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Nicholas John Frith
United Kingdom
Nicholas John Frith is an illustrator, writer, printmaker and designer who grew up in the Chiltern Hills in the South of England. In 2016, he was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and was awarded the inaugural Klaus Flugge Prize for the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s book illustration.
In this post, Nicholas talks about his wonderful debut picturebook, ‘Hector and Hummingbird’, for which he won the inaugural Klaus Flugge Prize. It was described by the judges as ‘graphically assured, stylish in its use of retro colour separation, and at the same time full of warmth and humanity.’
Nicholas: So, ‘Hector and Hummingbird’ is my first book. It's a book with a familiar story of contrasts, and a sort of ‘you don't know what you've got till it's gone’ tale. An irritating sibling that you miss when they are gone. Or the incessantly chatty friend that won't shut up when you just want some peace and quiet. Or the wife who just wants to get in the door and relax after a busy day at work, only to be met by her illustrator husband who has been home alone all day in the studio, with only the radio and houseplants to talk to!
But this story is set in the jungle of Peru, with two friends: a spectacled bear and a hummingbird.
If I recall correctly, the story came out of a bunch of character studies of a bear in a tropical setting, a lighthearted conversation about relationships, a trip to the Natural History Museum at Tring, and also the desire of my publisher for me to produce a book with broad appeal.
I was so adamant I didn't want to make a book featuring a bear, but what-do-you-know...
I embraced the bear and the idea of creating a nice bright tale with bright colours!
(I was, at the time, more predisposed to odd tales and was previously working with a more muted/saturated palette.)
The jungle setting and its flora and fauna provided an extra element of inspiration and excitement and I thought of ‘it’ as a character too, in a way.
For this book, I intended to use my usual limited palette that I had developed over the previous two years for all my illustration work, but my publisher was concerned that it could be too limited. So I decided to overlay my colours to create secondary colours, which I'd learnt to do whilst teaching myself to screen print. I already worked by producing my artwork in layers on separate sheets of paper, one for each colour. So that worked out pretty well. It was a while later that I had a ‘Eureka!’ moment, and went, “Oh, so this is a thing!” What I was doing was referred to as preseparated artwork! A method that had been used extensively for much of the mid-twentieth century in children's book illustration.
(Strictly speaking, what I do is not truly the same: it is slightly contrived or aided by the fact that I can edit any mistakes in Photoshop – a luxury which illustrators of the mid-century didn't have.)
Due to the way I worked in layers and my embracing of brighter colours, it was mentioned by my art director, Zoe Tucker, that maybe we could look at printing it in spot colours (or Pantones, if you will), as they would have done years ago with preseparated artwork.
And, as they say, the rest is history. ‘Hector and Hummingbird’ was printed in four glorious Pantone colours. As is my new book, ‘Hello, Mr Dodo!’, and as will be my next book with Scholastic/Alison Green Books.
Making ‘Hector and Hummingbird’ was a challenge, to put it mildly. Maybe I underestimated it all. It was my first picture book. But I learnt so much from Alison Green (my editor) and Zoe Tucker during that process, and subsequent projects; they are an awesome team!
Working on ‘Hector and Hummingbird’ seems like such a long time ago now, but it really was a turning point in the way I approach my illustration work, and it taught me one hell of a lot about picture books.
Illustrations © Nicholas John Frith.
Hector and Hummingbird
Nicholas John Frith
Alison Green Books, United Kingdom, 2015
In the mountains of Peru, Hector the bear has a big problem: his friend Hummingbird just won't be quiet! Whether Hector's trying to enjoy a snack, get a good scratch against a tree, or take a nap, Hummingbird's always buzzing around, asking too many questions. The pair have always been best friends, but will Hector ever find peace and quiet with Hummingbird around?
