Chris Wormell talks about Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice

Q: You have three different illustrative styles, lino and wood cut, pastels and watercolour. Which one did you use for Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice?
For this book I used watercolour with some outlining in pen and ink.

Q: What was it about this story that made you decide on that illustrative approach?
I almost always use watercolour for the stories I write now, though in the past I have used coloured pencil and lino cut. Coloured pencil I found too slow and lino cut – for some stories – too limiting, though I’m sure I will use it again for stories. I used the pen and ink outlines in this book to pick out the detail of the characters and to lift them off the backgrounds – the mice in particular.

Q: Which part of the book was the most difficult to do?
Strangely enough I seemed to have trouble with my main character – Scruffy Bear. Sometimes I got him just right, others I had to repaint him several times.

Q: Which part was the most fun?
I enjoyed all of it. Sometimes I write stories that feature lots of people, and I find drawing people a problem. This book was about animals in a wood, both things I love to draw.

Q: Scruffy Bear ingeniously protects the mice from being eaten by various predators. How frightening can picture book stories be for the very young?
Good question. I don’t know. Who knows what small children are scared of? Some are scared of dragons, others love them. I hope this story isn’t too scary, but I imagine some small children might find it a little scary.
I have, in the past, presented my editor with story ideas that are way too scary for small children – guaranteed to give them nightmares. I sometimes get carried away, forget my audience, and draw the pictures that stir my imagination. Luckily my editor wisely suggests I rethink the story…

Q: Do you prefer to illustrate your own stories?
Definitely – one of the reasons I enjoy writing stories is so that I can illustrate them. My story George and the Dragon was written simply because I had a desire to draw dragons.

Q: Which picture book illustrators do you most admire?
Randolph Caldecott, Beatrix Potter, William Nicholson, Maurice Sendak, John S. Goodall, Raymond Briggs, Anthony Browne, Angela Barrett… lots more I can’t think of right now…

Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice
Chris Wormell, Jonathan Cape, 978 0 224 08394 2, £10.99 hbk