EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 13 © 2015 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

87 ABOVE: More of Brooke's mice characters, sporting a varied range of designer tops. ABOVE TOP: 'Light In The Woods'. To achieve the very finely balanced sense of light that informs so much of her work, Brooke often will fine tune her lighting in Photoshop , after having drawn out the artwork and added the majority of her colour with brush and watercolour. look like. Every once in awhile someone I don’t know will send me their picture book dummy and ask for my thoughts. When their story is 50 pages long, I know they haven’t done their research. If you think you’re ready to submit to an agent, find out everything you can about them, read all the interviews they’ve done, study their client list to see if you’re work might be a good fit, and learn what their submission guidelines are. The same goes for publishing houses and editors. PR: Do you think it is necessary for people wanting to work as professional illustrators to undertake a degree in illustration? BBH: Not necessarily, but I think it’s important to have a strong grasp of drawing and design. I went to graduate school because I had ideas that I wasn’t able to execute on paper. I wanted to have a better handle on drawing the human figure and a stronger understanding of perspective and creating different camera angles. For me, a grad school based in traditional art (anatomy, composition, perspective, etc.) felt like the right fit. I think a degree in drawing or illustration could be incredibly helpful, but for some people that might not be an option. Community classes, online tutorials, books and DVDs can all be helpful resources. PR: Have you any projects you are particularly pleased with? BBH: I’m sorry to say that I don’t think I’m ever especially pleased with a project once I’m finished. There might be a brief moment of celebration but then I usually get caught up in the things I wish I would have done differently. Although, I illustrated a book with RandomHouse called Henry Wants More! by Linda Ashman, that comes out in spring of 2016. I had a wonderful time working on that book and there are some spreads in it that I’m really happy with. And I have to say that even though I might not be able to feel especially