S01 - E11- Claire Paffey, Illustrator and author of "The Lost Twins"

In today's episode, I speak with the amazingly talented author and illustrator Claire Paffey. Later this year she will be launching her first book "The Lost Twins".

Follow her on Deviant Art - https://www.deviantart.com/erondagirl?fbclid=IwAR1NVuPitRi83Fb-1PatMptOb4EhJhisniq4nik6FESzVeT6bAOCfbTyHAg

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S01 - E11- Claire Paffey, Illustrator and author of "The Lost Twins"

Full intermediate level ESL podcast transcript

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/lovetolearnenglish)

Rich: Hey, Claire. 

Claire: Hello. 

Rich: Hi. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for agreeing to do this today. How are you? 

Claire: I'm okay. I'm very well. Thank you. 

Rich: Excellent. So we're going to talk today a bit about you as an artist...

Claire: Mhmm

Rich: ...and the different things that you do. So I'm really interested to know, when did you first begin as an artist?

Claire: Um...well way, way back,. My second Christmas apparently I had a sketchbook and some crayons, and it was the first present I opened and it took my parents to, well, it took my parents about three days to get me to open everything…

(Above -a picture of a sketchbook). 

Rich: Yeah…

Claire: ...because I wouldn't leave it alone. So, it started really early on…

Vocab - Early on  - at an early (or earlier) stage in a period.

Rich: Yeah…

Claire: ...and I just… I just haven't stopped. I suppose, like a life mission.

Rich: So, it was there something that inspired you in the beginning or was it more just the fun of doing it and you didn't have any…?

Claire: I suppose, yeah...

Rich: ...inspiration though?

Claire: When I was really younger, I just drew. It must have just been something that I like to do. Um, and then later on, because I liked reading, I suppose seeing pictures in books and learning about illustrators and, and that sort of thing, I think that kind of became a bit more like a goal for me.

Rich: Mhmmm...

Claire: But it wasn't until about year six. So, that's about age 10. Um, that I really thought okay...this is actually what I want to do for the rest of my life. This is something I want to keep going and keep trying with. Um...so yeah...at the moment, the biggest inspiration...I suppose...is the manga style in Japan. 

Rich: Can you explain what manga is?

Claire: Manga is...it's a style of illustration. Um...the two...

Rich: What does illustration mean as well? Let's...let's explain that one. So, do you want to explain what illustration means or shall I..?

Claire: I can try. Um...illustration is an image to go with either sort of piece of writing. It's kind of another way to explain something, I suppose.

Rich: Yeah. 

Claire: Um, so in terms of a story book, it might be an image of a scene from the story or where you get like...uh...like medical journals and things have sort of illustrations to illustrate sort of muscles and such. 

Rich: So it's...it's something that...it's an image to go along with a text. 

Claire: Yeah. 

Rich: Okay. And you draw those, it's a piece of art to go in this case to go with your stories.

Claire: Yeah. 

Rich: Okay. You were saying...sorry...

Claire: I can't remember where I was…. manga. Yeah. 

Rich: Yes. Manga. 

Claire: The term manga refers to... um...mostly comic books.  Is...it is a Japanese...um...like graphic novel style.  

Rich: Mhmmm

Claire: So, that's manga. And then anime is the term used for like the animation….the cartoons and...

Rich: So, anime is the animated version of manga.

Claire: Yeah. 

Rich: So yeah. So, if it's animation, it's like a cartoon, right? 

Claire: Yeah.  

Rich: What are some famous examples that people might know of this style. 

Claire: Pokemon is the one that comes to mind. That was the first one that I ever came across. Um, I remember watching it and realizing that it looks different to other cartoons that I've seen before, like the Western style...um...cartoons. But at the time I didn't know that it came from a specific place. I just thought….’Oh, this looks really interesting’ cause um...so the quirk of the style is...um...like quite sharp lines and like spiky hairstyles and big eyes and they're really expressive. I think that's why I like it so much.  

Rich: We're just going to go over some of those words there cause there's quite a few.

Um, so first of all you said quirk. 

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: Can you explain what a quirk is? 

Claire: Um. I can't remember what context that I used it in now um...it means like a...a sort of difference...a specific….I dunno. How would you describe it?  

Rich: Um, so a quirk is something that's different or unusual, but in a good way. 

