“The Creativity and Curiosity Are Already There in Most of Us”: Interview with Artist and Illustrator Øyvind Torseter

Illustration from the book “Mulegutten” (The Heartless Troll), Øyvind Torseter. Ink drawing, colouring in acrylic paint.

Mulegutten wakes up one day and discovers a mysterious hole in his apartment. It moves and seems to have a mind and life of its own. Curious and intrigued, he tries to find the explanation. He keeps searching, but maybe some things can’t be explained and must be accepted for what they are. The creation of the book The Hullet (The Hole) came from more than a narrative motivation, but rather an innovative approach to the structural form of a book (there is a hole punched right through the book, so it exists in real life), and with it, Øyvind Torseter taps right into the heart of childhood and the mystery of life itself. What else, if not fearless imagination, impossible curiosity, a lightness of discovery and joy of play, speaks better of childhood? What else, if not the freedom that comes from accepting that we may not have the answer to everything, speaks of the beauty of life? I like to believe we are all children at heart. And Øyvind Torseter invites children and adults alike to wander around a little bit, take a wondrous look at the world and consider the hidden depths of their own creativity.

The Norwegian children’s book illustrator, author and picture book artist has made eleven books of his own and created several more with other writers, is the recipient of the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Award for 2008 for his book Avstikkere and was the 2014 finalist of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Øyvind Torseter’s illustrations are like a second native language. Minimalistic and spontaneous yet abounding in subtle details, reassuringly distinctive and incredibly expressive visually, they are suffused with humour, intelligence and a moral code of their own, and allow us to enter a sort of a new world discovered by an artist who knew how to look into a new direction and find these curious and strange creatures who seem to throw a new light on a more or less unusual situation or even on the magic of a classic fairy tale.

In our interview, Øyvind and I talk about playing with form on his book Hullet, about Norwegian folk tale inspirations, the challenges of fostering creativity in children and what triggers his imagination now, as an adult.

Interior spread from the book “Mulegutten” (The Heartless Troll), written and illustrated by Øyvind Torseter.

Øyvind, what is your earliest drawing memory?

I have a vague memory of being around 5 year old, sitting in my father’s office drawing tractors with a blue ballpoint pen on paper. Making things up as the pen moves over the paper. I still have some of the drawings, my parents kept them, which, of course, makes it a bit easier to remember.  

The motives came from living in the countryside. I grew up on a farm. Some time later, at school, I was always drawing on the margins of the school books.  One time, a teacher handed me a sketchbook to draw in instead.

“I believe the creativity and the curiosity
are already there in most of us, but they have
to be given time and space to develop.”

Did you find school to be a proper environment for fostering your creativity?

We did have some art and craft at school. Maybe more then they have now, but this was way back in the early 80s. Schools that focus very much on grades and goals could really need time for arts, craft and creativity. A place where you can try out things and make mistakes. The problem is that the creative subjects also can become goal-oriented in an environment like this, and it dies a bit.

So who or what was it that encouraged you the most to be creative when you grew up?

I’m not sure. Maybe growing up in surroundings without many distractions made me want to make things. But, then again, my own children are creative, and we live a hectic city life with lots of things going on around us.

I believe the creativity and the curiosity are already there in most of us, but they have to be given time and space to develop. If creativity is encouraged (expected may be the better word) too much, it also can become just another task to do for somebody else instead of a way to discover the world.

Cover of the book “Hullet” (The Hole), made from heavy chipboard, written and illustrated by Øyvind Torseter

Your book Hullet, where the character, Mulegutten, discovers a hole and tries to find an explanation, is an ingenious children’s book – the hole is punched right through the book, so it exists in real life. It plays with the traditional format, it’s a very physical book and that’s very exciting. How challenging is it to make an “out-of-the-box” book? Are publishing houses more and more open to new formats and ideas?

The book Hullet was a challenge to make, but also great fun. I have often played around with 3D elements in my sketchbooks: Folded pages, cutting and pasting. Hullet was a more conscious idea, wanting to make something that used the book format as a major part of the story.  

The main concept is simple: It is a book with a hole in the middle. To develop ideas, I took a pile of empty sketchbooks and drilled a hole through them for then to start to draw. First, obvious ideas: Things with holes in them. After a while, the ideas got weirder. What if the hole in the page, the thing that is not there, becomes a thing? Can it both be an object and negative space? Or, what happens if it moves around? I chose some of the ideas and started to collage it together as a story.

My Norwegian publisher was very excited about the project when I first showed it to them. They have been very supportive all the way. Hullet has also been translated into 15 languages, so my experience is that there are publishers out there that are open to this kind of projects. If they like the idea and belive in it. My Norwegian publishing agency told me that it was an easy book to show to foreign publishers as it did not depend on translation. The idea is in the visual.

Interior spread from the book “Hullet” (The Hole), written and illustrated by Øyvind Torseter.
Pen and ink drawing, digital colouring.

Interior spread from the book “Hullet” (The Hole), written and illustrated by Øyvind Torseter.

