Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Sebastian Walker on Radio 4's "Great Lives"


When I am well into a piece of work I find that listening to an audiobook or talk radio is ideal for me, and the BBC iplayer is an extraordinary resource to explore. I recommend it to any one.

I was going through the archive of  Radio 4's "Great Lives" when I was very pleasantly surprised to see that my late publisher, Sebastian Walker, was Lynn Barber's choice of a great life.

Sebastian died a good many years ago, but it is true to say that he revolutionised the publishing of Children's books. It's telling that both of the programme's contributors, Lynn Barber and Sebastian's sister Mirabel Cecil, both point up the great importance he placed on the work of his illustrators.
I consider myself hugely fortunate that I was one of those illustrators.


2 comments:

  1. Hi PJ Lynch

    I have admired your amazing illustrations for a long time, it is great to find that you have a blog.
    May I ask where you learned the fundamentals of illustration such as color, lighting, anatomy and perspective? Also what made you want to become an illustrator for children's books?
    Just very interested and thinking into learning some illustration myself, would love some advice on the technicalities of beginning to learn to draw and paint detailed realistic imagined scenes.

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  2. Thanks so much Anon.
    I went to Art College in Brighton but I learned those fundamentals from other artists and from my own practice and mistakes.
    I wanted to draw stuff for a living and kids books just worked for me.
    These links might be a place to start.
    Best regards PJ

    Here is a link to a video I made a while back which might help a bit.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_9KkSKIzo
    Paul Foxton is very good.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/PaulFoxton
    My pal Shevaun Doherty has a nice blog http://botanicalsketches.blogspot.ie/ good on technique.

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