ROME

Stephen Biesty decided he wanted to pursue a career in illustration when he was 10. He studied illustration for 5 years, working on a variety of projects, before finally deciding to work as a book illustrator.

We asked Stephen a few questions about his work ...

When did you decide that you wanted to become an illustrator?
I think I decided that I wanted to draw for a living in some way when I was about ten. At home my elder brother and I were always drawing. He drew cars and aeroplanes I drew Vikings and castles. I decided to study illustration when I was eighteen and spent five years at college. During this time I worked on a wide variety of projects, but finally decided that I would like to work as a book illustrator.

What inspires your drawings?
I have always been inspired to draw by history. The stories, the great people and events. I love visiting old buildings such as castles and cathedrals and palaces to see how people used to live. I also love museums of all kinds. As a boy I liked to watch the "Vikings", "El Cid", and "Ben Hur" because of the battle scenes with thousands of soldiers and I still have those images in my mind. These days I enjoy looking at old paintings and engravings by artists like Canaletto, and pictures from medieval manuscripts. They have incredible historical atmosphere which I find very inspiring.

Do your illustrations always have a historical theme?
As an illustrator you do have to be versatile and I have produced drawings on many subjects, but history is always what I would prefer to do. It gets my creative energies going.

Your illustrations are extremely detailed. How long do you spend on each drawing?
Every drawing I create is different and I can never be sure how long each one will take. Usually I divide each illustration into four stages, so here is an average time for each stage:

So that's about 4 weeks in total for each illustration.

Have you ever been to Rome?
I went to Rome in May 2001 during the making of my Rome book, but I had wanted to go for a long time. It was an amazing experience. I walked down into the Forum and stood there were all that history happened. I loved the fact that the forum is below the modern street level. It was buried by centuries of rebuilding. Rome is like that, layer upon layer of history beneath your feet. Even though Rome is busy and noisy, when you enter paces like the Colosseum, your mind transports you back two thousands years and you become one of the crowd watching the gladiator in the arena.

Are there any places apart from Rome that you would like to do illustrations for?
I would love to do a book of illustrations on places like London, Venice, Moscow, Paris, Ancient Egypt and I could think of many more. It's just fantastic to have a new historical subject to find out about and then draw.

If you hadn't become an illustrator, what other job would you have done?
I am very interested in all types of horticulture so I think I would have enjoyed being a gardener. I have allotment where I grow many different things. I also have a bonsai collection many of which I have grown from seed over the last twenty years or so.

Do you have any tips for budding young illustrators?
I think the best tip I could offer to someone interested in becoming an illustrator would be to develop interests which inspire them to draw. This provides the fuel you will need, it also helps to keep an open mind and drink in new influences.