Oh hello! You made it! Sit down and I'll make you a cup of tea. Sorry my studio's a bit messy, but you know it always is, so I won't pretend otherwise. This is where I do my work and write emails and talk on the phone and sometimes lie on the floor and often watch the squirrels chase each other up and down the fire escape.
 

So, I believe you have some questions for me. I'll do my best. Ahem... 

Have I always been an illustrator?
Ah, no. Before I was an illustrator I was a child. And then I worked in a shoe shop and a robot factory, and wrote a column for a while, explaining how best to collect a broken egg from the floor (sprinkle salt on it and gather it up in a paper towel), and how to make an aesthetically pleasing caddy for your tv remote control, for people who find their remote controls offensive, (it's quite complicated and your tea will grow cold). And then I began to be an illustrator for magazines mostly, and I made paintings as well for exhibitions, and had two children, and moved from Sydney, Australia to New York and then did my first book, Ruby's Wish.

Was I good at drawing when I was little?
Ah, no. Terrible. My mother has kept all my drawings and likes to remind me how terrible I was, on a regular basis. In spite of my lack of talent, however, I kept at it because it was fun. (Sometimes it wasn't fun; I remember having a dreadful tantrum when I couldn't draw a deer that didn't look like a plasticine dog, made by a person without hands.)

What are my influences?
Oh, where to begin? Japanese woodblocks. Chinese packaging design. Old photographs. Maps. Scientific diagrams. Jellyfish. Moby Dick. Iridescent feathers. Train journeys. Figs. Postage stamps. Foxes and giant anteaters and sea otters and pipe fish. Anatomical drawings. Poems and pieces of string. Clouds and shadows. You know, that sort of thing.

Do I do anything else apart from illustration?
Oh, you mean apart from talking on the phone and lying on the floor? Well I make my children's lunches most days, and try to keep them in cleanish clothes, and occasionally I put on my hat and spats and seek diversion outdoors. And in the wee hours I paint on old photographs, or stick animal parts on to old dolls. Both with slightly unsettling results; dont say I didn't warn you.

Well, thanks for visiting and do send me an email if you have any burning questions or handy household hints.

x Sophie