SIX MINUTES WITH TIMOTHY DECKER:

On today’s Six Minutes with an Author, LitPick is pleased to present Timothy Decker! Timothy is the author/illustrator of the critically acclaimed books, The Letter Home, For Liberty: The Story of the Boston Massacre, The Punk Ethic and Run Far, Run Fast. He works exclusively in pen and ink, often plays the blues on his cigar box guitar to the delight of cryptozoological animals and is known to enjoy the odd cup of tea from time to time. Timothy now lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.

How did you get started as an illustrator?

I never set out to be an illustrator. I thought I was going to be a painter, then a photographer, then a writer, but none of those jobs really fit my personality. It wasn’t until I put the notion of writing together with composing images that I ever thought about illustration. Everything clicked. I immediately started work on my first picture book. Knowing nothing about how to make a book, I just sat down, wrote, and drew one. I was fortunate to know people who understood the world of children’s literature, and they guided me into the far more chaotic world of publishing. Hard work on my part and the kindly assistance from professionals has gotten this far.

Who influenced you?

Influences are kind of hard to pin down. Sometimes the influence of an artist or style only lasts a short while, then vanishes. Being from Pennsylvania, it’s hard not to feel something for the work on Andrew Wyeth. Not his paintings, which everyone seems to love, but his pencil drawings. I’ve stolen a lot of tricks from his drawings and converted them into my own inking style. Wyeth’s drawings and paintings always feel like home to me, not because of the nostalgic feeling of America they seem to cause in others, but because that’s what my world looked like when I went pretty much anywhere.

Do you have a favorite medium or subject?

I work exclusively in pen and ink, so I guess it’s my favorite medium. I have dreams of working with other media, like paints and printmaking, but nothing else seems to work quite as well as ink. The cool thing about ink is that it’s very unforgiving of mistakes. If I draw the wrong line in the wrong place, there’s very little I can do about it besides start over. The need to be very attentive to what I’m doing helps me stay focused on the drawing. It’s always challenging, which keeps it from being boring.

As far as favorite subjects go, I’m fascinated by history and science, so without fail, aspects of those subjects turn up in my work. The nice thing about loving history is finding a new way to bring an old story to life for people who may not know anything about it. I think it’s sad that many people think of history as little more than a boring parade of dates and facts. I put a great deal of effort into bringing everyday life into my work so that it is easy for the reader to relate to the lives of actual people from the distant past.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an illustrator?

The best advice I could give to any artist is to work extremely well in one medium. We live in a culture where everyone thinks they’re good at everything, or could be with time and practice. In truth, that’s not the case. We all have a particular gift, that one thing we do a bit better than others. That is the skill that needs to be nurtured and explored. It is hard work to discover our talent and it’s even harder work to develop it.

As a teenager, I assumed I would be a painter, so I went to college focused on becoming a painter. However, it turned out that I was far better at drawing. Even then, it took years of drawing to stumble upon pen and ink, which luckily, turned out to be a fine medium for the illustration of books. I didn’t intend to become the illustrator that I am, but once I realized that drawing books in ink was as easy as breathing, I was able to create the kind of artwork I’d always dreamed of.

It wasn’t a straightforward path to become an illustrator and it’s remained just as difficult to maintain my focus, what with a world full of wonderful art materials out there just begging to be played with . . . but exercising my talent, day in and day out, is what a professional illustrator does.

Where is your favorite place to work?

I’ve tried to work in practically every conceivable place, but it turns out that I need to work at my desk, with my headphones on, music blaring, and the door to the room shut to keep the real world at bay. As much as I am inspired by travel or time spent in beautiful or interesting places, the only way I get things done is to lock myself away, avoid distractions, and get ideas from inside my head onto the page. My desk is small, my materials are few, but they allow me to create anything I imagine.

What else would you like to tell us?

One of the best lessons I learned as an illustrator was to finish what I started. There’s always a lot of fun and excitement that comes when you start a book. But making a book takes a long time. The fun and excitement come and go. However, the only way you get to share your work is finish it. Not many people are interested in half-finished illustrations and unfinished books. Professionally speaking, literally no one is interested in unfinished work. The sooner an artist learns how to focus and bring his or her best to the work at hand, the sooner cool things will happen.

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Thanks for spending six minutes with us, Timothy! Your journey to becoming an illustrator wasn’t smooth, but it definitely paid off in the end. :)