Local Illustrator Liz Starin’s New Children’s Book, ROAR! Explores Friendship, Dragons, And More

Have you ever wanted to be a dragon? Well, in local illustrator Liz Starin‘s new children’s book, ROAR! — written by Tammi Sauer — one little boy thinks he is until a couple of real dragons come over for a play date.

It’s a sweet story about friendship with beautiful illustrations, so we were excited to ask Liz a few questions about being an illustrator and where she draws her inspiration from.

DPC: Tell us a bit about yourself.

Liz Starin: I’m just your average children’s book illustrator/software developer.

Tell us about ROAR.

It’s about a boy who wants to be a dragon—or really, a boy who thinks he is a dragon, until he meets some actual dragons.

How did you get into illustration?

Sheer force of will. I studied geophysics way back when, but I loved children’s books and hoped to make them…someday…so I went to work in book publishing. Eventually I stopped skirting the issue and returned to school for illustration. First in New York, then in Germany. Looking back at my pre-art school drawings, I find it miraculous that anyone accepted me as a student.

What is your process for illustrating a children’s book?

Pretty similar to what most illustrators do, I think. First I make a book dummy, which is like a little mini sketch version of the book, with the text approximately in place. That’s to sort out pacing and the overall shape of things. Then I work on details like the the look of the characters, and I make tight versions of those sketches. Once I get editorial approval, I do the final artwork—this is the part that really varies from illustrator to illustrator.

You’ll notice that my work is kind of loose and messy. It’s actually really hard to make drawings look spontaneous! So I’ve built my illustration process around trying to make that happen. I do my sketches in mechanical pencil on regular old copy paper—I just draw and erase, draw and erase. Better not to be too precious about things at that point. If the page gets too ragged, I trace the good parts and keep going. Then I scan my drawings. If I need to, I move pieces around in Photoshop to get the composition I want.

I print the sketches at the size I want the final work to be, which is usually something like 125% of print size. Then I do the drawing in ink on watercolor paper—I trace on a light box for that. But I don’t trace too closely, because I’m still keeping things loose! (I learned that from the illustrator Quentin Blake.) And finally, I splash some watercolor on, scribble some crayon and colored pencil over that, and call it a day.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?

Well, one of my favorite pieces of advice is one I invented, for use at yard sales and thrift stores: you’re not allowed to buy it if you don’t know what it is.

Oh, did you mean professional advice? One of the most useful things I ever learned was that you don’t need to draw everything from your imagination. Illustrators use tons of photo reference. (Cartoonist Alison Bechtel’s process is perhaps an extreme example nowadays, but I think this was even more true when illustrators did enormous photorealistic oil paintings for magazines.)

What books/movies/shows are on your must list? Anything you’ve read/seen lately that you’d recommend?

I’ve never seen The Wire, which seems like some sort of grave cultural lapse. Bojack Horseman is an amazing cartoon about a depressive washed-up 90s sitcom star who happens to be a horse—worth it for the sight gags alone. And I’m really into Tana French’s mystery novels lately.

On the children’s side, I am swooning for Abby Hanlon’s Dory books. (Full disclosure: she is in my critique group, but I wouldn’t recommend these books if I didn’t adore them. They are really funny.) Speaking of children’s books, the Jewish Museum (1109 5th Avenue, Manhattan) has put on many terrific exhibitions of children’s illustration: William Steig, Ezra Jack Keats, Maira Kalman, and of course, Maurice Sendak. I’m always keeping my eyes peeled for their next illustration show.

Why did you settle in this neighborhood?

I love the trees, the houses, the diversity, the food, and the general laid-backness. Unfortunately, the neighborhood has heated up quite a bit in the five or so years I’ve lived here, but I hope it will continue to be one of the more relaxed parts of town.

What is one of the neighborhood’s hidden (or not-so-hidden) gems?

One of my favorite Sunday treats is shopping for goodies on Avenue J: Herring from International Food (the Russian deli near the Q stop), chocolate babka and almond horns from Ostrovitsky Bakery, and spicy half-sours from The Pickle Guys on Coney Island Avenue.

Check out Liz’s book, ROAR! here and stay tuned for a local release party, hosted by Liz.