Jess Hannigan's Wild Vibe

Canadian author-illustrator, Jess Hannigan’s bold take on goings on in the wood is funny, visually stunning and just a bit subversive

Living in Ontario, Jess Hannigan is way more familiar with bears than many of her readers, but the large furry presence in her new picture book, The Bear Out There, is the opposite of alarming – rather reassuring, in fact. For this is a tale that neatly twists the Goldilocks plotline – and it is very funny indeed.

It’s the second picture book for the Hamilton-based author and illustrator – her first, Spider in the Well, featured a much smaller beastie, plus deliciously wry jokes about outrageous fibs and cons and a great quest for justice. These are plotlines for children to relish – and adults enjoy the jokes too. So does she write for this twin audience? “I do try and make fun for kids and adults because you don’t want the adult to go; ‘oh god, not this one again’.” she says.

Hannigan’s love of playing with conventions began while she was at art college – in fact, a short and delightfully silly animation shared on her Instagram feed was the idea that led on eventually to The Bear Out There. Often illustration ideas start things off, but this book began with the dialogue – that classic theme of scary things out there in the darkness.

Jess Hannigan's wild vibe — Jess Hannigan chose an old-school approach in a digital age, inspired by author-illustrator legends of the past

Pictures and design took over as she imagined her characters, and she started out with that most traditional art technique, collage. It’s what makes the illustrations leap off the page. Although they were painstakingly scanned afterwards, it was paper, scissors, glue to start with (a process Hannigan has also shared via a short film on Instagram). A wonderfully old-school messy process in our digital age, but that’s the point. “Spider in the Well was all done digitally, and most of my freelance work is all-digital as well, so I thought: ‘what is something more tactile that I can do that isn’t going to make me hate my life and regret my decision?'”

Hannigan has done plenty of fine art and large-scale canvas in her time, but as she developed her style as an illustrator, she instinctively began to pare back. “My work just got simpler and simpler as I found that this was more satisfying,” she says. “I lose interest quite quickly if there’s too much going on.”

She’s been inspired along the way by legendary names – The Big Hungry Caterpillar‘s Eric Carle for one. “I’ve seen videos of Eric Carle walking through his process, and he just looked like he was having a blast painting his big sheets of paper.” She particularly enjoyed watching the freedom in his technique. “Not caring too much about cutting up the perfect pieces – it lent a lot of fun to it and a bit of naivety.”

She’s also a fan of other great names. “I always come back to Tomi Ungerer because of the way he lays out his page and the fun in his jokes and his characters,” she says. “And I really love Tarō Gomi, the Japanese artist who does so many beautiful board books. He kind of has the brain of a designer, so I gravitate towards these design-brain people as well.”

Jess Hannigan taps into design-brain approaches herself, creating extensive mood boards as a starting point for projects – often these are on Pinterest. “Posters, lettering design, characters, sometimes it’s pictures of real animals, but rarely.” There’s abstract art in there if colours or shapes grab her. “Once I make that mood board, I never look back at it again – I just say, ‘OK, this is the vibe’.”

And there’s a truly wild ‘vibe’ in The Bear Out There – vivid colours, retro lettering and tantalising glimpses into that dark and threatening forest to keep the reader guessing. The predominant colour palette (lots of bold pink, green, orange) has massive child appeal, and was chosen because they were the shades she was into at the time, and she wanted to have some fun working with them.

There is, too, the fun of a surprise plotline – children love to be surprised (again and again). She has fond memories of her own childhood bedtime stories, especially Jon Stone’s The Monster at the End of This Book. She recalls her mother getting into character with a different dramatic take each time she read it out loud and wanted to create that sort of energy, that magic. Early reviews of The Bear Out There from friends with young children say she’s pulled that off – and one particular line has stuck in kids’ head. To mention it would be a total plot spoiler, but it’s a great gag.

Her next picture book is already underway. No conventional fairytale beasties next time as it’s about a cow – she has always loved drawing cows. Not too much can be shared yet, but it will involve a bovine night-time adventure with unsavoury characters along the way. Another book to look forward to – and surely many more to follow – for Jess Hannigan’s fresh and original creations bring bags of energy and visual magic to delight readers young and old.