Jamie Hogan Interview

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Hello Ms. Yanoff and NY readers!

I am so thrilled to be interviewed and find the questions about illustrating Rickshaw Girl very interesting. I am adding some images along with my responses, since I am a visual person!

First of all, I have never been to Bangladesh. I grew up in New Hampshire. My parents owned a small motel and I liked meeting any other kids that stayed there. Like Naima, I have a sister! Here we are when we were little, always at the pool.

As an illustrator, I get to do some armchair travel, though, with research. This is how I discover how the drawings should look. I do not work with the author. There are editors that work with the author. They work on the manuscript after the author is done writing. Sometimes they edit here and there. Meanwhile, an art director calls an illustrator. In this case, it was Susan Sherman at Charlesbridge Publishing in Watertown, MA. We talked on the phone and e-mailed a lot. She sent me some books about alpanas and Bangladesh villages. I also went to the library. But mostly, I responded to the story. It is a great story, isn’t it? I identified with Naima because I, too, was one of two daughters. No brothers. I was supposed to be a boy named James. Instead, I am a girl named Jamie and I like to draw, just like Naima!

I also listened to Indian music, mostly the soundtrack for “Bend it LIke Beckham” about an Indian girl living in England.

I was dancing around my studio in between sketching for this book.

I like to draw from lots of different sources so besides books on Bangladesh I also had my daughter and her friend pose for me.

Sometimes it takes A LOT of sketches to get the final illustration just right. Here is an example of the process.

This was my first sketch of Naima for the title page. When the story starts she is doing her washing chores. With a washing machine? No!

Then the art director said she needed a scarf on her head.

You can see the art director’s comments in the margin of the layout. I can’t do my drawing just any size. It must fit the design of the book. My “composition” is how I arrange the parts of my drawing into the “layout” of the pages. I learned about design and drawing in art school. I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and illustration was my major. Now I teach illustration at Maine College of Art. And I always talk about good composition with my students!

The art director said I couldn’t show the clothes touching the ground because that is against their custom.

At that point, I got a model. My daughter was 9 at the time, a bit younger than Naima, but I needed to see how the hands and posture would look.

So I went back to my drawing, which I do with charcoal pencil. I like charcoal because it is REALLY black. It has great contrast on the white paper. It is also soft, so it can smudge a bit. I like being able to have soft edges and sometimes crisp edges in my lines. I use Canson Mi-tiente paper that has a slightly rough surface, so the drawings have texture.

I like my illustrations to look like something done by hand, not as slick as a computer, although I do use a computer to scan my drawing when I am done. Then I can e-mail it to anybody, like you!

Here is the final illustration for the title page.

Yes, the small drawings at the beginning of each chapter are alpanas. I had so much fun drawing them. You should try drawing some, too. They often have hearts and swirls, and spirals. Try it!

The art director did not tell me what to draw. She gave me the story all set in book type but with empty spaces all through the story. So I decided what would be best to show. I couldn’t resist drawing Naima when she was mad at Saleem, because he gets to ride his father’s rickshaw and she can’t. It’s fun to draw people making faces.

I got a model again, my daughter’s friend, Nirmala. She was born in Nepal, which shares a tiny border with Bangladesh to the east.

See how messy my sketches are? I get charcoal all over my hands and have to wash them so I don’t get everything smudged. Again, the art director wanted some changes. Nirmala was busy so I had my daughter pose with a scarf for the final illustration.

Nirmala made a better face, though! And even with a photo right in front of me, I have to use my imagination.

There are other ways to get immersed in the story. I found a doll that a friend gave us years ago. It became Rashida’s

doll and I bring her along whenever I visit a school. Here she is on our bed. Guess who likes patterns!

After doing all the inside sketches in black and white, I worked on the cover which would be color. I don’t always work in just black and white. The inside illustrations were done in charcoal pencil on white paper, but the cover was done on colored paper, and I used gouache (pronounced gwash) which is a watercolor paint for the alpana painting. The other color is done with pastels, which are like very bright chalk. They come in sticks that are soft and turn to powder on the paper. The colored dust gets all over my studio. I love to make a mess.

