← The Good Ship Illustration
The Good Ship Illustration
You’ll Never Feel Ready. Do It Anyway. An interview with Good Shipper Amber Au.
00:23:56
Loading summary
Transcript102 lines
- [00:25]
A
I'm here with one of our students and Amber Au. Amber's a picture book author and illustrator. She's originally from Hong Kong, but she's now been living in the UK for a while. She does amazing books centered around food. She also draws maps, buildings and people from various countries. She has been on a few of our courses, but she's also on top of that won some amazing prizes and awards because she's had a three book deal recently, which we'll talk more about later. She was an exhibition finalist for the Bologna Children's Book Fair this year. So we're going to see her work and meet up when we go to the book fair. We'll all be there. We've got our own stall at Bologna. Amber has actually got some work in the exhibition and she's a finalist. She's also had her work in the World Illustration Awards where she was highly commended. She's a Picture Hooks illustration competition runner upper and in 2024 she also had work in the illustration the Bologna Children's Book Fair exhibition finalist. So she was a finalist?
- [01:27]
B
Yes.
- [01:28]
A
Like all of that is 23 to 25. So in two years.
- [01:33]
B
Yes, it happened quite quickly and you know, I really don't take compliment well. So I was quite overwhelmed when I got all the awards and stuff because it happens within two months you felt overwhelmed. Yes.
- [01:49]
A
And like prior to that you'd been building up your illustration career. I read from your bio that you are self taught. You didn't do illustration as a degree.
- [02:01]
B
So I loved drawing since I was small, but I took on the science path. I studied human nutrition when I was in uni and then I trained as a nutritionist. Yes.
- [02:13]
A
And you did some illustration while you were in Hong Kong, didn't you? Looking at your Instagram and your blogs, you've worked in Hong Kong as an illustrator.
- [02:21]
B
Just for a short period of time. It happens after I quit as a nutritionist because. Yeah. So my story is actually. So how did I start drawing? I suffered from my eating disorder and then I went to see my therapist and then I will have to, you know, we have to mark down what, what do we eat every day and every meal. I found it really boring, just writing sound. So I start doodling next to my diary. Yes. So it's how I all started drawing again after 20 years. I would say after that.
- [03:01]
A
When you left your nutrition course, is that when you moved to the uk?
- [03:06]
B
I finished my uni in the uk. In the uk and then I go back to Hong Kong and work as a Nutritionist for two years. But then I hated the culture and the industry, so I quit. But I still have to pay the bills. So I teach English and math. I became a private tutor. So it's kind of like a freelancer. And then I got some time to draw while I was traveling to their home.
- [03:33]
A
It sounds like you really made a clear decision to dedicate yourself to illustration because your progress is rapid.
- [03:42]
B
I think all of these happen within a year and a half. At that time, I have nothing left apart from food and my eating disorder. My food diary is actually how I started drawing again. So that's part of my eating disorder too. When I was actually. It's my therapist who suggest me to start drawing and see how it goes. And then he actually supported me. He asked me to send all my images to my first client, which is Hong Kong Eating Disorder Association. So I sent them my images and illustration and said, if you want to work with me, maybe I was a patient as well. Today, take a look in my portfolio. And then. Yep, that's it. They are my first client in Hong Kong.
- [04:33]
A
Oh, that is such an amazing story. So drawing was effectively a process of recovery and taking the food out of actually eating it and drawing it. Sometimes when you really want to buy things and I can't afford them, I used to take photographs of stuff. That's a photograph of that piece of art. I don't have to own it. It's taking the realm of reality.
- [04:57]
B
Yeah, that's true. I love how you say it. I couldn't say that wording.
- [05:03]
A
I think removing it from the eating part. But then your therapist being smart enough to say, approach the charity that supports you. Someone once told me, and this was in Hong Kong as well, just start with the grassroots and the people around you. In terms of a career. Your community can support you and build you up if you start working with the people closest. It's an opportunity to draw attention to your work and use that platform. And you grow up from grassroots community into something bigger. It's exactly what's happened to you.
- [05:34]
B
Yes, I didn't expect that as well. I didn't have the confidence back then and then. But my therapist really support me and then just persuade me to just do it. Why not? You got nothing to lose just sending out images. You don't even have to print it out.
- [05:50]
A
Your therapist is right. There is nothing to lose. A lot of what goes on at the other end of your send you don't know. I think some people find that disturbing or worrying. Like I can't send my work up, people might hate it or say, why did you send this to me? But they're never going to say it to you. You're never going to know what people think when they receive it. Really hear the pleasant surprises when they write back and say, this is great.
- [06:13]
B
Yeah.