“For me, everything starts with the image.
Some things can be told with words,
some things with colour, etc.”

Hullet is also almost without words, as most of your books are. I believe that wordless picture books have this unique ability to allow children space and their own method to read them. Do you prefer to tell stories in images rather than with words?

Yes, wordless books and books with few words can be read in several ways. The reader has to be co-creative (not sure if that is the word?). This also happens in text-books, of course, but images read differently. Some images are often more like a sign language. Some images have a direction and a rhythm to the reading. Others again are more like a labyrinth or a mind map, where the reader can choose time and direction. And there are a lot of other ways and combinations.
 
For me, it always starts with images. Most of the story is drawn before I add any text. When showing images for a new project to the editor, I talk about the story. That is usually the first time I put the story into words.

I sometimes think of the text in my books as just another tool besides colour, shapes, formats:  Some things can be told with words, some things with colour, etc.

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

I read several of the Norwegian fairy tales as a child. They can be both fascinating and grotesque. There is so much happening in them that is not in the text, only in your head.  
I also very much liked Emil in Lønneberga, by Astrid Lindgren, about Emil, a young boy with a very wild imagination. I could relate.

Interior spread from the book “Hullet” (The Hole), written and illustrated by Øyvind Torseter.

“I draw in a very direct way with pen and ink.
No sketching first, so there is no way back.”

What triggers your imagination now, as an adult?

Everyday life. Coming to my studio every morning to start drawing. There is more room to be imaginative if there is not so much going on around.

Do you mostly draw from imagination or do you also like to observe and be inspired by the world?

I do sometimes make observational drawings. It is such a good way to see and understand one’s surroundings. Not hard to understand why this was something you had to do in many professions in the past. It is almost a way to record the outside world into your head (if this makes sense?).

When I draw my books, it is all from my imagination, but based on things around me. Like a collage.

I draw in a very direct way with pen and ink. No sketching first, so there is no way back. This means a very focused drawing process. Making it up as I go along, like telling stories to oneself. Starting in the middle of the paper and letting the drawing grow out of the details.  Not all the drawings turn out successful: I prefer to make a lot of drawings and then choose afterwards which to use.

Do you keep all your sketches?

I keep all drawings and sketches. It is nice to have an archive. Sometimes an unused drawing from one project can be used in an other project, and interesting, chance-like things can happen.

Cover of the book “Mulegutten” (The Heartless Troll), written and illustrated by Øyvind Torseter

Mister Random was your first published book, with illustrations made in a wide range of techniques, such as pen and ink, pencil, dry pastels, oil pastels, monotype, stamps and digital work. But I would like to ask if you prefer line drawing, because I have always considered this art to land very well on illustration, especially children’s illustration.

Line drawing is my handwriting or the way I think on paper. With simple line drawing, the reader has to use the imagination and add elements. I do like to work with colours, it is a different way of thinking. Colour is often secondary for me, I see lines first. A painter probably sees colour first.

Also I like to play around and combine different techniques: This also can give an element of abstraction and the reader has to be creative as well. But linedrawing is where it starts.

“There is more room to be imaginative
if there is not so much going on around.”

Mulegutten is based on a Norwegian folks tale. What was it that drew you to this traditional tale? And by reinterpreting a classic tale, did you want to consciously relate better to readers today, or was it the themes from a fairy tale that you simply wanted to reimagine in your own artistic way?

After making the book The Hole I was curious about the main character from that book. I wanted to use him in a different story. The Norwegian folk tales have been illustrated so well by so many artists and illustrators in the past I had not really considered doing that before. But then I thought maybe it could be interesting placing this character (from The Hole) in one of the folk tales. I found this tale, The Troll with No Heart in His Body, that I could not remember having heard before, and I fascinated me. It seemed interesting to visualize. I found there was a lot of freedom doing the drawings. Maybe because the main structure in the story is familiar it gives freedom to play and experiment and then come back to the structure. It is there as a anchor.

Illustration from the book “Mulegutten”, Øyvind Torseter. Ink drawing, colouring in acrylic paint.

How important remain books in shaping up young children’s minds and imagination? How do you make them still love books?

Books are, of course, very important for this. But sometimes I have a feeling we forget that other forms of art also shape the imagination: Visual art, music, cartoons, movies. This is all important. For some children other forms of art may be closer. I was always more drawn to the visual that to words. I liked playing out in the woods and make things with my hands. Reading, art, music, creativity, craft playing: All of these things are connected and seem to be missing a bit in childhood today. Now I sound very old.

When making the books, I try to discover and understanding things through playfulness. I have to believe that if the process of making the book is interesting, it hopefully is so for the reader.

Some of your books have been adapted into theater plays. How active a role have you played in this process?

I am very happy about the theater plays. They are something else than the books, and it has to be different. I was not much involved in any of the plays. I think you eighter have to be fully involved or not at all. I know the director of two of the plays and I trust what they do. They know the possibilities and craft of the theatre and much better than me.

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

Time alone without distractions.

Thank you, Øyvind, for this wonderful talk and incursion into your fascinating universe.