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Simone Rea
Italy
Simone Rea was born in Albano Laziale where he lives and works. After studying at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome and participating in several illustration courses, he became an illustrator. Simone has been selected for the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition twice, and he was awarded a BIB Plaque at the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava.
In this post, Simone shares some development work and final illustrations from ‘L'uomo dei palloncini’ (The balloon man), which was written by Giovanna Zoboli and published by Topipittori. This beautiful picturebook is a stylistic departure for Simone, who talks about the new approach he took to illustrate Giovanna's text.
Simone: I received the proposal for this book three summers ago. Topipittori invited me to spend a few days in Vignola, where, in between walks through the forest, activities with children, and pieces of Barozzi cake, they presented me with this text by Giovanna Zoboli. It's beautiful, simple and linear I told myself at the time. Almost three years have passed since then, and that text has hidden, and still hides, some great difficulties...
The first difficulty was in choosing the correct technique to use. I've used acrylic for many years, but I felt that acrylic wasn't suited to this story. So Giovanna, Paolo Canton and I decided on pencils and pastels instead. This was the first time I'd worked with pencils and pastels for a professional project, so the greatest difficulties I faced were in using a brand new medium and in finding a style that was best suited to the poetic and evocative text.
Usually, I don't do many rough drawings before creating the final illustrations – but in this case, there were many diverse elements: a balloon man, balloons, children, adults, and the locations the characters needed to move around in. Therefore, it was essential to do roughs!
A fundamental aspect for the success of any book is the pace – and in this case, it was quite complex. Unlike other books that I've worked on, the emptiness, or rather, the white space in this book plays a vital role and is key to the success of the images.
Discussing your work with other professionals is so important. In the case of this book, I was having issues with the balloon seller character. I'd already defined the character, but then I spent months trying to make him bigger and more prominent in the scenes. I tried for so long, but it just didn't look right; the idea only worked in my head. And so, an obligatory ‘thank you’ goes to Pablo Auladell. Pablo said: "You can't make the character bigger? Ok, that's fine. Don't make him bigger then." It seems like quite a banal statement, but in fact, it's not. Pablo's affirmation underlines the importance of collaboration. It demonstrates how another professional's eyes can help you to see the world from a different perspective. And then there was light!
Having fun with a project is always a strong temptation. I get very excited in the early stages, and it often seems like I have the whole storyboard in my head. But my excitement doesn't always let me think clearly! And then, once the excitement subsides and those first doubts emerge, insecurities can replace new ideas, and it's possible to lose focus...
Making a book is beautiful. Long live this profession! However, there are some ‘creative steps’ that you can't really avoid. This was very much the case with the creation of this book because the creative steps infiltrated the whole process.
Some of the tasks for this book were very elaborate – such as the characterisation of the children and the compositions where they interact with each other. Each child has their own unique character and behaves very differently. There's the one who sticks their finger in their nose, the one who pretends to be a superhero, the one who hides, the one who throws confetti, the shy child who plays ‘house’ in their head, and the one who's dressed like a pirate.
The following illustration is very dear to me because it perfectly represents the spirit that I wanted the book to have.
Illustrations © Simone Rea. Post translated by Gengo and edited by dPICTUS.
L'uomo dei palloncini /
The balloon man
Giovanna Zoboli & Simone Rea
Topipittori, Italy, 2014
When the balloon man arrives in his truck, he calls you from his window. The truck opens up like a suitcase to reveal a land made of nougat, with buildings, streets, fields, rivers and hills as far as the eye can see.
This gorgeous new book from Giovanna Zoboli and Simone Rea has a mysterious narrative which flows like a poem, charming pencil illustrations, and an ending which you'll never tire of.