- [06:14]
A
From there you went on from showing work with them. Did you work a bit more in Hong Kong after that?
- [06:19]
B
Yes, I think so. I worked with another small company, independent companies, who made jam. So jam on the bread jam. I made jam label and the Christmas packaging for them.
- [06:36]
A
So then I guess coming over to the UK is when the work got more serious with an opportunity, a full time career. Because I note that you're represented by Inkling Agency, which is great.
- [06:46]
B
It's all happened in After Bologna, within that two months that I mentioned. So it's a lot to take in.
- [06:55]
A
It's proof of that idea though, isn't it? You've got to be in it to win it.
- [07:00]
B
Yes. I think participating in competitions helped me a lot in letting the world see me. Yeah, yeah. So it all happens after I have won all those competition and awards.
- [07:13]
A
I think it's such a good move. In Hong Kong there's a culture of people constantly entering competitions and I find it's amazing. As an outsider, I never really entered any competitions. I don't know why. It's something I regret and I've learned a lot about since thinking, why would you not? Your work is in front of so many different eyeballs. People who count really quick way and if you win it, even better. There's so many things that that can go right for you just by submitting, even if you don't win. When I looked at your work, what was the first course you did with us?
- [07:45]
B
Picture book course. Picture Book course?
- [07:46]
A
You went to picture book course?
- [07:48]
B
Yes, because I was determined to get a picture book out. That's the first course I signed up to.
- [07:55]
A
Oh, cool. So that's where I remember seeing your work and thinking that I thought you were a professional illustrator and had lots of projects behind you, other books, things like that. But then I started to realize you were saying, I've just started doing this. I'm self taught. Your work was so fully formed and your voice had so much clarity. I was like, there's a confidence in this work and an aesthetic sensibility and style. I can't believe you are a fresh illustrator. How did you train yourself in that way without doing a BA in illustration?
- [08:29]
B
I think I'm used to educate myself even when I was in Uni. I don't attend a lot of lecture so I was just educating myself online. I love to absorb a lot of things from others. Looking at YouTube videos and learning the software or the materials myself.
- [08:51]
A
That's a huge amount of self discipline to commit to self learning from all those different sources and to keep on going in isolation as well without the community around you. How do you explain that?
- [09:04]
B
Actually, I think I'm way too disciplined that I don't ever want to rest. That's my problem. I don't know.
- [09:13]
A
Yeah. Hong Kong thing as well.
- [09:15]
B
Yeah. I think it's my culture. You have to do it and then you have to make it and you cannot sleep, you cannot rest until you achieve your goal. But I think it's not a good thing.
- [09:26]
A
I saw you've got a really lovely blog if anyone's interested to go see Amber's blog. It's called the Pencil Bakery, isn't it?
- [09:33]
B
Yeah.
- [09:35]
A
And I love the way you talk in your blog about how you didn't know how to rest until you went to Croatia and got so accidentally distracted by tourist attractions that you found out you hadn't thought about drawing for a day.
- [09:47]
B
Yeah, just a day.
- [09:50]
A
But it's obviously what's got you this far and ended up with. Was it Blue Tomato that had the most attention?
- [09:58]
B
Blue Tomato was a project that I started back in 2022 when I attend a short picture book course in Nottingham.
- [10:07]
A
Okay.
- [10:08]
B
And then I have that idea, but I didn't pull it out. And then I saw. I saw good shape illustrations, picture book cost and I was like, oh, shall I do it? Shall I not? But I have nothing. No. I mean, at that time I don't have a proper goals. So I think attending a course is a motivation for me to achieve something or get some work done. So taking courses is some of the things that motivate me to.
- [10:36]
A
There's a certain amount of accountability in taking a course. Although nobody knows whether you're showing up or not. You feel watched in a spooky kind of way. Yes.
- [10:48]
B
And the course is structured weekly, so I got some. Something to achieve weekly. It's good that I got a structure too.
- [10:56]
A
Yeah.
- [10:57]
B
Self taught artists I think you got.
- [11:00]
A
You've obviously come a long way under the steam of your personal self discipline and being asked to do something on a weekly basis is a great way to produce work, isn't it? It's like, oh, will you give a lecture on blah blah, blah. That's quite a daunting thought. But if someone says, can you Turn up and I can just ask you questions. You're responding and the act of responding to a request can motor you along a lot further.
- [11:25]
B
That's true.
- [11:26]
A
What did you do on the pitchbook course? Is that where you completed Blue Tomato or did you work on another book?
- [11:34]
B
I don't think I completed the Blue Tomato during the course, but I have the dummy finished after picture book course.
- [11:43]
A
Okay.
- [11:44]
B
Yeah.
