Tony Ross was born in London in 1938. He trained at the Liverpool School of Art and has worked as a cartoonist, a graphic designer, as the Art Director of an advertising agency, and as Senior Lecturer in Art at Manchester Polytechnic.
He has illustrated 800 books, not only his own, but books written by other authors such as Jean Willis, Francesca Simon and Roald Dahl.
Tony Ross was invited to the Helsinki Book Fair to talk about his books and the art of illustration. I interviewed him at the end of his final day at the Fair.
KH: Have you enjoyed your sessions at the Book Fair?
TR: I’m enjoying it a lot because whether you enjoy these sessions or not depends on the people. Everyone here is very friendly; it’s an absolute joy talking to them all.
KH: You used to work in advertising as an Art Director. What made you go into illustration rather than any other area of visual arts?
TR: I was trained as an illustrator at college and when I left, there were no jobs for illustrators and I needed a job rather than freelance work. So I went into advertising and disliked it so much that I would spend my time writing a children’s book while my boss wasn’t looking. There was free paper, pencils and colours at the agency and I used all of those and wrote my first book there.
KH: Which book was that?
TR: It was , a series of six books. It was Mr Toffee because it was the 1960s and everybody was very formal, Sergeant Pepper … loads of titles. It was about a circus owner, he wore a uniform. It was a very ‘60s looking thing.
KH: Was that series successful? Did you leave advertising?
TR: It didn’t sell well. My advertising agency bought up a couple of agencies in Manchester and I moved up there to start them off and I hated that as well. So one day I went round to the local art school and said 'I’m in advertising. Have you got any jobs?' and much to my surprise, they said 'Yes'. Then I started to teach advertising.
KH: Which illustrators inspired you early on in your career?
TR: The ones I grew up with, Alfred Bestall, Edward Ardizzone and E. H. Shepard who drew . They were my heroes. When I got to art school everything got a bit more international. I liked Andre Francois, Saul Steinberg and Tomi Ungerer. Ungerer is probably the greatest illustrator in the world in my opinion.
KH: You did some illustrations for Roald Dahl. How was that?
TR: It was before Quentin, several illustrators did them, and then the publishers decided to have all the illustrations re-done by Quentin Blake. Quentin has done a fantastic job, much better than we had.
KH: Are there any young illustrators you think our readers should look out for?
TR: I think Christian Birmingham is quite outstanding. I like Lucy Cousins a lot; in a funny way I discovered her. I was sitting on a panel and she submitted and I gave her the prize. I think Lucy Cousins is a whole bag of talent. And slightly older, but certainly younger than me is Charlotte Voake, I think Charlotte is the most underestimated illustrator, I think she is totally brilliant. If I could draw like anybody it would be Charlotte Voake. She is a wonderful illustrator.
KH: Your Little Princess character is now a cartoon series on UK television. How did that come about and do you think it will bring a wider audience to the books?
TR: I hope so, and an audience of the right age as it is on early in the morning before school. And the children who are not aware of her will be; there will be a certain degree of merchandising around it. I hope she’ll become even more popular.
KH: Many of your books contain a lesson for parent and child. Was this a conscious decision when you wrote the first book, ?
TR: It was conscious because I did a lot of books about old myths and fairy tales and I began to think 'How relevant are these?' and children do have their own world with their own interests and worries, kittens die, they get worried their parents won’t come home at night. They are good things to write about because they are the things children think about. But they are not instructions on how to grow up; they are just about what children are interested in … I think. I look quite closely for new issues I can pick up on. I’ve done, peeing, picking noses, siblings, dummies, all of these! I think I’m on the side of the child not the parent and some parents have held me up about this, saying it’s subversive. But I’m on the child’s side because it is a children’s book and children need a bit of support because they live in a really weird world. Roald Dahl said they were 'Dwarves in the land of giants …' where everybody’s bigger and everybody tells them what to do, what to eat, and what to wear. They are a pretty oppressed group.
KH: When you draw you often use strong line. Do you use pencil initially?
TR: No, I use ink straightaway. A lot of them go wrong – there’s a pile of paper and I draw until it goes wrong and screw it up and throw it away, then take another sheet off the top of the pile. That way they’re spontaneous.
KH: So you don’t use a light box?
TR: Oh yes! I do – it does cut down on the time.
KH: Does that [light box] help when you’re drawing an old character like Horrid Henry?
TR: Absolutely. It means Horrid Henry can be roughly the same on each page. To draw Horrid Henry I would do a 30-second sketch on flimsy paper onto the light box and then a 30-second drawing over it. So it’s still spontaneous. I don’t try and draw the sketch underneath, the drawing underneath is a guide to where I draw quickly. It just helps me to know where to put the lines.
KH: How important is colour to you?
TR: It is secondary. L. S. Lowry said 'Drawings are harder than paintings because you don’t have colour to get you out of a tight spot' and I think if the drawing works, the whole thing works. Colour can’t go wrong; I use it lightly, the line is the dominant thing. When I finish a drawing I don’t want a whole new set of problems with the colour. So I use transparent colour.
KH: What is your next book about?
TR: There is a new Little Princess book (which I always did!) and I’m working on a Jean Willis book . I’m also doing a book of nursery rhymes. I don’t think they’ll get published because they don’t translate well.
KH: How do you think your books translate in other languages?
TR: I have no idea. The only important book is the new one on the drawing board. I’ve got 800 little orphans kicking around the world.
KH: Are you creating any new characters?
TR: No, I don’t like characters because they tend to involve you doing them again and again. I don’t want my whole life to be one or two characters. When I did my first television series, , I was so sick of Towzer. I did the drawings, the scripts, everything; it was in the and loads of books. I felt like killing him off in a motorbike accident!
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland)
Our privacy and copyright statements.
Our commitment to freedom of information. Double-click for pop-up dictionary.
Open the original version of this page.
Usablenet Assistive is a UsableNet product. Usablenet Assistive Main Page.