Q&A with Lucy Mulligan
We spoke with Lucy, an illustrator based in Lancashire, about her ongoing work with The Harris, which includes creating resources, interpretations and displays for families.
Your illustrations are so colourful and vivid! What made you decide to go down the route of primarily children’s literature / picture books?
Thank you – I love colour! It’s always the starting point for me with any project or illustration, I always have a strong idea of the colours before I start working on anything else. I love the early stages of developing a picture book when I’m thinking about the spreads and planning how the colours will change from page to page.
I like the variety of projects you find in children’s publishing, you could be working on a single spot illustration, or a book cover, or spending a day decorating a shop window, or you could be getting really stuck into a full colour picture book that you work on for months. Usually you’re doing them all at once!
Against the backdrop of The Harris, your illustrations will certainly stand out! Have you ever visited The Harris before, and are there any particular reasons you were keen to have your illustrations on display at The Harris?
I visited the Harris quite a few times while I was doing Art & Design at college, and again when I was doing my degree in Illustration. It’s a great resource with loads of interesting items, and you never know what little piece of local history will surprise you and get new ideas going. I love the mermaid shaped bottle in the ceramics collection.
When I was very little we lived in Salford and my Mum would often take me to the local library or to the University of Salford to look at the Lowry paintings there. I still remember those days really well, so my hope is that my illustrations will be an engaging part of a visit to the Harris that young visitors and their families will enjoy together. Families being able to enjoy a free day out is important, so I’d love it if my work adds an extra bit of fun to a visit to the Harris.
Could you share some more information on what you’re currently working on for The Harris?
I’ve been working on illustrations for a range of resources for the museum and library, including colouring sheets, some borders for activity sheets (which were loads of fun to draw) and some spot illustrations of Edmund Robert Harris himself!
I’ve also been working on some full-colour illustrations which will go onto each side of a dice with prompts to encourage people to explore the museum, and colour illustrations for the library’s creative studio. We want to show people being creative in a wide range of ways, to encourage visitors (young and old) to discover and pursue their own creative interests. Each illustration has its own principal colour, I thought making them distinct in this way would add to the dice roll as you wait to see which colour you get, and creates a rainbow of scenes to explore in the creative studio. I spent some time doing observational drawings of people in Preston before developing these illustrations so I could reflect the city’s diversity in the people I drew.
Throughout your artistic career, have you taken any inspiration from popular children’s illustrators, or do you have a favourite illustrator?
While I was doing my masters in Children’s Book Illustration I took a lot of inspiration from mid-century art, like Miroslav Šašek’s legendary ‘This Is’ books, Hanna-Barbera cartoons, colourful packaging, airline posters – so much of the design at that time was very colourful and playful while still being considered and stylish, a really fine balance!
At the moment I’m a bit obsessed with Melissa Castrillon, the way she uses colour is just fantastic and her characters and their worlds are really endearing. I’m a big fan of Stephen Collins and Philippa Rice as well, they’re both so skilled when it comes to making illustrations that can be both very poignant and very funny.
When it comes to picture books I’ve recently been looking at Flavia Z. Drago, Devon Holzwarth, Sara Ogilvie, Oliver Jeffers, William Grill, Benji Davies, Andy J. Pizza… I’ll stop there! I love work with a bit of texture where you can see pencil marks and layers of colour.
We’re curious about your other projects! Do you have any other projects on the go currently? Where else can we see your work?
I’m working on a book cover at the moment, and I have a few picture book ideas on the go that I’m really excited to develop to submit to competitions and publishers next year!
People can see more of my work on my website, and also on my Instagram!
Harris Your Place
Harris Your Place is a £16 million project set to restore and reimagine the Harris for 21st-century audiences as a cultural learning space. The aim of this project is to protect the building and the architecture for future generations whilst enhancing accessibility options and positioning the Harris as a community hub for Preston and Lancashire.
The capital project is more than simply preserving this much-loved building; Harris wants to ensure that it remains a vibrant heart of the community. A place where people want to spend their time.