- [11:44]
A
Who did you show it to and what kind of response did it get?
- [11:49]
B
Oh, actually I sent out the dummies to a lot of publishers and agents. I got a mixed review, some good and bad, some weird one. I didn't get a response until a month before I go to Bologna. So my publisher now, it Little Tiger, emailed me and said they are interested and see if I would like to meet up in Bologna. So I had a meeting with them there.
- [12:18]
A
And when you met and they saw the dummy books in person, is that when they were like, yeah, we're signing you up?
- [12:26]
B
Yes. I was actually quite shocked because this is the first time I saw a real editor and art director in real life. They are so friendly and they act like fans of me. So I was overwhelmed. I don't know what to do.
- [12:42]
A
And you said you can't accept compliments.
- [12:44]
B
And they are in person as well, like in front of me saying, oh, I love your work. Like, oh my God, what am I doing now? And then. Yeah, but it's, it's all very. I mean, I'm very grateful of these experience.
- [13:01]
A
I think that I'm interested in the thing you said earlier about you got completely different responses because you have a very strong identity in color, which personally appeals to me. But then you got told your colors were too dull by some people, didn't you?
- [13:17]
B
Yes, because I won the Depictors published book award as well. We got the chance to show our dummy book to publishers all over the world in their booth. So some of the publishers, actually I. Some of them say that my story is too common. So you could easily find these kind of stories on the shelf. And some said that my color is too brown. Yeah. Too dull. You have to brighten up the color. And then. Yes. So I. But, but, but some of the professionals said that they love my work too. So, I mean, you have to have a very strong mind to take all of the comments and opinions.
- [14:06]
A
Yeah. It's like being art college and saying, oh, I'm really confused. This tutor told me I was going in the right direction and I spoke to someone else. Not working. You really have to develop a personal Sense of who you are and what you're trying to do. Protect yourself from advice that isn't useful to you and know when someone is telling you something that's useful. When you're at Bologna, you look at the different stores, you can see who your people are, can't you? Immediately, yeah, you're very. You can be very attracted to the most obscure sites. Like I kept finding amazing work at the Korean publishers or some of the Latin American. American publishers and some of the Indian ones as well. But then I would see a lot of the American publishers, the larger mainstream publishers, and think, oh no, those are not for me. You've got to know who's telling you that advice and how to filter out so that you pushing forward and take from it what you need. I think if you've got a level of uncertainty, it can be really dangerous being buffeted around by all this different information.
- [15:06]
B
Yes. I love the way you say that. It's dangerous because I imagine if two years younger than my age when I was there, if I was like not that sure that my creative voice, I would listen to all the advice and I take all the advice and then put them all into my work.
- [15:27]
A
Imagine what a disgusting meal that would be like food and let everyone have their say. It would be a complete mess in the end, wouldn't it? One thing we try to do on the good ship because some people are disappointed that we don't really give one to ones and we can't sit and talk in a group with feedback, which was the way I always taught at colleges. It's amazing how a course where you decide how you're going to interact with it can hopefully strengthen your own confidence. To say, I'm following this course, I'm following this type of work, this is my voice. I understand what I need to get to support myself and not be buffeted around by other people and their opinions.
- [16:07]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [16:09]
A
I think it's much difficult when you're younger to know who you're going to become. But you're very lucky because you have a very clear sense of self from early on. Did it come as soon as you started drawing?
- [16:20]
B
Like, no, I tried. So when I first started, I tried to copy others. I saw this online and I said, oh, that's nice. And then I will try to copy them and. But it's funny that as long as I said copy, but after I did that, it actually doesn't look exactly like what I was copying. So I did that in my way and used the materials in my way too. No matter how much you want to copy others, you couldn't. I tried it a lot of times and I don't think that's a possible way.
- [16:53]
A
I remember Helen saying, it's something that's done at art school and has been done for years. Copying great masters or work is a method of learning. As long as you know that you're wearing someone else's clothes for a while, they are not yours. You're going to have to take them off and find out what lies inside. And I think it's a stage that you pass through. If your voice is strong enough, which yours clearly was, you were probably trying to copy things and your own voice was squishing all these other things down. You could only do yourself, which is really funny. That shows what kind of strength of your own voice was there in the first place. Do you think your work is like other work in Hong Kong or do you feel very different?
- [17:36]
B
I feel very different. I would say my work is more, I don't know. European. Yeah, yeah.
- [17:45]
A
That's the word Hong Kong is used to use. When we were in class, some students ended up working at Disney as imagineers. I remember them saying to me one day, there's a new student coming to this class, Tanya. You're going to really like her because her work's really European. I was like, have I been giving away my tastes? The game is up because I can't explain it, but I know which work excites me. From a Hong Kong perspective, the work looks slightly more good. But there's a culture of comics in Hong Kong. Do you think that has fed into your work? Not necessarily just the visual, but the storytelling comes naturally.
