Windows into Illustration: Sara Fanelli

Sara Fanelli’s dynamically innovative graphic talent was seen in her first books, Button and Wolf!. Here she explains the techniques and thinking behind her recent picture book, Dear Diary.

When I am developing an idea for a new book I try to integrate several of my interests. The subject of the story is vitally linked to the sort of image I wish to depict; but the narrative structure which is best to tell the story is equally important to me. In Dear Diary I combined a series of short stories – sometimes simple, sometimes more elaborate – using the device of seven different diary entries and visually I used graphic elements that relate to diaries, notebooks, etc. The idea was to tell the events of one single day as seen by the seven different characters. Each character describes the same events from its/his/her individual point of view. So each character both enriches the narrative by adding its/his/her details and at the same time reveals connections with the other characters’ versions which eventually give the reader the full rounded explanation of the events of the whole day.

A little girl named Lucy is the character around which the day revolves. Her diary comes first and last and all the other characters come directly or indirectly into her day.

Lucy’s diary is followed by her dog Bubu’s diary. And Bubu’s interpretation of the events we have just read about in Lucy’s diary is very different.

I wished inanimate objects also to have a diary – children often relate to objects (especially everyday ones such as chairs, knives and forks, etc.) attributing to them a personality and making friends with them. So the school chair has its own diary entry, as well as the knife and fork.

The other category of characters comes from the insect world. There are two parties going on during the same evening: the party at Lucy’s house and the insect party, which we eventually discover is taking place in Lucy’s garden.

This subject matter of diaries gives me the chance to exploit my love of ephemera related to old stationery and diaries, note books, handwriting. I have been passionately collecting old papers for a long time – I find these materials perfect for collage, because they have a natural beauty partly given by the sense of time they suggest with their old stains and pale colours – the very papers and labels almost tell a story of their own.

When I was thinking about the story for a new book I tried to create a setting (the diaries) in which I could use as a central motif my collection of old stationery. Each of the seven diary entries has a different colour scheme, a different label and a quotation relevant to the character.

I mostly used collage but also some gouache paint – I find collage is the best way for me to create images. I cut out pieces of paper from magazines, old books, from paper I first paint, from newspapers, sweet wrappers, tickets and other everyday bits of packaging. I like the richness that each piece of collage taken from a different context brings to the picture.

I also wished to retain the appearance of real diary pages – so I wrote in distinctive handwriting each of the characters’ stories – the spider’s handwriting is scratchy and inky; Lucy’s is like the best efforts of a girl who has recently learnt calligraphy in school; Bubu’s writing is large, clumsy and messy; and so on. I added onto the margins of some pages the doodles we find in real diaries – I actually made a feature of these doodles and scribbles on the endpapers of the book.

I hope that this book will be enjoyed as an interesting story with exciting images, but I also hope that it will encourage children to keep their own diary. Because – as the quotation on the title page reminds us – we don’t have to wait for amazing adventures to keep a diary, we can find it inspiring just to annotate the everyday events of our lives which can become small adventures in our imagination.

Dear Diary (0 7445 6756 4) is published by Walker at £9.99. The paperback (0 7445 8263 6, £5.99) is due in June.