto Satsuko’s popular children’s books and give them to my friends. I was the youngest kid in my class but secretly proud because I knew I could draw well. I was in prep school when I first came across Uri Shulevitz’s Dawn. It made the strongest impression on me and made me want to become a picture book illustrator. Once in art school, I did one picture book a year, and every year since I was a sophomore, I submitted my work to the Nissan Children’s Storybook and Picture Book Grand Prix and always won a prize. I was really driven!
Sydney: I was not an especially talented artist when I was young. In my rural Nova Scotian school there were many students who were better than me. But I was encouraged by my parents and other role models to continue what I enjoyed most which was drawing and painting. I drew a lot of things that were unreal, like monsters, and superheroes. There is a special place my mind went when I drew, and that was an escape when I needed a place to be alone.
Do you enjoy your life today as a picture book illustrator?
Akiko: I love it! I wake up in the morning and think, “What am I going to draw today” as I cycle to my studio, which is fifteen minutes away. Some days I go to Iriya to work at a lithograph studio. I work best in the mornings. I concentrate on drawing or line up my work when I am finished and slowly gaze at them. I share my studio with two other illustrators, Hirasawa Tomoko (@HIRASAWA_Tomoko) and Hiraoka Hitomi (@hitomihiraoka). We take breaks and talk, drink tea and snack. I work from around eleven in the morning till late afternoon. When I used to work at home, I’d sometimes work late into the night. But now that I have a separate workplace, I can go home and relax, read a book or watch a TV drama.
Akiko’s studio when she was working on I Dream of a Journey
And you, Sydney?
Sydney: Very much. I recognize that I live a privileged life. I am successfully self-employed, I am an artist and author and a father. I am given freedom to explore, experiment and play. I don’t count the hours of the day until I can stop. When I take breaks from drawing work I draw something for my son.
It is how I define myself as a person and that can sometimes be a problem if the work is not going well. I take it personally when I can’t get something just right. If I wake up refreshed, read something nourishing, and don’t drink too much coffee I can be extremely happy working in the morning.
Something else I’ve noticed is if I exercise, like running, I can come up with some very confident ideas. That can be exciting. My studio is currently in my house. It’s a room off of my kitchen, close to my family. My family is about to get bigger. In just a few weeks we will have a new baby so I am staying close to home, trying to prepare and work on my books.
Sydney’s studio
Do you have items in your studio to inspire you or things that are special to you?
Akiko: A recent drawing or newly published book on the desk of my colleagues, or a bouquet of flowers adds a lovely touch. The studio has been a good change for me--the companionship, the time and space shared, put me in the right frame of mind.
Sydney: I have special brushes, pens, inks and watercolours. They aren’t rare or precious, but maybe to me. There are also stacks of picture books, old and new that I will flip through if I need inspiration.
Akiko’s studio today
The owl next to Akiko’s desk
What constitutes the most satisfying creative moment for you?
Akiko: When I start out, I don’t have a story in mind. I first have a strong image of something or a concept that I want to draw. I then drop the pieces into a story, sort of weave them together. It’s simply wonderful to see what is at first only a vague concept take form in my hands.
Sydney: There is an elusive moment all creators can find themselves in. The moment of self-loss when your ego lets go and your editing mind shuts off. It’s sometimes difficult to predict when it will happen but it’s beautiful when it does. It feels like a collaboration between you and something/someone else. It is sublime.
When you get stuck and need a break and take your mind off your work, is there something you do to relax?
Akiko: If I get stuck, I get stuck, and I try not to push myself. I usually work on three projects at a time, so I switch to another book. If get stuck, I feel the time is not yet ripe. I let the project sit for a while, and sometimes the story will take off in a direction I hadn’t ever imagined. I need time to finish my books each of them has probably taken about three years to finish.
When I get stuck, I go to Isetan, the department store, to look at dresses. I admire the chic shoppers and note the colors they wear. And I steal ideas (!)“What about using that color combination in my next drawing?” And when I can afford the time, I travel. While I was working on I Dream of a Journey, I actually went on a trip to Hawaii, and after I finished the book, I went to Yoron Island, a small island near Okinawa.
Yoron Island, where Akiko went after she finished her book
Sydney: When I get stuck I go to an art gallery or the Osborne Collection.* The Osborne is an archive of children’s books in Toronto. I can always discover something new and beautiful when I visit the archive. There is also a greenhouse garden close to me. It can be very peaceful to wander through its indoor jungle.
*The Osborne Collection, consisting of mostly early children’s books published in the U.K., had its beginnings in the personal collection of Edgar Osborne (1890-1978), a British county librarian, and his wife Mabel. Osborne was so impressed by the work and dedication of Toronto Public Library’s Lillian Smith (1887-1983), that upon the death of his wife, he donated his collection to the Toronto Public Library. The collection continued to grow and currently has over 80,000 books.
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/lillianhsmith/ （@TPLLillianSmith）
Miyakoshi Akiko
Born in Saitama, Japan, in 1982. Graduate of Musashino Art University. Started writing and illustrating picture books while still at university. Lived in Berlin for one year in 2007. Among her works are The Tea Party in the Woods (Kaiseisha, 2010), which was awarded the 17th Japan Picture Book Grand Prix, and The Way Home at Night (Kaiseisha, 2015), which won the Bologna Ragazzi Award and was listed as a New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book. Her other works include The Piano Recital (Bronze Shinsha, 2012), Whose Are These? (Bronze Shinsha, 2013), I Dream of a Journey (Bronze Shinsha, 2018), Room in the Field (Poplar, 2011), and Turning on a Flashlight (Fukuinkan Shoten, 2014). Lives in Tokyo with her daughter.
http://miyakoshiakiko.com
I Dream of a Journey
by Miyakoshi Akiko
“How long has it been since I started running this hotel?” The hotel owner has guests from all over the world, and he yearns to travel when he hears their stories of faraway lands. So one day, he packs a huge suitcase and . . . The soft colors of the illustrations done in lithograph lift the reader away to another world.
See a making of this book at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObZgQ0DN9rc
Sydney Smith
Born in Nova Scotia, Canada,in 1980. Graduate of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. Sidewalk Flowers, by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Sydney Smith (Groundwood Books, 2015), a book with no text, won many honors, including the Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award (Children Literature category) and the New York Times / New York Public Library Best illustrated Children’s Books. Town Is by the Sea (Groundwood Books, 2017), a picture book about a boy who lives in a coal-mining town, won the 2018 Kate Greenaway Medal. Lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.
@Sydneydraws
The Town Is by the Sea
by Joanne Schwartz, illustrated by Sydney Smith
A story about the day in the life of a young boy who lives in a coal-mining town by the sea. The sea takes various hues as the day progresses, and in the evening, the boy’s father comes home from the mines and the family sits in the sea breeze and gazes out at the sea. The preciousness of a typical day is captured in this quiet and heart-warming story with stunning illustrations. A book that will stay with its reader for a long time. Kate Greenaway Medal.
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