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This month, The Edge of the Forest talks with award-winning illustrator and children's book writer, Eric Rohmann
The Edge of the Forest: It's rare for people to succeed in both writing and illustrating the way you have.
With the various forms of media available to you (graphic novels, for instance), why have you chosen to write and illustrate for children?
Eric Rohmann: I love the clarity and simplicity of the form. A picture looks at one thing—looks at it closely—and uses both words and
pictures to play in and around that thing. Also, I wrote this once and I think it's true: Children are the best audience. They are curious,
enthusiastic, impulsive, generous and pleased by simple joys. they laugh easily at the ridiculous and are willing to believe the absurd. Children are not
ironic, disillusioned or indifferent, but hopeful, open-minded, open-hearted, with a voracious hunger for pictures and stories.
The Edge of the Forest: Who has most influenced your work, either within or outside of the publishing industry?
Eric Rohmann: I look at so many things! When I go to an art museum I always see with a selfish eye: how can I use what I'm seeing in my work?
The list of authors and illustrators that I look at grows all the time. There is so much out there.
The Edge of the Forest: What is your advice for people who want to write and illustrate children's books?
Eric Rohmann:
1. Look at kids' books. Not just the latest at the giant bookstore. Go to your
local library and look at the books in Buckram covers. See what has been done and
what's being done now. Have you seen Helen Sewell's Head for Happy? The Box
with Red Wheels, by The Petershams? Start looking!
2. Commit your ideas to paper. Most stories and pictures are perfect in our heads
and too often we don't want to take the leap to put it to paper. Go ahead...see
what happens.
3. Practice your craft. Write or draw as much as possible. This seems obvious,
but its the fastest, truest way to being better.
The Edge of the Forest: Can you tell me about some rookie mistakes that you made when you were first starting out?
Eric Rohmann: There isn't enough bandwidth! Hmmmm...I didn't understand the form very well. I thought a picture book was just a collection of
words and pictures and I never fully thought about the way the book form is essential to the story. I didn't realize most picture-books were 32 pages. I
didn't know that children understood the language of pictures with greater clarity than adults. I didn't know that a simple, well told story blossoms in
a child's imagination and that I didn't have to put everything thing into every book. (I didn't realize that because of this the child would more often than
not bring her imagination and intellect to the book and meet me half way.) I thought that as I moved forward writing and illustrating a picture book would
get easier. It hasn't. It's just as challenging every time. Same set of difficulties with every new endeavor. I think in many ways I'm still at the
start—there is so much to learn, and the more you make, the more you encounter, the more you see you have to go.
The Edge of the Forest: How did you become both author and illustrator?
Eric Rohmann: I have always told stories with pictures. The visual language has always been my way of communicating.
Eventually, all those threads wove together.
The Edge of the Forest: Which achievement has meant more to you?
Eric Rohmann: It's the fact that I did it that seems big. Time Flies is my favorite, because it showed me that I did it.
Eric's books include Caldecott Medal Winning, My Friend Rabbit, Caldecott Honor Winning, Time Flies, along with Clara and Asha,
The Cinder-Eyed Cats, and Pumpkinhead. His newest book, A Kitten Tale, from Alfred A. Knopf Books, is on shelves now.
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