“The Art of Storytelling: An Interview with Children’s Book Author and Illustrator, Alex Willan”

Alex Willan has always had an interest in drawing and illustration. Numerous accounts relay him as a child never without a sketchbook. Following this passion, he achieved a BA in Illustration from the highly revered Savannah College of Art and Design. He’s put his degree to use by exhibiting in galleries and painting murals, eventually bringing his illustration skills and his love of children’s books together to create his Jasper & Ollie series and the even more popular Gilbert the Goblin series.

One might wonder how you make the evolution from illustrator to children’s book author having only studied art. In numerous interviews with Alex, he mentions that one of the best things he did—and something he recommends for anyone wanting to get involved in making picture books—is to join SCBWI. We asked Alex what the biggest benefit of this alliance brought to building his career. Alex related to us that, “SCBWI has had a big impact on my career. The challenge of trying to get into children’s publishing was so daunting that for the longest time I was too afraid to even try. From the moment I went to my first SCBWI conference, my excitement began to outgrow my fear. It was amazing to be around so many people that were as passionate about kid lit as I was. I met people who, like me, were just getting started in the pursuit of their dream as well as award-winning authors and illustrators and everyone in-between and they were all so supportive and encouraging. It wasn’t that I left that first conference confident that I would be successful (I knew that it would take a lot of work with no guarantee of success), but for the first time I believed that it could be possible and that is a big first step.”

With a background in illustration, parlaying into writing children’s books, we were curious about what part of the process comes first, the idea for the story or the visual aspect as inspiration for the story? Alex shared with us that, “When I started writing my own stories, most of them would come from my sketchbook. Usually, it was a drawing of a character that I really liked (or characters in the case of JASPER & OLLIE) and I would try and build out a story based on whatever personality I could imagine them having from the drawing. The more that I write, the more often a story will come to me first. But even if I have the start of a story idea, it really starts to take shape once I’ve at least sketched out the main character. I really love the initial character design phase because it can often feel like the character is sort of introducing themselves to me for the first time.” We can only imagine the abundance of drawings he has to pull inspiration from since he’s been drawing since childhood. Imagine that portfolio!

His most recent installment in the Gilbert the Goblin series, Elves Are The Worst, we’re once again seeing Gilbert wary of the merits of the people he’ll meet and perhaps finding out that his first impression was wrong. With such a grumpy personality at the heart of these beloved stories we asked Alex where the idea came from for Gilbert. He told us, “The initial inspiration for the first book, UNICORNS ARE THE WORST!, came when I was out shopping for some gifts for my nieces and nephew. It seemed like everywhere I turned I saw unicorns; figurines, clothes, backpacks, etc. I like unicorns well enough, but it did make me wonder how it would feel to be any other mythological creature if they were to walk into such a unicorn-laden store. So, Gilbert the Goblin came out of that thought. I think that oftentimes our emotions, like fear or jealousy, can lead us to draw false conclusions, like Gilbert thinking that unicorns are the worst. It’s been great to be able to explore those ideas with such a lovably grumpy character.”

Alex was excited to be publishing his fourth title in the series this fall as well as releasing a box set that contains all four titles. It seems he’s on a roll so hopefully we can anticipate even more adventures with Gilbert in the future. What’s your best guess as to whom he meets next? Perhaps fairies? 

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