Ed Emberly

I watched an interview with Ed Emberly talking about his life and work. he talks about the importance of changing up the media and processes he uses in his books to keep him motivated and to keep learning throughout his practice. His work varies from book to book and he talks about intentionally setting out to make books that look like they are made by different artists. Doing this means that he is able to tailor his work to different subjects and find new creative ways to tackle the subject matter, this is particularly important for his books that are aimed to educational. he has made books that encourage children to create their own artwork so changing his way of working like using finger prints of simple geometric shapes. By doing this he made books that encourage creative thinking for both himself and the children learning from them. He talks about not being able to please everyone and that if you try to you will please nobody, saying that if you like his books them you will have something in common with him. I think he is right, you have to try and make illustrations understandable to the widest possible audience and make visual metaphors that are as close to universal as possible but in terms of the narrative and composition you need to have a target audience and stay true to what you think and what you like. there is a freedom and variation in Ed Emberly's work that I don't often see in practitioners work, especially those with such a long successful career, he has published around 100 children's books and I think his eagerness to continue to experiment and challenge himself has aided the longevity of his career. I often think that once you get too comfortable with a process the work becomes stale as you start to go through the motions and follow a set pattern rather than looking for new ways to work. I would like to try and find out more about Ed Emberly and I am going to try and find more interviews with him about his work and how he goes about getting his books published.