Claire: Yeah.  

Rich: There's an adjective we can call something quirky. Sometimes people have quirky personalities, so it means that they are different, but in a good way. 

Claire: Yeah.  

Rich: Like somebody who. I don't know carries tomato ketchup in their… in their handbag or something...is kind of quirky. It's a bit different, but okay. I can understand why you might do this. A bit unusual, but in a good way.

Claire: Yeah. 

Rich: Okay. What are projects you're working on currently? 

Claire: The moment I'm mostly busy trying to get my book published, but relatively recently I did my own sort of private project. I drew my own Christmas cards..

Rich: Yeah

Claire: ...which was quite an undertaking. I wanted to do it for a few years, but I hadn't got around to it. So, I had to...I think I drew four designs and then drew an extra three…

Rich: Mhmmm…

Claire: …for more specific people. So, my mum, my dad, my sister. Um, so that took a while. I started doing that in November.  

Rich: What did you mean by an undertaking? Sorry. 

Claire: Undertaking...it's a...like sort of...

Rich: It's a challenge, right? 

Claire: Yeah 

Rich: ...thing to do. So, an undertaking is a thing to do, right.

Claire: Yeah 

Rich: Um, just to explain as well. So, in the UK, we traditionally send each other cards at Christmas. Some people might not do this. 

Claire: Yeah 

Rich: So, yeah it's quite a traditional thing that we do here.... is to send each other cards that will just say Merry Christmas, which means happy Christmas. Right..?

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: So yeah. You were working on that.

Claire: Yeah...at the moment, most of my energy, as I say this is going into the book, but I have started to work on the next chapter of the book that follows on from that. 

Rich: So, a chapter is…

Claire: Chapter is a section of a novel usually... it's just to break up the bulk of it...the length of it. 

 Rich: Yeah...the bulk being the size.

Claire: Yeah

Rich: Um, generally if something is bulky to use an adjective...it's like fat, right? He's like too big, would you say? Okay, cool. So, I want to know a bit more about your book. 

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: Um, so you're illustrating meaning...drawing images to go with this book as well. Who are some of your favorite characters from this book?

Claire: Favorite characters. Okay. Well, the main characters are twins. Um, they're two boys, one's called Sam, and another is called Rowan. And…

Rich: What's a twin? 

Claire: Twin is...um...it's two children who are formed from the same cell, and then usually they're, they're born together. You get some cases where they aren’t..

Rich: Two children born at the same time.

Claire: Yeah. They...they come from the same core sell if you like getting scientific.

 Rich: Yeah. We might lose people… too science here. Yeah. So, like a brother and a brother or sister and sister. Sometimes they even look the same? Not always, but...

Claire: Not always...mine aren't.They're not identical.  

Rich: So, not identical means that they are twins that do not look the same.

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: So, okay….so they're born at the same time?

Claire: Yep.  

Rich: But they don't look the same. Yeah. 

Rich: Okay. So, non identical twins. 

Claire: Yeah.  

Rich: Perfect. 

Claire: But...the book is...it's set in a fantasy land and they are both princes of this Island, but they get separated quite dramatically. Um...and the one...Samuel grows up knowing who he is, but he's very lonely. And the other is kind of kept a prisoner…

 Rich: Mhmmm

Claire: ...by the villains of the story who are called the dark wizards um…

(A wizard). 

Rich: What's a villain, sorry.

Claire: Villain is...um. Like an evil character...the bad…

Rich: Bad, so for in a pop.... in a popular book like Harry Potter, who is the villain? 

Claire: Voldemort 

Rich: Voldemort.. Okay, so Voldemort's the villain. What's the opposite of a villain? 

Claire: The hero.  

Rich: The hero and an example of a hero in Harry Potter would be Harry Potter. Okay, perfect. 

Claire: So, uh, in terms of my favorite character...I like writing...Rowan in particular, because he's...he's like he's based on me, but he's a more confident version of me. 

Rich: Mhmmm 

Claire: Um, Sam is a bit shyer. He's a bit quieter, so he's a lot more like me generally. Where as Rowan...I kind of get to pretend to be a bit more confident and a bit more assertive, and I enjoy doing that.  

Rich: What do you mean by assertive? Do you want me to explain that one? 

Claire: Yeah go on.. 

