Authors & Illustrators
In The Studio With Beloved Kid-Lit Author-Illustrator Jarvis
Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Photography by Matt Burgess
Jun 1, 2022
It’s been a while since we’ve visited one of our favorite kid-lit creators in their spaces. But today’s studio visit with Manchester-based author-illustrator Jarvis is certainly worth the wait. Not only are we obsessed with the U.K. creative’s new backyard space—filled to the brim with lushly illustrated kids’ books, Beatles records, and other colorful tools of the trade—we’re equally enamored with his stunning new picture book, The Boy With Flowers In His Hair.
Below, the charming award-winning artist (who’s sold 1+ million books and counting) and proud dog dad gives us a tour of his inspiring workspace, while discussing his big break in the children’s book world, his creative habits and routines, and the brand-new direction he’s exploring in his latest title. Enjoy!
For more profiles on our favorite kids’ authors and illustrators, take a look at our The Bookshelf features with Yuyi Morales, Christian Robinson, Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen, Carson Ellis, Meenal Patel, Hervé Tullet, and Isabel Sanchez Vergara.
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- The beautiful garden office/studio, which was completed in April 2021.
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- And the author himself—meet Jarvis!
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- "My workspace is at the bottom of the garden. It’s nestled in trees and looks out onto a little woodland. I renovated it—added electric, heating, plastered the walls, and most importantly added the window that frames the view of the woods. I didn’t really know what I wanted, but over time I’ve realized I just want it to be a nice place to sit and do work, somewhere uplifting and creative. And it’s a bit like my work—busy and colourful but also simple."
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- Just one of many The Beatles-themed items in the space.
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- "I like that I can curate a little gallery of things I like just for me. I like how it’s away from everything else. The trees cocoon it and almost soundproof it. I like how the squirrels throw nuts on the roof, and I like watching them chase each other."
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- Jarvis and his furry companion get to work.
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- A cozy nook to sketch.
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- "I like having books on display (not really my own). They’re one of the few pieces of art we can all own. Some of my current favourites would be How to Count to ONE: (And don't even THINK about bigger numbers!) by Caspar Salmon and illustrated by Matt Hunt. I love the lively illustrations, and the words are very funny. I’m always picking up The Twenty-Elephant Restaurant but Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake. It's such a funny book with outrageous imagery only Quentin Blake could make. And I’m always banging on about Little Fox by Edward Van De Vendel and Marije Tolman. A beautiful dreamlike book which is a surreal and unique-looking book about a fox's dream."
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- A Frog and Toad classic by Arnold Lobel, nestled next to How to Count to ONE: (And don't even THINK about bigger numbers!) by Caspar Salmon and Matt Hunt.
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- The supremely visual This Is London by Miroslav Sasek.
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- "A typical day will start with me taking my wife to work, then getting back and walking the dog. I’ll share my breakfast with the dog and then I’ll probably be in the office by 9. I usually make a little list the day before of what I need to do that day. Now, I might just ignore that list, or methodically work through it. It depends on the mood of the day."
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- "The book was inspired by a painting I saw in a hotel on holiday. It was a woman with a flowery headdress. I like simple concepts and when I thought of a kid with flowers for hair I scribbled an image down. From there I started thinking of other images. A kid with a watering can pouring it on his friend, and then crucially an image of him with all the flowers fluttering down around him. The words followed afterwards."
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- "All I knew was that I wanted to begin the story in a happy place. I wanted the boy with flowers to fit right in, loved by everyone. I just felt that was the place I wanted to begin. A sort of surreal, dreamy start. The other thing is that kids are so accepting of difference, so I wanted that to be the starting point. I like how the book centers on friendship and also the power creativity can have in communicating feelings and bringing people together."
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Visually, The Boy With Flowers In His Hair is a new direction from Jarvis' previous hits, like Alan's Big Scary Teeth (2016).
With white backgrounds and a feeling of softness and simplicity throughout, the new title has a poetic quality as it introduces us to a boy, David, who happens to have flowers in his hair.
The book begins with a list of all the ways David is wonderful ("He's sweet and gentle. Just like his petals"). Then, David's blooms start falling off for a mysterious reason that's never explained.
As David's hair turns to branches—"twiggy, spiky, brittle"—his light starts to dim, until his friends rally with handmade flowers to adorn him with until new petals suddenly appear!
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"I wish I had a methodical way, but new ideas tend to happen sporadically and often when I should be doing something else. My only plan is that each year I aim to have 10 ideas that I think are good enough to show the publisher. How I get to that 10 changes. Sometimes I start with a cover. It could just be a title. Or I might have an image that I pull a story out of. I might have a little sentence or two that leads me somewhere."
"More recently I have been writing songs. Songs can be quite similar to picture book stories, they have to be simple and get to the point quickly, they need emotion, and some kind of hook or chorus. So, recently I have been writing songs that then inspire book ideas."
"But I might not write anything new for 10 months and then write 10 ideas in 2 months. I try not to really force it, and just relax and trust that new ideas will arrive somehow."
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"For each book I usually try something a little new. Usually the book tells me how I should make it. In the past, that might be paper collage, inky drawings, pencil with Photoshop colouring. But my latest book was the first time I used Procreate on the iPad. It opened up a whole new appreciation for digital tools."
