“Make Room for the Child in Us”: Interview with Illustrator Irina Dobrescu

”What’s the Catch about Reading” anthology, Arthur Publishing House, illustrated by Irina Dobrescu

 

At a recent book fair I relished in seeing so many children pouring over books. Small children spread on the floor, absorbed by picture books, young children roaming between the aisles searching for favourite authors or on the hunt for new favourites. Picture books and children’s books are flourishing. And with that, I hope our children are, too. In fact, readers of all ages enjoy children’s books and it is important to remember that we must keep storytelling alive and aloud, to keep reading to children even after they can read by themselves. So that the magic of the story does not become overwhelmed by the words, so that they keep on dreaming without being compelled by the reality of the words. They must feel they are invited through a door without being told where they are.

Children’s books illustrators are keepers of the imagination and their well of exploring and building imaginative spaces is endless.

A graduate of arts and graphic design, Irina Dobrescu is also a founding member of the Romanian Illustrators Club. She has illustrated world-renowned stories, both contemporary and classic, such as Grimm Brothers’ König Drosselbart, and has had her own book published. Irina’s illustrations seem to bring out a myriad of emotions that are hiding behind a story. Her pictures seem like something you have imagined or dreamed of and didn’t know what to make of it or how to express it all. There is wonder and magic and always a grain of fable hidden somewhere inside.

In our interview, Irina gives an insight into her creative process, sharing her experiences, challenges and doubts, and talks about why it is important to not know everything and to forget what you have learned from time to time, why acyclic and gouache are the medium she prefers at the moment, and why we should all remain children at heart.

 

”Look Who’s Talking”, Arthur Publishing House, illustrated by Irina Dobrescu

 

What is your earliest drawing memory?

I remember drawing with my sister – flowers, rabbits, princesses, landscapes with houses with the sun in the corner and a “going to the seaside’ scene, with us in the car. We had a brand new marker set and I remember the great reverence I had for pink and turqoise. This is a good question, as one of the most important things when I start painting now is to “dash it all” and to have the same enthusiasm I had then.

Your work is both captivating and lyrical, and always filled with a sense of whimsy. How have you honed your style of illustration?

Thank you! Well, I had plenty of time to do it, for better or worse, for I attended art schools from 10 to 24 years old, and, before that, I had my grandfather, a painter, in front of my eyes, painting masterfully.

Then, I liked to read, I had plenty of books to read, and plenty of time to read (and, lately, to listen to audiobooks). I consider that, for an illustrator, reading and being able to enter the world of books, may be just as important as drawing.

I also consider it important to be able to “forget what you have learned” periodically and not to get into a routine with what you are doing, and also to be able to discern what your strengths and weaknesses are. Perhaps I overdo the “forget what you’ve learned” stuff, as I am unarticulated and ignorant in most situations and contexts. But, then again, this inability to communicate only spurs my artistic side to express itself: I feel buried alive otherwise.

 

 

“I consider it important to be able to
periodically forget what you have learned.”

 

 

From my conversations with illustrators I have discovered, for example, that some don’t like drawing people – some because they feel they lack the ability to draw people as they wished they could, some because they feel the readers, especially children, relate more to animal characters. Is there something you avoid drawing?

I try to avoid the colour violet for some unknown reason, also things that are made of plastic, and shapes that are already “chewed” again and again aesthetically (like a Barbie doll, for instance).

 

”Stardust”, by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Irina Dobrescu

 

Could you give us an insight into your working process? What is the unseen evolution of an idea? Because I always feel it is as interesting as the final result.

Talking about the process of my work, I could say there are two situations:
1. When the idea of a book comes to me.
2. When I receive and accept a book written by somebody else to illustrate.

In the first situation, the process of creating my own stories might seem chaotic – especially as I must mix the roles – that of the writer and that of the illustrator, and especially that I am working at almost all the illustrations in a book at the same time (I don’t take each of them one at a time).

From the inside, the logic is this: I have a vision and the feeling that through this story I can live extraordinary sensations, I can fulfill great dreams and wishes, and most of all, satisfy deep emotional and spiritual needs. So I march with all the army and guns that I own in the direction of the target, as dynamically as I can. Towards the end, I start strategising and refining, but at the beginning it is sort of a Lightning War.

In the second situation, I read the text and let it inspire me as much as it can. To this purpose, I convince myself that the story is MINE, that I can take it into my possession as a child takes a game as a present. So I feel I have the freedom to move in the story and enjoy the different kinds of delights it offers: if it is a magical world, hey, anything might happen there, anything I might invent myself; if it has princesses, the little girl in me jubilates and has a lot to say about this; if there are love-stories, all my favourite books of this kind are waking up to life and start sending their perfume. And so I start putting down ides and sketches, noting these ideas and also provoking some for the parts of the story that might not be so very inspiring yet need an illustration (there is always an illustration bank inside my head).

