• Lives and works in Berlin.
• Exchange student in Liverpool, where she met Amy de Nobriga in 2006, and in New York
• Political book. Wrote many interesting and famous books on politics and humanity. She wrote book on Jerusalem trial
• Famous for speaking up for people
• Picture book for children. But about dark subject matter
• First task was to show Hannah as a child 6-8 years old. Tried to bring her grown up image into her child form. So you see her as she is. Was a challenge. Always a double spread of themes not in the text. Rebellious child fighting for her rights. Expelled from school speaking out against teacher. Made the typewriter and dress the same orange red colour so it's recognisable. She became very famous and got a doctorate
• Style? What is style? It is part of your personality and comes out as you work. The best you get out of you. Your cultural background, your culture. It's like your handwriting, your voice
• Pencil on paper black and white doesn't cost much easy to get ahold of then scan it in photoshop and colour that way with multiply layers
• Little sketches to find out how I think. Multi panel illustration to tell narrative
• How to get the most depth out of an image without over complicating it looking to old books, Japanese etchings and woodcuts. Very isometric and flat
• Likes to draw typography herself. Handy skill to have
• One exchange semester in New York. Learned etching and had to come up with own project. It was very open so I observed the city, little drawings of the city. Don't have to be so original. Copper plate, aqua tint, lots of grey fonts and I love that.
• Looking for strange oddities. Nice memories from New York City.
• How did I get my first job? Went to New York and went to Liverpool. I need English. In Germany you send work out but they don't like that. They prefer to find you. Whereas in the US and UK it is acceptable to send work out to potential clients and very much encouraged. Being German is also seen as "exotic" and I have different experiences and perspectives to give.
• Working for the New York Times for a long time. First job in editorial. Phone call, you have a day. It's extremely fast. You have one go and if you fail they never call again. You have to find out what they want and like about your work. Lots of feedback with art directors. Very fast paced. Not lots of time. It can be sometimes good sometimes not. Not for everyone!
• Primaries for the election in 2008. Upper class. Middle class. Working class. Learning about a different country and society that's not my own
• It's very normal that old clients never contact you again
• Invited to be part of a comic collective all women from Berlin and Hamburg. Went to festivals, book cons, etc.
• Tried sequential drawings and comics. Try new work. Two colours. First chapter. Panel by panel. Art director in Germany saw it and loved it and gave me a job with this comic and with Hamburg Magazine had 5 double spreads
• The Beatles in Hamburg. Handwritten lettering to squeeze in as much text as possible
• Could test to see new panels. Square square rectangle square. Freestyle storytelling. How to get the most information into A4. It has to be still legible
• Theme of "wonder" true wonder to me is medicine, finding dentistry, penicillin, X-ray, etc. Interests me personally. Museums in London that I go to myself. Topic that interests you is beneficial for future projects. Patient consent project. Risks. Two professors conversation of doctor and patient and risks of heart attack. Causes and risks and why you need to undergo this examination for older people. I was part of the pilot study where they read this booklet if they feel more informed / relaxed / etc. and they do and everyone gets this step by step comic. We all need it and it's important
• These are all jobs that come through snow balling. People find me
• Surprise magazine, like the big issue, two refugees training for a job and hoping to stay in Switzerland. It's important for me to have topics like this on humanity. It is powerful. Different people and contexts. Give this my voice and speak up for people in need
• I enjoy this job to then find the images for this
• Books I loved as a child. Born in east Germany and books were different in east and west Germany
• Shaky ink drawings. Charming and weird characters, woodpecker with a walking stick, mouse in a dentist chair, everyone has pain
• Der struwpeter. Beautiful illustrations. If you behave like a bully you won't get away with it. The dog gets his revenge. Simple illustrations. It's from 1845. He couldn't find the right picture book for kids so made it himself
• Because I teach now I commute for hours on a train. I draw in a sketchbook. Challenge myself. Tired from drawing so much
• Made a tiny book of paper cut, it is self published, not to think just to do it. Just to go for it. To enjoy it
• See how far I can take it
• Finding different shapes, different forms. Like a bat. Free style. Finding something different while the pen is on the paper
• Different eyes, proportions. For fun, games
• Change the idea you had
• Working with text and storytelling. Almost always you have a text or narrative.
• Graphic novel or Hansel and Gretel. 40 page book from 7 page narrative. Because it's so short. The sentences are so full of information you have to find a way in panels
• Had to have logic with the duffle coat and lots of pebbles. Wanted it to be modern
• I enjoyed playing with the light and the dark with the trees
• What do they do for 3 days in the forest? They are scared and hungry. Until they get to the witch what are they doing? I enjoyed expanding their time in the forest
• Cake house instead of a gingerbread. I had fun thinking of a cake house and making it different
• The beginning is grey and dark and lonely, the middle is colourful because of the gingerbread cake, and then it's back to darker colours again
• 20 double spreads at the beginning of each chapter. Starts with early man. Have to find the most information to put into an image
• Image of Haiti and colonisation and 18th century. Sugar plantation with slaves. Uproar of slaves who became an independent state and fought back.
• China. It was up to me to find images to draw images from. Rectangular city. I couldn't make it up so much but found engravings of haircuts, architecture, etc to work with from rich people at the time. You have to do some research. You have to go to specific libraries. Books on Africa, China.
• Hand-coloured photographs to use as a reference from the library to recreate my own version
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