Johanna Basford is the prolific illustrator behind Secret Garden, Enchanted Forest and now Lost Ocean, which was published in October 2015. For her latest underwater adventure Johanna has gone back to her marine roots to pull together a gorgeous volume full of intricately detailed drawings inspired by real creatures and ocean fantasies. It’s a must have for any colouring enthusiast!
How long did it take to create your new colouring book, Lost Ocean, working on average how many hours a day?
Lost Ocean took about 4 months to complete. Average days don’t really come into play when you work from home and you have a little person to care for, but I have childcare 4 days a week so I cram as much as I can into these hours, then I work when she (finally!) takes a nap or goes to sleep at night.
Lost Ocean coloured by Johanna Basford.
What are you favourite memories of growing up on your parent’s fish farm, and how have these influenced the making of Lost Ocean?
My parent’s fish farm is a fresh water one and is located about 20 miles inland (not on the coast), so my experiences there didn’t influence this book so much, apart from seeing tens of thousands of fish every day! My parents are both Marine Biologists though so my sister and I spent a lot of time visiting scientific aquariums and on research vessels as children. We could barely make it through a seafood dinner without someone having their main course dissected and an impromptu biology lesson taking place. I think these kind of things all just help open your eyes as a child and expose you to a vast array of different experiences that form the foundation of your imagination as an adult.
Your studio looks wonderful (very jealous!), I believe it is in your house? Where is it located, what is the view, how long have you been there and is it always as tidy as it looks in your videos?
We live in a converted farm building in the Aberdeenshire countryside. We are so lucky to be out in the wilds and I really love that feeling of looking out our windows and seeing the changing seasons. Due to the incredible amount of toys Evie began to accumulate (why do small people have so much stuff?!) we converted my old studio which was next to the kitchen into a playroom and I moved into the space in the attic. It was no hardship though as the view from the apex window out across the surrounding fields is so beautiful and it meant I was tucked away when I needed to work and out of ear shot of little people.
Lost Ocean coloured by Louise Chagger
How long did you stop working for when you had your daughter, and when during the day do you find it easiest to work now, and why?
I took 6 weeks ‘off’ social media when I had her, but was still checking in on email throughout as my second book, Enchanted Forest was about to go to print. My publishers were super understanding though and we all worked around the craziness that is coping with a new born. I worked around Evie’s schedule until she was 6 months, after which we had a wonderful family friend who is a nanny come and help me a few days a week. It wasn’t till then that I really got stuck back into things properly. I work best in the morning, always have done.
Lost Ocean coloured by nijnaa
What kind of work commitments are your priority now your time is more limited?
Now that there’s more to cram into a day I’m a lot more selective about what I can take on. I’d rather turn down a job or rejig a deadline than deliver bad work late. I’ve scaled back a lot on commission work and focused on the books and long term projects – the lead times for commercial illustration work are often just days or in some cases hours long and more often than not required immediate amends to meet print deadlines. I just can’t offer that level of flexibility anymore so I’d rather pass up on a job or recommend someone else, than take it and be unprofessional.
Lost Ocean coloured by Maria C Crowdey
What have been the most difficult and the most wonderful things about continuing to work and being a mum at the same time?
The most difficult thing is the guilt. I think all Mums experience this though whether they are working or not. You always feel you could do better for your child. I feel bad for not being with her every day, for letting her watch Cbeebies when I’m trying to answer urgent emails at 6am and for not serving her up a delicious, organic meal I’ve prepared myself every night.
Lost Ocean coloured by Naomi Russell-Baugh
That being said, I wouldn’t change our situation. I love what I do and I’m so lucky to have a job that truly makes me happy. After a day of work or a trip away, I’m so delighted to see her. We make the very most of all the time we have together and I never take a day off for granted. Having that space to do a job I love and fire up my creative and intellectual side means that when I’m back in Mum mode I do so with a fresh head and a happy heart.
Where is your favourite place to walk when you want to clear your head and reinvigorate your creative sensibilities?
