"This book has existed in a certain sense for a long time and I think I needed courage to publish it. Beyond courage, I also needed people around me to encourage it to happen," says Aviel Basil about his first book as a writer and illustrator, "The Perfect Gift" (Zebra Publishing edited by Tami Harel), after a long series of books he illustrated in collaboration with other writers.
"It was difficult for me to publish the book both because of the writing and because it is a personal book, a story that is mine, and I needed that time," he shares.
"I took care of myself through writing."
Rami Tal,
"The transition from an illustrator to publishing a book in which I am both the illustrator and the writer is a somewhat intimidating transition. It was both exciting and stressful, with a very high intensity of emotions," illustrator Rami Tal also describes the first book he both illustrated and wrote, "Noam's Monsters" (Tal -May/Yediot Ahronoth edited by Yotam Schwimmer).
Both are respected illustrators who are loved by the children, their parents and the authors who create together with them, and both were recognized for the first books they also wrote at the last Sasa Stone Awards for Children's Literature.
"Noam's Monsters" by Tal was chosen as the winning book for 2022, and "The Perfect Gift" earned Basil a literary excellence grant.
The award named after the late Philip and Hilda Stone (awarded by the Sasa Stone organization that promotes the reduction of educational gaps in hospitalized children) was awarded this year to creators in the field of children's literature for the second time.
Its purpose is to support children's literature and it is divided into writers and illustrators who have had a positive impact on Israeli culture.
"The moment I woke up"
"It was there from the beginning, I mean, I think that many illustrators will say like me that the stories have always been there but it's easier for us to express ourselves visually," says Basil, whose impressive résumé includes illustrations of more than 70 literary works, some contemporary and some classics, By many writers, including Meir Shalu, Etgar Kerat, Shlomit Cohen-Assif, Tal Nitzan, Tsurya Shalu, Avraham Shalonsky, Leah Goldberg and Natan Alterman.
Basil won the Israel Museum prize for illustrating a children's book for the illustration "Og Melech Bashan" by Alterman.
His book deals with father and son relationships, shared time and closeness between them, dreams, jealousy and disappointment.
"I based it on my childhood memory, on a racing car I got for my birthday and it was a little cheap type that was connected by a wire - and I cut the wire.
"I've been illustrating for many years, but I'm a father to girls only half of the time, and I admit that it changed something for me. But from the beginning, I've been illustrating in a way that makes me laugh and amuse me, and I try not to look through the filter of "what's right for children". What makes me laugh will usually make you laugh too My daughters. Over the years, it has become more important for me to emphasize the representation of other children," he replies when I ask him about the worldview that guides him in his choices in the illustration process.
"I am of Eastern origin and I was a brown child, and at the beginning of my journey I was constantly drawing bright children. Then I had a defining moment that woke me up, when someone wrote something about it, and I suddenly thought - why is this my default when I draw a child, and not a child that reminds me of the child I was ? These are the children I saw drawn in the books I read, and in general, everywhere. So I made a decision, a few years ago, that unless otherwise indicated, the child I draw will be me. This is my influence, even if it is limited, something small that I took upon myself in an attempt to change ".
What does your joint work process with a writer look like?
"I like to hear what the writers imagined and try to incorporate it into the illustrations. It's important for me to respect that and it's also clear to me that I won't always end up with what they imagined, and I'll change it. However, it's important to me as an illustrator that I don't be told too much about what to do, that I don't feel like I'm being dictated to . I don't like this buffer between the author's writing and Meyer's illustration work, that when the first is finished the book passes to me and I continue. It's not exactly like that. Obviously there are opinions and there can also be egos and issues, but it's an amazing job and for the most part it works thanks to the editors - Good editors know how to look at the book from a broader perspective and know how to mediate and connect. I am very much in favor of meeting and talking with the authors and hearing them, I like this interaction, the feeling of doing something together. It is true that there is also something lonely in the process of illustration, so I am very much in favor of meetings With the writers, it's an excuse for me to dress up and leave the house, see the world," he adds with a smile.
"In the end, it's not the most economical decision in the world to be an illustrator of children's books,"
"reopen the wound"
"When they told me that I won, I didn't believe it, and I still somehow don't believe it," shares Tal.
"I think I still haven't digested it because I still have this insecurity of the child I was. Every success I experience I feel like I have to check several times to make sure it's really happening to me - how can it be that I will actually win or that I will actually succeed? I Hopefully in the future I will feel differently, but right now these feelings are still here."
Like Basil's book, Tal's book was also brewing for some time until it was published.
"I've always loved writing," he says, "but I'm used to the illustrator's hat." An earlier version of the book, he says, was submitted as part of his final project in visual communication studies. "I chose a topic that touches me personally and that is bullying, experiences I went through as a child .
Writing about it was like reopening a wound, saying - yes, it happened to me, but I feel that with it I took care of myself.
"Bullying is an issue that, unfortunately, is always relevant, even when I was a child in the nineties, and even today, when it is also expressed on social networks. Through the book, I hope that boys and girls will see the strength they have and I want to tell them that they can deal with anything if they find the thing that they are I really like to do. My strength and my love is drawing, and when I experienced bullying I stopped drawing and returned to doing it only after almost 15 years. What I experienced was imprinted on me so strongly that it stripped me of everything I loved to do as a child, and it was precisely drawing that could help me. On the other hand, Sefer Noam uses painting as a tool to get through everything."
"I made a decision, unless otherwise stated, the child I draw will be me."
Aviel Basil // Photo: Amnon Horesh,
"Illustration and writing are really joint work. It's not like the illustrator comes and does what he does and that's it, and the book belongs only to the writer," Tal refers to one of the existing perceptions regarding the role of illustrators in the process of creating a book.
"There is a new spirit and a greater understanding today that the work of the illustrators and that of the writers are of equal value, and I am happy about that. In illustration you can convey many messages and many meanings, even in the facial expressions of the characters. Children 'read' the pictures even before they can read the words , and illustrations have a lot of power to connect us to an emotion and it can be very powerful."
To what extent do you feel you have room for personal expression when you illustrate a book written by other writers?
"From the outside it may seem as if the work was already ready and then the illustrator came in the middle, but when I start to illustrate a book I feel that I am at the beginning of a new process of joint work between me and the author. They have thoughts and ideas about the illustration and I usually ask that before they tell me from them that they give For me to prepare preliminary sketches and give them everything I have in mind. Then everything is open to dialogue, and sometimes writers have a really good idea for an illustration. It's a joint process of working together that ends up with a joint product."
Meira Barnea-Goldberg, Iris Elia-Cohen and Ascher Erblich-Brifman are some of the writers with whom Tal has collaborated.
Some of the books in the beloved and successful 'Caramel' series by Barnea-Goldberg are illustrated by Tal.
"My dream now, and everyone around me already knows it," a smile creeps into his voice, "is to illustrate a book manually: with gouache, with pencils. The artist in me feels that he needs and wants it very much. I like to experiment with different colors and materials, to get dirty, to feel the The textures".
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