Here is where I sing the praises of librarians. Librarians are like guru guides to the universe. I love them! The librarians at my local branch library are always helpful and suggest things I never would think of. Priscilla Webster at the Peaks island Library suggested I see the movie “My Architect” because it has a scene at the end in Bangladesh. Who knew?

I watched the whole thing. It is a documentary about the filmmaker’s father, Louis Kahn, a famous architect. The son didn’t really get to know his father, so he traveled all over filming the buildings he built and learned about him. When he visited Bangladesh and spoke to some local people, it was very moving. My heart was RIGHT THERE.

And that’s how I felt about Mitali’s story. She wrote it with all the senses and I felt right there, with my heart in my throat, when Naima’s father comes to find her at the rickshaw shop.

After I watched the movie, I took some still photos of some scenes with rickshaws in them.

Can you hear the noise? The policeman’s whistle, the honking horns, the people laughing?

I also really like the signs. I like the mystery of the shapely letters. I can’t read any of it. Can any of you?

I did 6 sketches for the cover. This was one in which I tried to mimic the lettering.

But the art director didn’t pick this one. She thought it looked too typical and decorative.

I looked at some reference she sent for painting alpanas because they picked a sketch in which Naima is painting.

Alpanas are done with a paint made from rice mush. The women do them right on the wall or ground. No sketches.

No changes. No mistakes! I was in awe of their design talent. They have the designs in their head and don’t use any paper. They make amazing beauty with what they have.

I got my model to pose again, because now I was getting nervous about getting the cover just right. I had maybe too much in my head.

And this is the final art, which needed to wrap all around to the back with an area that might have type running over it.

Does anybody notice something missing from this illustration that is on the printed cover?

So you see I work with observation (models, books, photo) and my imagination (inspired by the story) and my drawing skill (which I practice all the time.)

I heard from Susan Sherman after the art was all done that Mitali liked it. Whew! What a relief! I really wanted to honor her family heritage as best I could. Her writing helped my heart to be in Bangladesh, with Naima.

I finally got to meet Mitali! It was before the book was published, at a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Nashua, NH. Besides being an awesome writer, she is a lovely person. I did this portrait of her.

After the book was published, we went to speak together at a school and I learned this story. Maybe she will tell it; her way is so much better. She revisited her family’s home in Bangladesh long, long after they had fled. Another family was living there and she was unsure if they would be friendly. She saw two doves over the doorway of the house. This was her sign that it would be OK. She could make peace with the family in the house. And they did.

Afterwards, I realized that I had put two doves in an illustration that I did for the book, way before meeting Mitali or hearing this story. Do you think this is coincidence?

I think it is cosmic!

So that answers your questions, I hope. There is always a backstory to every book……

I live on an island in Maine which can sometimes feel far away. That’s why reading is so important to me and my family. We can go anywhere!

This is a pastel drawing I did of the ferry that we take to the mainland.

This is the dock where the boat lands.

And if you walk about a mile, here is my house. On the left are my studio windows.

I am inside drawing, right now!

By the way, I have illustrated another book, Maddie’s Magical Ride by Jeanann Alves. She has a horse camp on the island and wrote a fun story about two girls and their horses. I have illustrated book jackets and activity guides. I have even done illustrations for a dog treat package! I recently illustrated another book for Charlesbridge Publishing called Nest, Nook, and Cranny by Susan Blackaby. It is a book of poems about animal habitats and will be out next spring. Right now I am illustrating a Vietnamese folk tale for Oxford University Press. So I have to go back to drawing, and you need to take the ferry back to the mainland. Thanks for your curiosity about Rickshaw Girl, and about illustrating. Start sketching your own stories!

I am standing on the beach waving goodbye to you! Happy trails!

Best wishes,

Jamie

June 9, 2009

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