WILL HILLLENBRAND – All ages
BIOGRAPHY
I have lived almost all my life in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I grew up surrounded by stories. My parents owned a barber shop where I listened to conversations that seemed to me stories about adult life.
When I wasn’t at the shop, I spent hours at baseball games, sharing the stories about the teams and players. My grandmother, who lived nearby, shared stories about her earlier life on a farm with my three brothers and me when we kept her company during thunderstorms.
Drawing was how I captured the stories I heard. My older brother sketched cartoons and I began by copying him. I drew mostly at the kitchen table, but also used my crayons on stairwell walls. My early pictures still decorate the basement of my mother’s house.
My first art class came when I was a sophomore in high school. I was sure everyone else was more talented and experienced, but I discovered that all those years of listening and drawing had given me a good idea for putting ideas together as pictures.
I went on to art school, although my father was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make a living. When I graduated, I found work in advertising, but after a class in picture book art, I decided to try my hand at illustrating children’s literature.
Now it is my full-time work. I spend a lot of time in schools sharing my picture books and how I create them. I think it’s important for children to enjoy the process of art and not worry too much about the finished product.
When I approach a story, I think of myself as a choreographer adding movement to a score or a movie director bringing a script to life. I read the story many times, just to let the wonder of it wash over me and feel it stretch and deepen in my imagination.
I really work in three worlds at once: the world of the imagination, the world of myth, and the physical world; children seem to live comfortably in all three. Successful illustrations link these worlds together and give a visual voice to the story.
As I begin to draw, I try to keep the child’s viewpoint foremost in my mind. For each book, I keep a journal of my sketches.
Every journal has a child’s drawing tucked inside to remind me that a child’s imagination is the starting and ending point for my art. My studio shelves are lined with marionettes, stuffed toys, and folk art animals to help me with ideas for my drawings. My wife, Jane, and our son, Ian, provide inspiration, too.
BOOKS
- Mother Goose Picture Puzzles
- Spring Is Here
- Don’t Slam The Door
- Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep!
- One Fine Trade
- Baby Dragon
- Cock-A-Doodle Christmas!
- The Moon Might Be Milk
WEBSITE