(SECCTION FOR ARTISTS OF ALL AGES)

The question normally has a simple quick answer, apparently logical: the writer has one idea, which evolves into a text. The illustrator comesnext, with the aim of creatingimages for that text.

1st the writer - 2nd the illustrator???

But most of the times this is not really this way. On the contrary, it is usually the opposite, especially when both creators forma cohesioned team.

During a hot summer in Galicia, there were hundreds of fires everywhere. The Asociación Galega de Profesionais da Ilustración (AGPI) suggests the members (illustrators from all Galicia) to creation of one image about the topic of fires. Most of them design reflexives illustrations, which lead us to think about our furute, the furute of our land, about civic behaviour. One illustrator, Xosé Tomás, makes his picture:

A continuación, unha escritora, CHARO PITA, observando a imaxe, decide escribir un poema inspirado nela.

In this case the text is not the first work to appear. On the contrary, it is one image which inspires a story to be written, This is the way many books appear, especially many illustrated albums. And when complicity between both creators is real, th work comes and go, from one author to the other, and they two take part in the creation process, sometimes giving their opinions about the other's work. These are the original image and the poem written by the writer:

Profundas eran as nais nos días de marzo,

Intensamente ocupadas en ser

desencadeaban fillos imprevisibles fortes,

Eran intensamente.

Os seus corposde abondosa espesura

bailaban a vida do pan cotián

fornecido en praceres

e colgaban frautas dos seus cabelos bestiais

por onde ouveaban

o vento do freixo e o voo das ameixeiras.

Fermosos eran os fillos nados de tanta nai

como o galope das madreñas por entre o peito do monte,

aloumiñando

a ceibe vontade dos volcans.

Charo Pita

Create one IDENTITY: characters, atmospheres, backgournd, colours, technique, ...

- Everything needs to have a MEANING.

- All the decisions have to be justified.

- All the elements must constitute a universe which is totally compact and coherent (non of the elements can act by itself)

Distribution channels are a very important part of the process. One book may be a literary masterpiece, and also in illustration.However, if distribution is weak, that book may be devoted to failure and forgetfullness. On the contrary, when distribution is good, the product may reach all kind of bookshops and big stores, libraries, specialized magazines, etc.

Both distribution companies and publihers work together in moving books around, so that it may reach the final aim: readers.

They are the most important element of the process. the addressee- When writer and illustrator works in the same project, they always have readers on their minds. Illustrated books may be intended for children, but in most cases the big success lies on the fact that the public is not limited.

Thus, works like Shaun Tan's, are thought for any type of public. The reason for this is that his images are very evocative, with such open interpretations that any reader may aprehend them in a different personalised way.

And with illustrated albums, sometimes authors reach readers physically: at encounters, illustrations and writing workshops, so that they can experiment the same that creators experiment when they made the work, to estimulate curiosity for the process, to see sketches, previous notes, author's notebooks, etc. Nowadays schools devote much of their time to real meetings with authors, usually in the context of school libraries.

It is essential to find a publishing house which believes in the project. At this stage of the process complicity with editors is very important.

They will assume an economic risk, and for that reason they must have guaranties that the project will be successfull. In many occasions publishers have their own collections, and the project may fit one of them.

Then, the project must be adapted to formats, to the extension of the texto, and the images need to have some special characteristics: format, polychromy/bichromy/monochromy, gereral style, more or less risk in design, and many more conditions.

In some occasions, editors rely so much on a project that they accept to create a special book, with some specific characteristics, out of a collections, because this is what the work demands. In this case the risk is higher, but normally the confidence is so much that they make all the efforts so that the project comes to a good end and may reach the readers.

The printing process is highly important for the quality of the book. There are many decisions to make: the type of paper, the grams, texture, colour (if it is the case).

And it is essential to have some communication between the illustrator, the graphic designer, the printers, so that the colours appear on the books in the right way. So that the cuts on the pages coincide with artistic and aesthetic criteria. So that, sometimes, there may be some formal experiments: holes on the cover, lenghtened covers to extend information on them, special machines to make irregular formats, and a hundred possibilities, the ones that the new concept of illustrated book demand.

Before the book is released, it is important to check the provisional printings, so that the final work has a direct relation with the project designed beforehand. This is the only way to find a perfect equivalence: rising the brightness, lowering contrast, etc.