Rich: Yep. Okay. I'll do one. So, if you're assertive, it means that you're confident in your beliefs, but also that you're willing to maybe fight a little for those beliefs as well. So, if you want something done in a particular way, or if we want to do something you don't change your mind very easily. Um, and you will commit to making that happen. 

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: Would you say that's about right? 

Claire: Yeah. 

Rich: Okay. Assertive. Um, so it's really as a way for you to express yourself...you find yourself in these characters too. 

Claire: Yeah um, more so now that I've gone back to it as an adult. 

 Rich: Mhmmm

Claire: When I first started writing it when I was in school when I was 13. Um...they were a lot flatter as characters because I didn't know much about writing at the time. I just enjoyed it. So, they didn't….they weren't as fleshed out…

 Rich: ...fleshed out. Ooh, that's a nice….So, flesh is what your body is covered in. That's not your skeleton. So, that's not your bone. So, all the muscle and the tissue is what flesh is.

Claire: Mhmm

Rich: So, if something is fleshed out...you take it from a skeleton. And you make it whole...

Claire: Mhmmm

 Rich: ...so you develop the idea, in other words. So, instead of an idea of being just a skeleton, it's something that you add flesh to, that you add muscle to and that you build and develop. 

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: Right? 

Claire: Yeah. I think having now returned to them as an adult. I think they are more modified. I've been able to put myself into them more as well. Probably because I'm an adult now and I know myself a little bit better. I hope…

Rich: Maybe...I was going to ask you as well, how has your style changed as you have gotten older? So, but we've kind of covered that a bit...I guess you...because obviously you're like on a second version now, a second draft. 

Claire: Yeah…

Rich: Draft being the second time you're doing it, um. So, have you noticed any other significant changes?

Claire: In terms of writing I've...because I did a degree in creative writing...I've got a better idea now of how to form a story. So, when it came to rewriting the second version, I knew what unnecessary parts I needed to drop from the first version because the first one… was something I wrote for fun generally, and I put something in there if I thought the idea was fun....whether it fit or not. Like what would happened, if I threw some pirates in there.

 Rich: Pirates…

Claire: It doesn't matter if there's a sea or anything, just some pirates turn up.  

Rich: It was a cold day in the Antarctic, and then some pirates arrived. 

Claire: Yeah...It was a bit like that. Um, and so coming back to it, I was able to rearrange things to make a lot more sense and build an impact in different parts that I had. Most of it is still...

kind of rooted in the first version. I've taken some plot points from there and just expanded them...I suppose. 

Rich: With rooted...you mean based on.

Claire: Mhmmm..

Rich: So, a root is the bottom of a plant, so anything that's above the soil, above the mud is plants, and then below you have the roots that goes into the ground. So, something is rooted in something else. It has...it's origins, its beginnings there. 

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: So, it's kind of another way of saying it's based on something. 

Claire: Yeah. 

Rich: ...would you say? How hard is it to make money as an artist? 

Claire: Um, that's a good question. I think it's harder these days for lots of reasons, really. I think it's to do with sort of politics, I suppose. Part of it. And you get people who don't value artists...the artist as much as they used to. I mean, I don't blame them. It's a lot easier to buy a present online somewhere cheaper than to get someone to physically make it. It might be more expensive. 

Rich: Mhmmm

Claire: So yeah, I think it's gotten harder. The other thing is if you get, when you're trying to do something. You get told a lot of times like, ‘Oh, that won't make anything’. Or like JK Rowling is a good example,  it's like you won’t be the next JK Rowling. You kind of, it makes you feel like, well what I'm doing has value, and I'm not going to be JK Rowling because I'm not JK Rowling, I'm myself. So, I think that's kind of stacked against, against people as well against creators. This perception that we kind of have less value, I suppose. 

Rich: Yeah. It's...um...it's a hard, it's a hard thing to make money out of anything creative. I just want to go back there over stacked up. Um, so if something is stacked up against something. It’s leaning against something. 

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: Um, so you could stack, for example… a hmm....let me think. You could stack two bricks on top of each other. So, a brick being the square things you make a house from, and if you put one on top of the other, then you stack them. Uh, but in this case, you mean it's adding weight. 

Claire: Yeah. 

Rich: Against you, right? 

