A method to his doodling

Illustrator David Elliot at his Port Chalmers studio, where he has developed a long list of characters. Photo / Otago Daily Times

It might boast boisterous barnyard bleating and night-time neighing designed to amuse children, but the latest collaboration between illustrator David Elliot and writer Margaret Mahy offers a message for adults, too.

The Moon & Farmer McPhee, which stresses the importance of enjoying life and beholding the beauty of our immediate surroundings, is also a light-hearted take on that perennial parental problem of getting the kids to bed, though its inferred conclusion (just give up) might have some looking heavenward for help.

"It's to do with ... not getting too caught up in routines," Elliot explains from his Port Chalmers studio. "I think we all forget that sometimes, but there are times when you do get bogged down with work. I suppose, in a sense, it is a wee bit of an adult theme for a children's books. I think the best of children's books strike something that goes right across all age barriers."

The Moon & Farmer McPhee also explores the relationship between how children see the world and how adults do - fitting, given much of Elliot's working life involves straddling a line between artistic fantasy and the pragmatic realities of the publishing industry.

Elliot teaches drawing and painting part-time at Kings High School in Dunedin. The rest of the time ("I usually draw until about 3pm, then my eyes give in.") he can be found in his studio, a place where he has developed a long list of characters.

In 1991 he won the New Zealand Library Association's Russel Clark Illustration Award for Arthur and the Dragon; in 2003 he received the New Zealand Post Children's Picture Book Award for Sydney and the Sea Monster; and he has achieved international success with his illustrations for Brian Jacques' Redwall series, a New York Times best-seller.

"Redwall was very important for me and taught me an immense amount about illustrating," Elliot says of the seven books (2002-2008) for which he drew characters. He also contributed to two books in Jacques' Flying Dutchman series.

"The [Redwall] stories are a mixture of Robin Hood and Wind in the Willows, I guess. They really are quite old-fashioned in terms of having little black and white illustrations ... there are about 40 to 50 drawings in each book."

Jacques' books allowed Elliot to indulge in his love of Victorian Gothic art, a style that also surfaced in the University of Otago Library's Printer in Residence Scheme in 2006, the result of which was a celebration of Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.

"I love that dark imagery. I suppose I've been lucky in that the Redwall books gave me the opportunity to do that stuff. The Hunting of the Snark is very much like that, too," Elliot says.

"Right now, I'm sitting here designing a jabberwock. I'd love to have a go at that poem [also written by Carroll]. I've always been influenced by the Victorian illustrators but also other people like Mervyn Peake, who is one of the most Gothic illustrators with the Gormenghast series."

Elliot says he has always drawn and dabbled in stories. In fact, when he went to art school in Christchurch in the late 1970s, he tried to ignore that inclination and instead focus on being a painter.

"But it kept coming through; I couldn't repress it. I particularly liked drawing animals."

He was able to fulfil that fondness in the early 1980s when he got a job as gatekeeper at Edinburgh Zoo, where he was able to wander the grounds late at night, observing various nocturnal creatures. It proved to be a seminal experience.

"I think my time in Edinburgh was important. I had a lot of time during the winter when the zoo was really quiet, so I drew and wrote. I'd get on the train and go to London and show my work to some of the publishers there. Of course, there were hundreds of them. They gave me enough positive feedback for me to think maybe I could have a crack at this," Elliot reflects.

"When I got back to New Zealand in 1983, I got lucky, in that the first publisher I showed a story to took it. That's very unusual. But I had put in a lot of groundwork. Once you've got one under your belt, publishers tend to realise you're not such a gamble. Quite often I've talked to people who want to get into children's writing. I have to say that it's really quite hard getting that first break."

Elliot, 58, and his wife Gillian have lived in Port Chalmers for the past 21 years. Before his current working arrangements, he was an art teacher at Queen's High School for 10 years, she a librarian at the public library in Port Chalmers before moving to the University of Otago library. The couple have two daughters (21 and 17), both of whom are involved in theatre.

Elliot says Gillian is "the best support I could have". His daughters scrutinise his work but, he suspects, are probably a little inured to "Dad's scribblings".

Yet there is a method to his doodling.

"When I first started out, I came into it primarily as an illustrator. I would draw and play around with the experience of the characters. Now, with a bit more experience under my belt, I realise the story is essential. In the beginning, I used to be terribly protective of the characters, I wanted them to be the same as those in the drawings.

"I certainly learned off other illustrators and writers. All you have to do is go to the library and pick up books and look at wonderful drawings ... to see how they match with the story."

Elliot has certainly learnt plenty from his collaborations with Mahy, with whom he worked on 2009 poetry collection The Word Witch.

"I have a huge amount of respect for Margaret," he says of the New Zealand author who has written more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories, and won numerous awards for her works including the Hans Christian Andersen Award in recognition of her contribution to children's literature.

Elliot says the process of creating The Moon & Farmer McPhee has been somewhat back to front. He came up with the idea and presented a "rough" of the story to Mahy at her Governor's Bay home.

"We talked about it. She changed a couple of things to do with the pacing of the book, we went to and fro with the book. Margaret operated in the way an illustrator would in the sense the story usually comes from the author and then goes to the illustrator," Elliot explains.

"This has gone the other way, with Margaret operating as a wordsmith - and that says an enormous amount for her. It is a very generous thing for an author to do. That's what makes Margaret stand out from the crowd really, this incredible openness to adventure and innovation.

"That's one thing I've noticed with children's writers and illustrators in New Zealand. The people I've run into are very generous and seem to be really interested in the quality of the product. It is a very selfless pursuit to some degree."

For more information, visit: www.davidelliot.org