- [18:20]
B
I think I start when I first started. My work is quite comic as well. Come on.
- [18:28]
A
Was it so?
- [18:29]
B
Yeah, so it's like. So it's like flat, flat color and bold shapes. But it eventually evolved to my, like how my work looks now because my, my taste is more drawn to we so called European style when I explore the picture book world. So yeah, I think I was influenced by all of them as well.
- [18:53]
A
Yeah, there's a lot of texture and mark making and a kind of handmade quality in your work. Do you like traditional materials or is.
- [19:01]
B
Everything for client work and most of my work it's purely just procreate.
- [19:08]
A
Yeah. Wow. But it travels well, doesn't it? You can work if you're a workaholic. Procreate.
- [19:14]
B
I have to bring my iPad wherever I'm in.
- [19:18]
A
What are you working on now?
- [19:20]
B
I just finished a coffee bag Label for a client for a local roaster here. Yeah.
- [19:27]
A
So you're doing some packaging as well.
- [19:30]
B
So I want to explore more apart from picture book world industry too. I'm interested in food packaging and advertising because I think publishing industry is a bit too slow for me. So it doesn't pay the bill.
- [19:46]
A
Yeah, I think that's a good move. I mean, that's what all illustrators are doing now. Looking at as many different multiple strands of income, whether it's kind of publishing. Do you publish your own work? Do you do your own art prints or cards or things like that?
- [19:59]
B
Yes, I do sell some of them, but I didn't did it properly since I've been selling my work for more than three years, but I didn't do the marketing properly and I just leave it there on my shelf. So I would want to do it seriously now, do you go out in.
- [20:16]
A
Real life and sell prints?
- [20:17]
B
I just did one market before and one scene festival, so I make my own scene too. So it's about food too. So it's similar. Off topic though.
- [20:28]
A
Yeah, you could be selling to Asian restaurants. When I came to Hong Kong, I did draw a little bit of food stuff and I sold quite a lot of prints to Chinese restaurants. Hong Kong restaurants that had opened up in the UK markets are there for your work.
- [20:42]
B
That's the thing about that.
- [20:46]
A
Funnily enough, I was listening to a program about selling on that platform. I was wondering if there were anyone selling Hong Kong cards there. It was really interesting. A lady was talking about she made creative bamboo socks. They had visual images and they're made out of bamboo fiber and she.
- [21:05]
B
Bamboo fiber.
- [21:08]
A
They'd be really uncomfortable, wouldn't they? She was saying, as well. As well as selling well on fair. She started contacting podiatrists and she said, wow, the majority of our sales of our lovely bamboo socks, because they're healthy and good for your feet, are direct. I was like, what?
- [21:29]
B
Isn't it? Yeah, it is.
- [21:33]
A
Rather than just think I'm an illustrator who sells prints and some art. Your work is about food. And there's definitely. That's one of the problems, I think for a lot of restaurants is finding artwork that supports their offering. Perfect for that. And with a big Hong Kong diaspora now moving into the UK at Newcastle, because there's a whole Chinatown with amazing restaurants there, if you go and sell them your prints.
- [22:01]
B
So I have done Blue Tomatoes so it will be out next year. So I have another two book with my publisher now, so we're still working on it. But I'm also working on non fiction. I would like to draw some non fiction picture books too. Yeah.
- [22:19]
A
Are you working on non fiction as a kind of as a shop window piece to signal at non fiction publishers or have you got a contract?
- [22:27]
B
No, I haven't had a contract yet. I'm trying to attract them and asking my agents to help promote my work.
- [22:33]
A
Oh, that's great. Work ethic at play.
- [22:37]
B
I just want to diverse everything.
- [22:40]
A
So we'll see. Hopefully we'll see you at Bologna, won't we? Will you be there this year at.
- [22:45]
B
The book fair this year? No, I don't think I will be going there this year. But you guys are having a store there, is it?
- [22:52]
A
Yeah.
- [22:53]
B
So exciting.
- [22:55]
A
And I'm just looking forward to hanging out and watching. Picked up by for a chat and a cup of coffee. Oh, well, it's been really lovely chatting to you, Amber. And it's great just to hear your tale of how you got to where you are so quickly with a lot of dedication and focus and hard work, relation to other people that if that's what you want to do, it can be done.
- [23:19]
B
Yes. And I would say, even if you never feel ready, I would say so if you feel uncomfortable, just do it. Sam.