We live in the middle of nowhere, so I love to bundle Evie into the carrier, grab the dog and walk around the fields and woodland the surround our home. I love the fresh air on my face, to see Simcoe our dog bounding about enjoying the outdoor time and to show Evie the changing seasons.
Lost Ocean coloured by toomuchgoodfood
How are you sharing your love of nature with your daughter Evie?
We spent a lot of time our doors playing, I want to give her the same sort of free range childhood that I had as a child. In the summer we pottered about in the garden, picking strawberries we had grown and smelling the flowers. As Autumn fell we gathered leaves for painting projects and looked for conkers.
Lost Ocean coloured by Tamila Kushnir
You have said that being scared inspires your best work, what situations are most likely to scare you the most nowadays?
Scary deadlines! Now that time is so scarce, anything that involves a short deadline terrifies me. I worry that I’m taking too much on, then I worry that I’m not pushing myself hard enough…
Lost Ocean front plate coloured by Patricia Grund
You initially trained as printed textile designer (like me!) Now, do you consider yourself an illustrator, a designer, an artist or all the above?
An illustrator. I draw pictures, nothing more, nothing less.
Lost Ocean coloured by laurengunnart
Where do you screen print your artist editions, and how often do you get to do that now?
Dundee Contemporary Arts. I love it there. These days I rarely print, but when I do it’s a treat to be surrounded by so many wonderful artists and to have the excellent facilities and staff at DCA on hand.
Lost Ocean coloured by Rebecca Honeybee Swan
We first met you when you launched your #TwitterPicture project: you have been very adept at using social media and the internet in general to raise your profile, when and why did you start doing so?
I didn’t want to move to London (or any big city for that matter) and knew that in doing so I was isolating myself. I wasn’t going to bump into art directors and commissioning editors at swanky exhibition openings and I certainly couldn’t just pop round their office with my portfolio to tout my wares. To get around this I used social media and the internet to allow me to open up my studio and connect with these people from my little studio in the Scotland. I tried to think of imaginative ways of getting people’s attention and making my work memorable. An email with a PDF or a link to a portfolio is so boring. I tried to be a little different and to think up ways of presenting my work that was a little more imaginative.
Lost Ocean by Amanda Steele
Why do you think that sharing work online has become such a major aspect of the adult colouring book phenomenon?
Because we are all so proud of our creations!! For me colouring books are a collaboration. I create those black and white outlines, but it’s not until the owner of the book adds the colour that those illustrations are ever complete. We need to work together to create the final artwork. So when someone has completed a picture, they quite rightly want to show it off! Who wouldn’t?! The best part of my job, without a shadow of a doubt, is seeing all those amazing pictures on social media, in the facebook colouring groups and on my colouring gallery. It’s humbling to think I have the incredible opportunity to collaborate with literally millions of people worldwide and that we get to share our work with the world. I never see the same illustration twice, every time someone colours a picture they make it unique. It’s like a giant game of consequences; I do my part, then hand the books over to the world and everyone picks up the baton (or should I say the pencil!) and completes the pictures.
How much time do you have to upload stuff to your blog and various other online platforms these days? Your Pen Geekery section on your blog is so fabulously… geeky!
Not as much as I would like! Social media and my blog is so very important to what I do, so I try to schedule time for it every day. Whether that’s just posting a quick WIP on Instagram or uploading a new Vlog to YouTube, I feel the colouring community online are so important to what I do, so I want to connect with them as much as I can.
Lost Ocean by renatagclementino
New Designers is one of my favourite places to discover graduate talent, what did taking part in the show do for you?
It was great for me, coming from a relatively small art school in Scotland, to just be in amongst the chaos. It’s good to be a bit scared and New Designers can be an overwhelming place! There’s so much talent, so much energy. Everyone is keen and fresh and unjaded, you don’t get that same feeling again! For me New Designers was a place to make connections. I spoke to lots of people, organized some internships, some freelance work and even had a couple of job offers. Ultimately, it all helped me decided what I did and didn’t want to do going forward.
