Books are my business: Picture book illustrator and author Paddy Donnelly

How did you get into making picture books?

I never studied illustration or writing or anything like that; I did web design and graphic design at college. 

I moved to Belgium right after college and worked as a web designer for a good few years.

After a number of years only doing digital things, I saw that they were very temporary. 

Any website you would build, a year later, it wouldn’t exist anymore — I wanted to do something with a real, physical-end product.

I had done a little bit of illustration when I was making kids apps. I taught myself how to do it and it was really fun. 

In 2017, I started trying to get into the publishing world as an illustrator. I went to book fairs and had portfolio reviews with publishers and I learned a lot about what they were looking for.

I built up my portfolio and I also got an agent. I got my first book projects in 2018, and in 2019 my agent asked me would I be interested in writing some picture books as well. 

The first book that I wrote as well as illustrated [ The Vanishing Lake] came out a year or two later. I’m now on my 25th picture book.

What does your job involve?

Most of the time, I illustrate other people’s stories — for every three or four I do for someone else, I do one of my own. 

The publisher sends me the manuscripts and, if there are any important notes relating to something specific that has to be in the illustration, I will look at those. But usually I like to bring my own ideas to it first.

I start with a mood board of ideas for the look and feel of the story. 

I sketch out lots of rough ideas for the characters — representing different emotions or key moments from the story and maybe some background or scenery stuff to give an overall vibe to the publisher. 

If that’s all good, I will do proper rough sketches of every page. I prefer making it a little bit rough and getting the sign-off on that and then figuring out a lot of the stuff in the coloured illustration stage. 

I do everything digitally. I have a big Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet; there are thousands of different brushes and effects that you can recreate.

People assume the author and illustrator sit together in a room and work on a picture book together but usually you only meet the author after it’s done.

What do you like most about what you do?

I love the actual act of illustrating, coming up with ideas and creating something. 

But far and away the best aspect of the job is whenever I go to schools and bookshops and get to read my stories to kids and do drawing activities with them. 

The picture books you read as a child stay with you forever.

What do you like least about it?

Starting off a project can be pretty daunting — when you have a blank page and you don’t know where to go. But you always figure it out.

Three desert island books

I have picked three that were really important to me as a kid. Watership Down is fantastic — I remember everything about the characters and the whole world that Richard Adams built up with these rabbits, their adventures, and the whole lore. 

I have very fond memories of reading it and drawing characters from it.

My next one is Run with the Wind, by Tom McCaughren. I still have my copy from when I was a kid and I can remember sitting in my bed reading it. 

I make lots of stories about animals and nature, so the themes from those books definitely come through in my work.

My third book is a picture book called Full Moon Soup, by Alistair Graham; it has no words, only illustrations. 

It’s set in a hotel and you can see all the rooms and what’s happening in them. I remember sitting on the floor in my living room back home reading it. 

I rediscovered it again a few years ago and I immediately remembered all the details, from what pictures were on the wall to the colour of the bedspread.

• Fox & Son Tailers, by Paddy Donnelly, is one of the titles available to purchase with €1.50 World Book Day tokens. See other titles at worldbookday.com. World Book Day Ireland takes place on Thursday, March 6