"If I’m looking for new supplies, I go to a place called Fred Aldous in Manchester which sells pretty much anything for creative types."
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- "I don’t think I have any secret way in to feeling creative. Sometimes you can feel particularly inspired, sometimes not. I am a big Beatles fan, and I have pictures and records around the office. They created so much in such a short period of time. So, if I’m being lazy and unproductive, glancing over at the Beatles usually makes me think ‘Hey, lazy bones, get on with it.'"
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- If you look closely, you'll see the mini-vase has the same face as The Boy With Flowers In His Hair.
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"I grew up in Wales by the seaside. There wasn’t much in the town, we all knew we had to leave to get jobs. I loved album covers as a kid. The little lyric books. I remember seeing on the back of one booklet that it listed a ‘designer.' From that point, I wanted to be an album cover designer."
"After doing a design degree, I moved to London and that was my first job—but after just over a year I didn’t love it. So, I moved back to Manchester, started a business with a friend, and we did various creative things—branding, websites, advertising, illustration, and animation. I didn’t love any of those things either."
"I didn’t realize that picture books was what I wanted to do until I began doing it. And luckily, I fell in love with making books."
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- The (very prolific) Beatles—a primary inspiration for Jarvis.
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- "My first book published in 2014. Since then I have written and illustrated 9 and illustrated many other for other authors."
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- "It started, I think, with writing poems for my wife on a blackboard we used to have in the kitchen. I used to write little funny poems now and then. Then one day I wrote a little poem and illustrated it. It grew from there."
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- "I took a day off from work each week to make an illustration portfolio. I wrote some (really bad) stories and luckily got an agent after a few months. They sent my work to Harper Collins who liked my illustrations and asked if I had any stories. I’m inspired and driven by deadlines, so I got to work writing and my first book, Lazy Dave, came to me that week."
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- Organic shapes and collage figure into Jarvis' latest book, The Boy With Flowers In His Hair, and others.
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- "My first big break I think was meeting my main publisher, Walker Books. I think when you meet people you connect with you should try your best to keep working with them. The books I make with them feel different to other publishers. They give me the freedom and creative space that has enabled me to try new things. I think that’s really important with creativity—keeping that feeling of 'anything is possible.' They haven’t tried to put me in a particular box and let me treat each book as a new thing with its own personality. So, I count myself very lucky to have that relationship."
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- Sweet little doodles everywhere.
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- Postcards and collages pinned up for inspiration.
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- Jarvis illustrating using Procreate on his iPad—a new skill honed while working on The Boy With Flowers In His Hair.
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- "I usually illustrate 2 or 3 a year—1 or 2 that I have written and maybe 1 by another author. As an author-illustrator you have a funny time-traveling existence. You’re illustrating books that will come out next year, whilst promoting books you worked on years ago, whilst also trying to think of books that will come out in years to come…for kids who probably haven’t even been born yet!"
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- Busy at work in his cozy and colorful space.
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- "I have to say I don’t remember many picture books as a kid. I remember poring over Father Christmas and Fungus The Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs. I don’t think I understood much of it, but I liked little details as a kid. I loved comic strips and would read the same Beano comics over and over."
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- Vintage Beano issues now sit in his office.
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- The cloud-like designs on the windows create a playful, whimsical mood.
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- "Before working in picture books I didn’t have children’s books on my radar. They weren’t part of my life and it was only at the beginning when I looked around the children’s section of a bookshop that I realized the variety. Some are strange, some are a bit boring, some are beautiful pieces of modern art, some will make you laugh out loud, some will give you a comforting and cozy feeling. I think the best ones aren’t just great stories for children, but great stories for anyone."
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- Tea time!
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- Bottoms up.
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- "Well that’s nice to hear. More than ever I’m trying to be consciously aware of what new books are being made as well as looking back into the rich past of picture books…but sometimes you’re so busy thinking of your own stories and illustrating those that you don’t see everything that is going on. I hope children’s books continue to flourish because I love being part of it all."
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- The 1989 classic The Happy Day, by Ruth Krauss and Marc Simont, next to an illustration of the legendary John Lennon.
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- You can listen to one of Jarvis' charming books-turned-songs right here!
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"I would say, try it out, try writing some, try illustrating some. Try to get a feel of it. If it feels natural, then keep trying to make it your life."
"I tried doing lots of creative jobs, and sometimes I had to just be honest with myself and say ‘This isn’t the right fit for me.' But once you find the thing that feels like something you should be doing, then keep on doing it. For me, it’s all about trying to find the thing that feels natural."
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- "I play instruments. We do gardening. I love comedy. All the usual stuff."
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- Jarvis' beautiful home, as seen from his garden studio.
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"I’m excited to be getting out reading to kids as part of a Libraries Festival in my city, and then also in Edinburgh as part of the book festival. I love telling the stories to kids, it might be the best part about making books."
"And I’m currently working on a little book series called Bear and Bird, which is slightly longer book with chapters. It's a funny collection of stories about friendship. It started off as a song and grew into one of my favourite book projects. That should be out in 2023 and I can’t wait to introduce everyone to it."
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- Getting some face-to-face time in the garden.
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For more on Jarvis, head over to byjarvis.com and at @booksbyjarvis on Instagram.
And be sure to scoop up his new beautiful new book, The Boy With Flowers In His Hair.
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