“I tried to convey the joy and love that permeates throughout the whole story” | 10 Mins with Lauren Tobia
5 Aug 2024
Later this month we're lucky to have a visit from Anna Hibiscus' Song, the theatre adaptation of award-winning children’s author Atinuke’s much-loved picture book.
The beautiful illustrations are by Lauren Tobia who has been making books since 2006. She’s worked with scores of authors; the award-winning Anna Hibiscus series, the acclaimed Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin and the popular Let's Go.. series of books by Caryl Hart, bringing stories to life with her colourful, detailed and heart-warming illustrations.
Hi Lauren! Can you tell us a bit about your work?
It’s very exciting to know that Anna Hibiscus’ Song is coming to Bristol Old Vic as part of a nationwide tour.
I was fortunate to be paired with Atinuke to illustrate the Anna Hibiscus series of books and now it’s thrilling to see Atinuke’s words and my pictures come to life in such a joyful way.
What inspired you when you were creating the illustrations for Anna Hibiscus? How did you capture the vibrant feel of Ibadan, Nigeria in your artwork? Especially in showing the cultural and environmental details of Africa.
My inspiration for the illustrations of course comes from Atinuke’s wonderful stories about Anna and her world as a small child living in a compound in Lagos.
I also spent time looking at Ankara fabric and images and videos of the city. Atinuke was invaluable when I first started, giving me notes on hairstyling and clothing and sometimes noticing things that I would never have thought of- like there are no pavements on an average street in Lagos (I had to rub them out!) Then I was just free to let my imagination flow from the text.
How did you and Atinuke work together to make sure your illustrations matched her storytelling and brought Anna Hibiscus to life?
As an illustrator contrary to everyone’s assumption it is rare for an author and illustrator to meet before a book’s completion I suppose it is more a combination of our own separate imaginations and we were lucky enough to work with a brilliant team of people at Walker Books who helped put the story and pictures together
Can you tell us about the techniques and colours you used to show the themes of happiness, self-discovery, and African culture in the book
I work digitally for flexibility building the illustrations using small pencil sketches and building them into fully coloured pages, making sure there’s room for the text. I tried to convey the hot sun and shadows, the gardens and mango trees and the joy and love that permeates throughout the whole story.
How do you feel about seeing your illustrations turned into a theatre production with music, dance, and puppetry? What parts of the book are you most excited to see on stage?
Having seen the production it was so emotional to see Anna’s world come alive with song and warmth and a set design that ran with the original pictures but made them come alive to an audience.
I am so looking forward to bringing my grandchildren to experience the production, I’m sure they will enjoy the show’s infectious warmth and fun, eagerly joining in with the singing and dancing that makes this production such a great visit to theatre for children and their grownups.
