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Alexis Deacon
United Kingdom
Alexis Deacon graduated from the University of Brighton with a first class honours degree in Illustration. His second picturebook ‘Beegu’ was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Booktrust named Alexis as one of the best illustrators in the United Kingdom.
In this post, Alexis presents some development work and final illustrations from his extraordinary picturebook, ‘Croc and Bird’. He also talks about the challenge he faced in working on the book after several years of enforced inactivity due to illness.
Visit Alexis Deacon’s blog
Read an article about Alexis on The Guardian website
Alexis: ‘Croc and Bird’ was one of the first projects I worked on after several years away from drawing through poor health. One of my main challenges was just remembering how to draw. Much like playing an instrument, drawing is something you have to practise and maintain if you want to stay good at it.
At first, it was deeply frustrating not being able to work at the level I was used to, but then I realised I could use the structure of the book itself to help me. Croc and Bird tells the story of two creatures, a crocodile and a bird, who hatch side by side and, without parents, bring each other up thinking that they are brothers. In the beginning, the world they know is very small and simple, gradually becoming more complex as they learn about it and discover it together. I realised that if I worked on the book in the same order, I would be starting out with very simple compositions. I could build up the level of complexity as I went through the story, just as the narrative required.
Whilst I tried several methods making this story, all of the artwork that appears in the published book is photocopied pencil drawing, painted with watercolour and gouache.
Now that I look back on it, I think of Croc and Bird as my favourite work. I really empathised with the struggles of the two central characters and I tried to put all of that feeling into the drawing.
Illustrations © Alexis Deacon.
Croc and Bird
Alexis Deacon
Hutchinson (Random House), United Kingdom, 2012
Side by side on the sand sit two eggs. With a crack and a rip, the brothers hatch, and out comes a bird and a… crocodile! But they can’t be brothers – can they?
‘A delicate, poignant, exquisitely drawn exploration of affinity with no need for a clumping moral.’
—Kate Kellaway, The Guardian
