So Thursday afternoon, a friend happens to mention she’s headed to Bundoora to see Shaun Tan speak at RMIT Library the next day. Just casual like, and “Oh, would you like to come?”
My jaw dropped open.
I have mentioned his beautiful illustrated books in the past, my favourite of which is The Lost Thing, it’s like another world, a hundred years ago, where odd little machine creatures roam the urban landscape picking through gutters for cog and screw snacks.
His talk was very inspiring, and if you go to his site, or listen to his talk on Radio National next Saturday afternoon, he’ll tell you all about how he learnt to draw, how he gained confidence, his setbacks and successes. He really teaches you the process and how you get to be as good as he is at it. He doesn’t mystify the process at all. He talked about how he can’t draw when he’s depressed, how heaps of his ideas never made it past the publishers, how he has days where nothing he draws is any good, and how biro on scrap paper is his favourite format because it’s low pressure, that his doodles are just messy little things, and how office work has prevented him from drawing for the last year! He also talked about how lucky he got, how hard he’s worked… and just a million amazing insights into the world of a successful illustrator.
He signed two of my books i’d brought, and he has a new one on sale called Tales from Outer Suburbia which i quickly snapped up at the local Angus & Robertson’s on my way home, but best of all he drew a little creature for me in my moleskine! (which he says he has one too, but it intimidates him!) So my moleskine has been ordained by one of the foremost illustrators who inspired me a few years ago to have a proper go at learning to draw. I virtually flew home, my feet barely touched the ground!
