Windows into Illustration: Clara Anganuzzi

Originally from the Seychelles, Clara Anganuzzi studied Illustration at Falmouth University in the UK before completing an MA in Children’s Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art. She uses a mixture of traditional techniques to create narrative images and depicts emotions with gentle sensitivity. She describes her approach to illustration in her new book, The Ocean Gardener, which has a strong environmental message and stars a little girl and her marine biologist mum.

The illustration below from The Ocean Gardener encapsulates what the story is about: a relationship between mother and daughter, their love for the sea and the work they do to counter the adverse effects of climate change. It’s a story of hope and determination. I thought about what was important for this story and the main things for me were to represent Seychelles within the illustrations and to highlight the work that MCSS (Marine Conservation Society Seychelles) has been doing for a few years now.

Character development and setting mean a lot to me when I start working on a story, so for The Ocean Gardener, I drew on a lot of personal experiences from my childhood. I loosely based Mum and Ayla on my own mother and me, thinking about the outfits she wore – her dungarees right down to her anklet that jingled across the house, and my favourite shell PJ shorts that I wore every day.

I love creating ‘gentle moments’ between characters – quiet interactions and connections that come across from their body language – and I feel like this page has a lot of those moments, from the way Ayla looks up to her mum, to the way mum is showing her how to set up the tree-like structures and then encouraging Ayla to help with the work mum is doing.

In all of my books, I enjoy adding ‘Easter eggs’ for authors, myself, or the people I dedicate the book to. The interior page on the right of this spread has a few of those little moments – family photos, a map of Mahe, the scientific posters my parents had in their offices and the green gecko.

I work both digitally and traditionally when creating illustrations. I create line work using a pencil which is then scanned in, and coloured digitally, adding monoprint and inky textures to add depth. Colouring digitally allows me the freedom of adjusting colours while keeping playful lines created in a more intuitive way. It’s always a tricky balance working across the two mediums as digital allows you to correct mistakes very easily, which then takes away the spontaneity of mark-making. There’s always a small inner battle between keeping things loose and fresh or getting carried away with overworking an image.

The Ocean Gardener is published by Little Tiger, 978-1838915315, £12.99 hbk.