Interview: Sally Rippin
Sally Rippin has been writing and illustrating books since she was a child. Her second picture book, Fang Fang’s Chinese New Year, won the Children’s Book Council Crichton Award in 1997. Since then she’s gone on to do a huge variety of work, writing and illustrating for children and young adults.
While Sally’s work is strongly influenced by Chinese aesthetic and composition – she spent three years in China studying brush painting – her illustration encompasses a wide variety of materials and styles and her work is always fresh and engaging. I was fortunate to meet her at a relaxed Boxing Day barbie in northern Melbourne last year. Lively, forthcoming and in love with her work, she gave me some direct and useful advice. Here, she answers a few questions about picture books:
Sally Rippin: illustration from Speak Chinese, Fang Fang, ink and watercolour on paper
You’re very well known in Australia now, as both a writer and illustrator, but you started as an illustrator. Did you think you would end up writing as much as you do?
Actually, my first books, Speak Chinese, Fang Fang! and Fang Fang’s Chinese New Year, I both wrote and illustrated – though it may seem as if I am more known as an illustrator because I won the Children’s Book Council Crichton Award for illustration back in 1997. From there, I continued writing and illustrating my own books until I was asked to illustrate a novel for Di Bates called The Shape. After that more publishers began to approach me with illustrating work. Nowadays, the illustration work comes to me, whereas the writing work is mainly up to me to instigate. However, I think in terms of output, they’re probably pretty even.
Sally Rippin: illustration from Peking ducks, 2010
Do you have any illustration projects coming up?
Yep, a beautiful story by Lee Fox called Storm Music, which I am about to begin. Then early next year a meditation book for children written by my friend from New Orleans, Whitney Stewart, who wrote the book I illustrated called Becoming Buddha. I am looking forward to getting into a ‘meditative’ frame of mind to do that one.
Which picture books shaped your childhood? and why?
Anything illustrated by Quentin Blake, Ezra Jack Keats, Tony Ross or Maurice Sendak, I think, though it’s hard to remember that far back.
And which picture book illustrators and authors do you admire most today?
All of the above as well as local illustrators: Ann James, Leigh Hobbs, Alison Lester, Shaun Tan, Freya Blackwood, Armin Greder – the usual suspects!
Is there anything you think is missing from picture books today? Is there a picture book, for instance, that’s just begging to be written?
If there is, I don’t know of it. It seems that just about everything has been covered in picture books these days, especially now that there are more and more picture books for older readers being produced.
There seems to be a trend in picture books today for a soft, fluffy ending – a nice hug. Are there any books with a more melancholy or subversive theme that you really love?
Yes, definitely. Plenty, in fact. The Rabbits, by John Marsden, Jenny Angel, by Margaret Wild, The Island, by Armin Greder, The Great Bear, by Libby Gleeson, The Red Tree, by Shaun Tan… I could go on and on!
Sally Rippin; Illustration from Millie, 2002
You’ve worked with quite a few local authors and illustrators, such as John Marsden and Martine Murray. Does that mean you were able to meet often during a book’s creation, rather than working separately?
Usually this doesn’t happen, though in those two particular cases, I did talk with the authors, but only because John and Martine are friends of mine. Usually the publisher acts as a go-between. However I will usually try to at least have one email conversation with the author if they are amenable to this, to get their thoughts on the text, but after that I prefer to be left alone. I want to be able to bring my own thoughts, uncluttered and uninfluenced by others, to the story. The author has had their turn to create the verbal side of the story, now it is my turn to create the visual.
Do you find it easier, in some ways, to create illustrations for someone else’s story than to do your own – where you may have no set brief?
Not easier, no, in fact probably more challenging, but this is what I like the best about working on someone else’s text. It pushes me outside my own limited thoughts and forces me to incorporate someone else’s ideas, culture, influences and story. Some of my best work, I believe, has come from when I have been most challenged.
Where you are illustrator and not writer, does the publisher or author give you any brief on illustration style at all?
Not usually, though I don’t really like working to a brief, so probably wouldn’t stick to it anyway. I might seem obstinate, but I see the illustrations as my interpretation of the story and if the text is good enough, the illustrations will form in my mind even as I read it.
The cover of your latest book – Angel Creek – is beautiful! Did it take you a long time to create?
Oh dear – I can’t lay any claim whatsoever to this cover. It was done entirely by the masterful WH Chong – cover designer at Text, whose work I have long admired. Yes, I love the cover, too.
Sally Rippin: Illustration from The Race for the Chinese Zodiac, 2010
Do you keep a sketchbook? If so, what’s your latest sketch of?
I used to, but sadly I draw less and less just for the fun of it. Drawing is my job now and I tend to only do it when I have a book I’m working on. Mainly this is because I have so little free time and when I do, I don’t want to feel like I’m working.
You use lots of different techniques in your illustrations. Do you have a favourite medium or technique?
Probably collage, because it’s so dramatic and also flexible. Second up would be brush and ink for its spontaneity and fluidity.
Sally Rippin: illustration from Mannie and the Long Brave Day, 2010. Author: Martine Murray.
Do you use a computer at all in creating artwork? Or for tweaking the final piece?
No, only for research, and for scanning images to send off to publishers. I have avoided fixing things up on computer until now because I think if I started doing that I’d never finish anything!
I remember that when we met, you said that each time you get a commission to illustrate a book, you go off to the Art Shop and reward yourself with some new art materials. How wonderful! What have you treated yourself to recently?
I’m afraid I have been so busy with my writing lately that I haven’t illustrated anything for almost a year now. The last time I was in an Art shop was to buy a tube of white oil paint for a friend’s birthday and a lump of clay for my kids.
Thank you Sally! There’s an excellent biography of Sally here, and also a fascinating interview from 2009 here. Sally’s latest work, Angel Creek – where a young girl saves an angel from drowning in Melbourne’s Merri Creek – has been immensely well received, especially within its target market of upper primary-school readers. To find out more about Sally’s work, visit her site or her blog.
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Sketchbook on Flickr
