The summer’s jammiest book is out now, so we sat down with debut author and illustrator of Jam is for Eating! to learn more about her process creating this sweet treat of a story!
How did the idea for Jam is for Eating come to you?
I love jam. I love bats. I love my friends. I’ve been reading a lot of earthworm facts recently. I knew I wanted to write something a bit silly, but that kept friendship at its heart. Put that all together, and you end up with Jam is for Eating.
You’re a multi-disciplinary creative, do you find that you approach different projects in different mediums differently, or does your process follow a similar path across disciplines?
Much like the long walks I like to go on, I don’t think I ever really follow the same path twice! There is usually some overlap though:
- Initial sketches so rough that if I look at them a week later I can’t really tell what I’ve been drawing
- A storyboard or layout stage where I plot out the whole book/film/idea and start to understand its shape
- Sixteen thousand different attempts at style development to figure out what I want it to look like
- A realisation that, like always, I’ve ended up with the same colour palette I always do
- A darkest hour of the soul moment (usually when I’m so far in I can’t tell what I’m doing anymore) where my friends feed me snacks, pat me gently on the head and tell me it’s going to be okay
This is your first picture book, how have you found the process compared to your other creative projects?
I do a lot of animation work, so it’s been hard not making Benny move! I keep thinking about how I would animate a certain scene, how squishy I’d make his head during a certain gesture, or what music might feel just right for the moment.
But I’ve loved how freeing that is too! Leaving space around images where you can see the blank page, finding the flow across pages, trusting another actor (whichever adult or kid is reading the book!) to deliver the lines in their own creative way… And most of all holding the final book in your hands! What a lovely feeling.
Children’s books are such a participatory creative form – they’re something physical you can keep in your home, you can touch the pages, read them together, invent voices and take your time in noticing the details. Everyone is involved in telling the story. I think they’re a really special genre of creative pursuit.
Do you make jam? If so, can you show us your jam?
This book is partially based on my dad, Ben, and his jam making endeavours. Always delicious, but never strawberry. Strawberries are much more fun to draw than the strange combinations he cooks up, so I stuck to strawberry in the book.
This year, inspired by Benny, I will be doing my first jam making – so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Lots of picture books feature animal characters, but very few have a bat as the protagonist, what is it about bats that made you want to have one as your main character?
I think bats are great. My mum has volunteered with the National Bat Helpline (a part of the Bat Conservation Trust) and has instilled me with lots of love and respect for them. I love bunnies and badgers and all the good fluffy things – but bats are a wonderful, weird, and important part of our ecological community that we humans share in.
Your illustrations have an interesting off-beat style, quite different from mainstream more “cutesy” children’s illustration- what lead you to this style?
I have no idea! I just draw, and eventually something comes out. Perhaps I am not a very cutesy person. The only thing that was quite deliberate was the placing of a volcano in the background of most scenes.
Your work has really strong character design, what would your advice be to anybody wanting to improve their character design? There’s a great cast of supporting characters in the book, were there any that you had ideas for that didn’t end up making it into the book?
Gather lots of images of strange people that you think are wonderful, and spend time thinking about what makes the people you know unique in how they act, think, and react. I usually start with people I know and love – most of Benny’s facial expressions for example come from my wonderful little (now grown-up) brother, Alfie, with a supplementary set of facial expressions in the other characters from my big brother, Wilf. There were indeed huge numbers of characters that never made the book. From Ollie the Osprey and Abby the Alpine Newt, to Tarantino the Trout and Larry the Ladybug.
What are the influences on your illustration style? Do you take inspiration from designers working in other media as well as illustration?
I’m always stopping in bookshops and pulling books off shelves to go through the pictures. But I think that might just be a love of the medium, more than a particular influence. But yes, I’m always looking beyond that too – to film, zines, TV series, music, cool graphic design on food labels and strange plants when I’m out on a walk.
The worm is such a supportive and expressive friend to Benny throughout the book, but we don’t know their name! Do you have a name for them? And do you have a friend like them, quietly supporting you all the time?
It is up to the reader to name the worm in their copy of the book.
I have the most incredible friends when it comes to support, and I think that’s one of the best parts of the creative process (and life in general). Abby and Becks have been my book-buddies from the earliest days of our friendships, and have been so supportive throughout this process. Yukari was very much there for me in my darkest hour of the soul when I wondered if actually I had no idea how to draw after all. And my lovely ‘artists crit group’ is always there for me in a creative endeavour to offer their kind advice and encouragement.
I hope that I am a good worm back to all of them as well.
Jam is for Eating!
by Jess Mountfield
Benny has made the best jam ever and his friends love it. One problem: none of them seem to want to eat it . . .
When Benny the bat rolls out his jam laden trolley loaded with the best batch he has ever made he is disappointed by his friends’ reactions to his sweet treat. Each and every one of Benny’s friends seems to have other (sometimes ingenious) uses for Benny’s jam. But to Benny’s annoyance, none of them involve eating it!
A unique picture book jam-packed with laughs on every spread.
