Interview with Andy Case - The RV Book Fair 2025

Hello Andy, what inspired you to become a children’s book illustrator, and how has your passion evolved over the years?

I’ve always been drawn to storytelling through pictures. As a child, I was completely captivated by the way illustrations could pull you into another world, sometimes even before you could read the words. I loved how a single image could create so much humour or mystery. That feeling never really left me and I read and practiced drawing every day, even now.

When I began illustrating children’s books by accident. I sent off some cartoons to a publisher and within 10 minutes I had a contract sent to me. Within a week, I was illustrating my first ever book. Nowadays, it feels like I’ve found the perfect balance between art and narrative — creating characters that children could connect with, and worlds they could explore long after the book was closed.

Over the years, my passion has deepened as I’ve learned how powerful illustration can be in shaping how children see themselves and the world around them. I’ve come to see each project as an opportunity not just to make something beautiful, but to spark imagination, empathy, and joy.

I still feel that same excitement I had as a kid when I open a new sketchbook — the sense that anything can happen on the next page.

Your books are colourful and full of character. How do you develop a style that captures humour and emotion for kids?

For me, it always starts with the characters. I spend a lot of time sketching expressions and gestures until they feel alive, until I can almost hear what they’d say or how they’d move. I try to make sure every line, shape, and colour choice helps tell the story of how a character feels. I imagine scenario of what the character has gone through, and how they may react to situations that present themselves.

Humour, I think, comes from honesty. It manifests itself in those small, human moments that children recognise instantly. A crooked smile, a funny tilt of the head, or a character getting into a bit of a muddle. those are the details that made me laugh as a child because they felt true and somewhat anarchic.

Colour plays a big part too. I use it not just to make things bright and fun, but to create warmth and energy. I want the pages to feel like places you’d want to step into. My pages need to be full of movement, mischief, and heart.

My style has grown over the years, but I always try to keep that sense of playfulness at the centre of it. If I’m smiling while I’m drawing, there’s a good chance a child will smile when they’re reading. I want the child to discover new things every time they look at the picture, so when i can I am putting hidden features in each image. This has become a signature style of mine.

Can you describe your creative process from manuscript to final illustration?

When I first receive a manuscript, I read it several times, not just to understand the story, but to get a feel for its rhythm, its humour, and its emotional core. I spend some time trying to understand how the characters look to the author and as im reading, I am sketching the main characters.

I start sketching rough thumbnails, small, loose drawings that I can scan into Photoshop to ink and colour. I create character banks for each character so I have lots of choice of how I want the character to act or feel.I feel that this process helps bring authenticity to every scene as I have lots of choice.

I use the same process for creating the backgrounds as well. I will often produce mood boards and use them as reference points to create realistic backgrounds, which compliment the characters. I will always do a final check and add further content as I'm checking the images.

Every project teaches me something new, but that moment when you see it printed for the first time when you know a child somewhere will be opening those pages, that’s the best feeling of all.

How do you balance publisher expectations and market trends with your own creative vision?

It’s definitely a balancing act. Publishers often work to a very strict time scale, with clear milestones to reach at each stage, from rough sketches to final artwork. I completely understand that rhythm; children’s books are a team effort, and everyone is aiming to bring the story to life on schedule. So I’ve learned to plan carefully, manage my time, and make sure the creative side keeps moving forward without losing energy.

When it comes to market trends, they change all the time; colours, styles, even the kind of humour that’s popular can shift quickly. I try to stay aware of those changes, but I don’t let them dictate my work. At the end of the day, the authors and publishers who approach me do so because they connect with my style and my way of telling stories visually. They want my vision that’s what makes each collaboration feel genuine, and the working relationships with authors so rewarding. I focus on being true to the heart of the story and to the characters I’m creating. That’s the constant, even when everything else around the industry keeps evolving.

With digital media competing for children’s attention, how do you keep picture book illustrations engaging today?

It’s true that children have so many screens and digital distractions around them now, but I still believe there’s something timeless about the experience of a real book. When a child holds a picture book, turns the pages, and spends time exploring the details in each illustration, they’re engaging in a much deeper, more imaginative way. Books encourage children to slow down, to think, and to make connections. It's how many of them truly learn to read and understand stories.

Illustrations can spark imagination in a way that’s hard to replicate on a screen. Each picture invites a child to fill in the gaps with their own ideas, to wonder what happens beyond the page, or what a character might do next. That act of imagining helps them become storytellers themselves.

I also think books have a special permanence. They become loved artefacts and treasures that children return to again and again, long after they’ve outgrown the story. Digital media tends to be fleeting; it’s watched, swiped past, and forgotten as quickly as it came. But a well-loved book stays on a shelf, ready to be rediscovered.

Kids also love to collect books, even from a very young age, they have that sense of pride in ‘owning’ their favourites. It’s a very human trait, to curate things that matter to us, and picture books fit beautifully into that instinct. They’re not just stories. They’re part of a child’s world, their imagination, and their memories.

Andy Case is a multi- award winning, globally tributed and internationally published children ren's book illustrator. Andy's illustrations and books have featured in book festivals and fairs all over the world. In 2023, ‘Snoodles in Space’ was the only picture book chosen to be given out at the pre- Academy Awards celebration.

All four ‘Snoodles’ books have been certified award winning.

Find out more at: https://www.andycaseillustration.com.

Article published in The Relatable Voice Magazine - December 2025 as part of The RV Book Fair 2025. Downolad the full magazine at https://www.relatable-media.com/the-relatable-voice-magazine