Then I start painting the final paintings, lately trying to use techniques that permit me to “think things along the way” and not to be forced to establish each detail from the very beginning. For instance, in the technique I use at the moment, acrylics and gouache on modeling clay, I can first create a background – a landscape or an interior – and then add the characters, and then erase them easily if I change my mind. Actually, working started resembling more and more to playing with the dolls and puppets from my childhood, and that is almost a therapeutic thing!

 

Illustration by Irina Dobrescu

 

You have illustrated many books by other authors, both classic and contemporary stories, including König Drosselbart by Grimm Brothers, as well as your own. Is there any project you are particularly fond of, and why? And what is the biggest challenge when you have to bring new life to a well-known character?

It is hard to name a favourite project, yet maybe my own stories make me the most excited, at the beginning at least. (I was no doubt levitating a few inches from the ground in the first weeks of working at the Poker Player Wolf.)

I do not feel intimidated when creating generic, classical, drawn over and over again characters, as I suppose these characters become classical as they “hit” an archetype inside us, an archetype which maybe we get born with. So the wolf in Little Red Hood, for instance, is and feels very much my own personal old paw/enemy wolf – no matter how well others are or aren’t acquainted with it.

 

 

”Everything could and can inspire me.”

 

 

What fuels a children’s book writer’s imagination?

Normally, everything could and can inspire me – as long as I have, if I can say so, my soul awaken.

For that to happen, I usually need to help it be awoken, and what helps me most is prayer, going to church, wise thoughts, positive affirmations. But also journaling, romantic walks in nature, reading literature, passionate studies of psychology, philosophy, eastern cultures, ancient cultures, and sometimes, even math. Also, and maybe I should have mentioned this in the beginning, the dear persons around are the most inspirational things in my life.

 

”Dwarf King”, by Radu Vancu, illustrated by Irina Dobrescu

 

What was your favourite book as a child, the book that sparked your imagination or spoke to you more than any other?

It’s hard to choose one, I hope I will not cheat if I will name more: Winetou, Cireșarii, Pride and prejudice, The Mystery of the Yellow Room, and all Agatha Christie’s.

 

How about illustrated books? Anything you remember from your childhood or something you love even now as an adult?

I liked Lívia Rusz’s illustrations (Peter Pan and Wendy was a favourite of mine!) and also Dana Schobel’s.

 

 

“Read to them even when they can read by themselves.”

 

 

Peter Pan and Wendy was also one of my favourites. How can we inspire children to read more today?

A method, I think, would be to read to them, even when they can read by themselves. And maybe an idea is to help them, with our parental authority, to resist staying on phones or other devices, and give them books instead – also crayons and sketchbooks or maybe a guitar!

 

König Drosselbart, by Grimm Brothers, illustrated by Irina Dobrescu

 

What other artists and illustrators have inspired you in your work?

I will name the illustrators Lisbeth Zwerger, Rébecca Dautremer, Joanna Concejo, Wolf Erlbruch. As for artists, Pieter Brueghel, Johannes Vermeer, Hans Holbein, Constantin Brancusi and Paul Klee.

 

I have to say that I was almost expecting to find Lisbeth Zwerger on your list. There is something in your style of illustration that reminds me of her work. And I am particularly fond of her because she illustrates so many classics, keeping their work alive. I miss the imagination, fantasy and literary language from those books that could literally open minds and worlds. What are your thoughts on this? Is there something missing from today’s children’s books?

Yes, I find Lisbeth Zwerger an extraordinary illustrator, with the secret aesthetic code of the great old masters in her pencil! Her compositions are very intelligent, the atmosphere is strong yet subtle, and her technique is getting more and more attractive (if possible!).
I think indeed the old classical fairytales are full of wisdom and of meaning and that an illustrator should try to get at the bottom of that, and at the bottom of his/her own psyche, while drawing upon them. This would maybe help the readers to find the hidden meaning and the magic of stories.

 

”Father Brown”, written and illustrated by Irina Dobrescu,
and inspired by a novel by the English novelist G.K. Chesterton

 

In this time and age, what do you wish people appreciated more?

I think it would be helpful if people would appreciate more nature and the richness and the magic of reality. That that reality is also very well described by their vision of it from when they were children, and from every time when they were happy, in love maybe. That fairytales, or classical love-stories, try to describe the same reality they have around them. I don’t mean it is best to evacuate the adult inside us, only to help him make room (and support!) for the child as well, or for the wild, inspired, in-love teenager inside us.

 

Thank you, Irina, for this wonderful incursion into a world of play and wonder.

 

”Satul Nimica Toata”, illustrated by Irina Dobrescu

 

Website: irina.dobrescu.net

 
 

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