Artists & Illustrators — June 2017

32 Artists & Illustrators

MASTERCLASS

William Grill

When he won in 2015 he was, at the

age of 25, the youngest winner for

more than 50 years. He is shortlisted

again this year for his new book

The Wolves of Currumpaw

How did you create the distinctive style of

The Wolves of Currumpaw?

I work in just one or two colours for

preliminary sketches, and try to work as

quickly as I can, but usually redraw the same

spread several times before I’m happy. I use

Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and keep

the colour palette as limited as posible. I

work on everything at once: colour,

storyboard, design, text and characterisation.

You make your loose and flowing

illustrations look easy. What’s your tip for

achieving a similar effect?

Work quickly. The best drawings are usually

done under pressure. And draw from life –

don’t sit behind a desk. With The Wolves of

Currumpaw, I was lucky enough to travel to

New Mexico and did a lot of drawing and

research. This made the drawings far richer.

When did you find the style that you were

comfortable with?

Falmouth University was hugely formative.

Being encouraged to draw in sketchbooks

every day helped enormously, and this is

where my style emerged. It sounds

counterintuitive, but the limitation of using a

few coloured pencils on the go made me feel

more free and confident.

You work for major clients such as The New

York Times. How did you break into editorial

and commercial illustration?

With a bit of luck! My work must have a broad

appeal. Putting examples of book jackets,

editorial work and so on, on your website is

the best way of showing what you could do.

Your books feature everything from figures

to landscapes. Do you approach these

subjects differently?

Everything is the same apart from that

I usually hold the pencils differently [for the

backgrounds]. I tend to use the side of the

pencils to create more sweeping strokes.

Sometimes, I layer colours and even use

a rubber to smudge subtler colours together.

Which artists do you admire?

Influences change all the time but a few

consistent people would be some of the

Fauvist painters, Saul Steinberg, Eric

Ravilious and Edward Bawden – their work

has a particular charm. I think it’s important

to look outside your own profession for

inspiration as well. For me, film is a big one.

I love the documentaries of Werner Herzog

and the poetic, all-encompassing style of

Terrence Malick.

What’s your top tip for getting into the world

of illustration?

Firstly, and most importantly, draw every day.

Don’t worry about what everyone else is

doing, let your interests feed into your work

• and be patient.
  See more of William’s art at http://www.
  williamgrill.co.uk. The Wolves of Currumpaw
  is published by Flying Eye Books, £14.99.
  http://www.flyingeyebooks.com

KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL

© WILLIAM GRILL/FLYING EYE BOOKS

William’s tip

Draw every day,

let your interests

feed into your

work – and

be patient

26 Illustration.v6.indd 32 10/04/2017 15:20