Analysis of an illustrator.

Oliver Jeffers is an illustrator, painter and picture book maker from Belfast, Ireland. His practice of making picturebooks is different to many other illustrators because he introduces the drawing, character and story at the same time. Jeffers lets the images inform the words and makes artistic stories rather than books with images and text. He explains better himself:
"...a great advantage of both writing and illustrating stories, as someone who just writes comes up with the entire manuscript before it is considered visually and much more potential for interaction has gone."
Oliver Jeffers' style of illustration has a minimalist aesthetic and previously he only used watercolours. Jeffers' newest works use a wider range of materials, creating more dynamic and textural books.

"The art for this book was made from all sorts of stuff. Some watercolour, some bits from old books, some gouache, a little amount of technology, some acrylic and even a bit of house paint. I think there is some oil paint on one page. But i think that might have been an accident."
From: The Heart In The Bottle.

Oliver Jeffers is constantly pushing the creative boundaries of picture books but initially they all begin with a single idea. This single idea is usually in the form of some sort of sketch/drawing and to realise it's full potential, Jeffers draws it out in a sketchbook extensively, exploring it visually but also adding creative narrative where he sees fit, forming an early story. Once he has a basic plot, Jeffers works with his editor to get the right format (32 page children's book) and the layout is agreed on. Next he creates black and white line are of all of the illustrations before transferring them onto watercolour paper.

Then comes alot of experimentation with colour and materials and eventually the finished artworks for an amazing illustrated children's book.

Oliver Jeffers has proven that you don't necessarily have to stick to one genre of illustration (and if you do then you don't have to do it conventionally). As well as figurative painting, he has had many editorial commissions (from companies such as Kinder and Starbucks)








as well as creating illustrations for posters and album covers. Oliver Jeffers has shown that once you have great visual communication skills you can transfer them to almost any type of creative practice.