Claire: Yeah…

Rich: Like it's adding a force against you

Claire: Yeah... as an obstacle. A block. 

Rich: A block. Yeah. Something in the way. So if... if for example, the odds are stacked against you to use an idiom, it means that things are in your way and it's not likely that you'll succeed. 

Claire: Mhmmm..

Rich: Okay. I have a nice question for you next. What would happen to you if you could no longer make art?

Claire: I honestly think I would go mad.

Rich: Yeah. 

Claire: Yeah. Um, I would hope that if I were faced by that situation, that I would be able to find an outlet somewhere else. 

Rich: Mhmmm…

Claire: I've often thought about that. It's like, what would I do if I could see all these pictures in my head and not actually get them out? Because I suppose with...with writing...you can, you can write something down and that image, that idea of something will pop up in someone else's head. Whereas if you've got a picture that you want to present as it is in your mind…

Rich: Mhmmm…

Claire: ….if you can’t draw, if you can't, if you don't have a way to get that out, to make people understand, I think that's probably quite lonely. 

Rich: Yeah....

Claire: Because you can't run up to them and say “Oh, I've got this idea and there's spikes coming off this thing and it's big and orange”, and they’ll probably just look at you like, what?

Rich: Yeah, yeah. It must be. It would be. I hope that does not happen. I don't think that's what happens after the podcast normally. So, it should be...should be fine. 

Claire: I should be okay…

Rich: So, I was going to ask as well about another project you were involved in, and that's another great book from a local writer called Sam West, called Moon Hollow Origins. Right? So, you illustrated this book, correct? 

Claire: Yeah, I did.

Rich: Meaning you drew a picture to go with this. 

Claire: Yeah, I did the book cover, which was a really nice experience because...it gave me another chance to...to do something like that. I’ve done a children's picture book that was written by my aunt. That was before. Um, and then Moon Hollow came along a couple of years afterwards. Um, but yeah, it was a lot of fun to do. It was hard work balancing it with... like my day job. 

Rich: Yeah. 

Claire: Yeah, cause I worked all day and then come home and sometimes it's hard to sit down at a computer and draw again. 

Rich: Yeah. You draw on a computer?

Claire: I do more so now... in school it was more like hand-drawn with a sketchbook, but which I do still. But, um, I think what helped me there was I found a program that just worked with, with me, I suppose. 

Rich: Yeah. 

Claire: Um, I tried to use like a...a more Photoshop style...um...program, but I just couldn't get my head around it. Um, but the one I use at the moment is quite simple. You just click an icon and then you, you draw. It's, um, you don't have to go into menus and faf around with that sort of thing. 

Rich: Faf around that’s really...probably not worth the learning that one, unless you live in Wales, but in Wales to faf around means to mess around. Right?

Claire: Yeah 

Rich: And to not do something properly. But unless you're in Wales, I would say it's not necessary to learn faf around. 

Claire: Yeah so...

Rich: Nice. Yeah.

Claire: So, I do most of what I do these days digitally.

Rich: Mhmm

Claire: It's easier for storage reasons. I've got about 76 sketchbooks in my room. 

Rich: And a sketchbook is a book that you sketch in...that you draw in. 

Claire: Yeah. So, they take up a lot of space.

Rich: Yeah. I'd never thought about that. I guess it's like the Kindle version, cause I guess so, yeah. You must obviously draw. And fill lots of lots of books. So, we're gonna finish in just a second, but I'm sure that some listeners will want to see where they can see your work online. 

Claire: Mhmmm

Rich: So, do you have any way that they can see your artwork and hopefully your book this year, right?

Claire: Yeah. Well, we're working on setting up some social media, but at the moment, the best place to go is my Deviant Art account, which is my username is Eronda girl. 

Rich: Can you, can you spell both of those? So, the...

Claire: Okay. Deviant art is, do you want me to spell it in the phonetic alphabet or... 

Rich: No, spell it normally.

Claire: Normally. Okay. Deviant Art is D. E V. I. A. N. T.  A .R. T. and my username Eronda girl is E. R. O. N. D. A. G. I. R. L. 

Rich: Perfect. Okay. So, I'm sure they'll be happy to find you and take a look at your account. So, thanks so much for agreeing to do this, and I hope to see you soon. 

Claire: Yeah, that's great. Thank you very much for having me.

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