Julie Vivas

As a child

I grew up in the beautiful garden suburbs of Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, climbing trees, riding billy carts and making cubbies in the bushes. The summers were often spent at the beach; I loved to be in and under water. Listening to Tarzan, Captain Silver and The Magic Faraway Tree on the radio, before I could read, formed pictures in my head of characters, and I became absorbed in the radio plays. Drawing was part of my imagined life; I drew bits of the world I made up. They were clumsy and funny-looking drawings, but my mother looked at them carefully and this made me feel I did something that really interested her. School was not my favourite place. High school became more interesting, especially science and biology. Things were explained in diagrams, such as cross-sections of plants. I drew many pictures of the insides of frogs and rats. I thought I understood the way things worked by making pictures.

As an adult

Drawing, and making pictures for books, it took me a long time to find real work, that is with an author’s story that would be published. I was sixteen when I felt that was what I wanted to do. Going to design school, working in animation, and having two children, all happened before I illustrated The Tram to Bondi Beach by Libby Hawthorn, which was my first picture book. One book led to another, and Possum Magic by Mem Fox was very popular, so that meant I could keep working on more books. The royalties from such a popular book meant I had money to live on while I worked. It also meant I could choose those stories that come from the people and place I live. Drawing familiar things comforts me, even if the drawings are about an experience that has made me angry or sad. I think if I feel close to the characters in the story, the pictures I draw of them can be expressive.

As an artist

The best part of illustrating a picture book is when you invent the characters in the author’s story, so I like the rough drawings at the beginning, when you discover exciting things. I draw different body shapes, and head and face shapes, until I see that the body shows a personality and you can see how he or she feels. Doing the rough dummy is where you try to make the words and pictures work together as a whole, and this takes a lot experimenting with different layouts. When you show the author and the publisher the rough dummy book, they tell you what they feel about what you have done. I like this feedback very much. It can make you happy or angry, frustrated too, but it is always exciting. Finished artwork takes ages, and I am not so enthusiastic about it. I love the white paper before I get in a mess, and it stiffens with my drawing, as I redo what I discovered in the rough. I do enjoy the first brush, laden with watercolour paint, to watch it touch the wet paper.

Julie Vivas

As a child

As an adult

As an artist

Bibliography

My First Possum Magic Collection

Koala

Davey and the Duckling

Puffling

Samsara Dog

Cuddle Time

Sleepy Pendoodle

Hello Baby

Let’s go Visiting

Let’s Eat!

Our Granny

Nurse Lugton’s Curtain

Let the Celebrations Begin!

The Very Best of Friends

Stories from our Street

I Went Walking

Stories from our House

The Nativity

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

The Tram to Bondi Beach

Possum Magic

Bio & Bibliography

Julie Vivas

As a child

As an adult

As an artist

Bibliography

Let’s Eat!