I love your opinion that technicians are the unsung heroes of art schools! what was the best thing you learnt from them?
The nitty gritty. Like how to get a stubborn stain off a screen. Which inks would last longer than a week if I stored them right. How to make sure my paintings didn’t stick to the inside of a heat press… Not super glam, but it’s practical knowledge like that that you just can’t gleam from a lecture theatre. In my mind, infinitely more useful.
Lost Ocean coloured by jamairanolasco
Do you or did you ever feel isolated in Aberdeen? How often do you have to travel for work, and have you ever been tempted to move for work reasons?
No. I’m a country girl and I don’t function well in big cities. I can’t draw blossoms and hummingbirds surrounded by concrete and tarmac. I venture down to London about once a month, cram in a whirlwind of meetings then fly north again at bedtime.
Lost Ocean coloured by insolitecass. You can download this image for free here
Can you tell us any more about your upcoming collaboration with Staedtler?
Yes, we’re starting to post details of this now. I was approached by lots of different pen and pencil manufacturers this year, asking if I would partner with them. Although I loved all the products that were highlighted to me, I’ve used Staedtler pens since art school and they are the brand that I’ve been recommending for years, so working with them seemed the most honest and natural collaboration. We’ve made a series of videos, a super cool little adult colouring website and there are some special edition products and bundles on the way. I’m also speaking to them about a few top secret colouring projects that I’d like to see realized (watch this space!).
Lost Ocean coloured by dreammaker_kelly
How do you feel when you see the huge piles of colouring books in book and gift shops across the country?
SUPER PROUD. To see the adult colouring category blossom is the biggest thumbs up you can imagine. What better sign that you are doing something right, something that people truly want in their lives? I love that with every new book that appears, more and more people around the world are putting down their digital devices and picking up pens and pencils. We’re onto a good thing here!
I feel as though this Christmas we are about to hit “peak colouring book” for want of a better phrase, do you think the interest in adult colouring books will fade away, and do you see an end point for your (immense) contribution to the genre?
No I honestly don’t. I think adult colouring is just a new form a creativity, one that for whatever reason hadn’t risen to the forefront of popularity yet. The exact format may change and I’m keen to see how the discipline evolves, for example onto new materials, new applications, different techniques (have you seen those pan pastel artworks coming out of Brazil?!) but essentially, I think it’s something we’ve all been craving for a long time. An accessible way to be creative, a digital detox, a stress buster, a warm shot of nostalgia – whatever your reason for initially picking up a colouring book, I’m sure they will become a staple part of your creative life.
Lost Ocean coloured by tatianecandido
Finally, what are you working on now and next? (and any clues as to what another colouring book might contain?)
SO MUCH.
A charity Christmas project I’m launching on 1st December, more details coming soon!
A new colouring book next summer (details are top secret for now I’m afraid).
Calendars!
Pens!
More Christmas!
The list goes on and on…
You can tour Johanna’s gorgeous studio in the video above. Lost Ocean is available worldwide. Thank you so much for taking the time to give such brilliant and informative answers Johanna! I can’t wait to see what you do next. Images thanks to the members of Facebook group Colouring Companions and the lovely people who share on Instagram.
Categories ,#TwitterPicture, ,Aberdeenshire, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amanda Steele, ,Colouring Book, ,Colouring Companions, ,dreammaker_kelly, ,Dundee Contemporary Arts, ,Enchanted Forest, ,Evie, ,Exclusive Interview, ,insolitecass, ,instagram, ,interview, ,jamairanolasco, ,Johanna Basford, ,laurengunnart, ,Lost Ocean, ,Louise Chagger, ,Maria C Crowdey, ,Naomi Russell-Baugh, ,New Designers, ,nijnaa, ,Patricia Grund, ,Rebecca Honeybee Swan, ,renatagclementino, ,scotland, ,Scottish, ,Secret Garden, ,Staedtler, ,Tamila Kushnir, ,tatianecandido, ,toomuchgoodfood, ,Vlog, ,Youtube
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