Interview with Clive McFarland

Clive grew up in Northern Ireland before taking a ship to England to study at Liverpool School of Art and Design.  Discovering his love for children’s picture books he combined it with his love of nature. His art is inspired by the shapes and emotion he finds in landscape and natural imagery. His debut picture book A Bed for Bear and follow up The Fox and the Wild are available now. His third book Caterpillar Dreams will be released in early 2017.

BWB: A Bed For Bear was your debut picture book for HarperCollins. Can you tell us what inspired the story?

CM: I wanted to make a book about finding a place to belong. Originally the story was set in an urban town where bears lived. Even though town seemed the perfect place to live for many different types of bear (like brown bears, polar bears and pandas), it was a place where Bernard the Bear felt he didn’t belong. HarperCollins liked the main character but envisaged a bedtime story. That set Bernard on a different path and I started over with something simpler. I felt a book to be read at bedtime should be quiet. I wanted things to be understated and for the art not to be too cluttered or busy. Setting the story in a wood seemed a better fit. Bernard still feels that he isn’t in the right place and goes looking for the perfect place to sleep.

I owe a lot to my editor David Linker. We worked on A Bed for Bear for a long time. He helped me find the right voice and establish the kind of stories I want to tell.

BWB: Bears focus in a lot of your illustrations, is there a reason for this?

CM: Maybe I was drawing a lot of bears because I had a story in mind. I haven’t created any since I completed A Bed for Bear and decided not to work on a couple of bear books from other publishers after that. I had created a bear character I was fond of and wanted to do something different. I’d love to visit Bernard’s world again though.

BWB: Who is your favourite fictional bear?

CM: I grew up with and love the original Winnie-the-Pooh stories by AA Milne, illustrated by EH Shepard. Paddington Bear is a close second. Bernard’s yellow scarf is a little nod to Rupert Bear.

BWB: Your illustration process of collage is seen throughout your work. Has this process changed in any way to meet picture book deadlines?

CM: My process hasn’t changed much but I am working digitally more which means it’s easier to make changes to the art. I am able to make more polished work this way and it can be a bit faster. I allow myself to use only hand-painted textures and try to keep true to the limitations of traditional cut-out illustration.

BWB: Can you tell us what are you working on right now?

CM: My latest book Caterpillar Dreams is publishing with HarperCollins early next year. It’s a story about a caterpillar called Henri who dreams of exploring the world and sets off on a journey beyond the safety of his garden. I haven’t seen the final book yet but it's finished and I’m very excited for the book to be released. 

Right now I’m in the process of illustrating a counting book to be published by Nancy Paulsen Books, which is an honour. I’m also writing new stories and hoping they might be on a bookshelf in the not too distant future.

A Bed For Bear

A Bed For Bear

By Clive McFarland

Published by Harper Collins

It's bedtime for Bernard but the bear cave is crowded and very uncomfortable. What is a bear to do when there's no good place to sleep? The debut picture book from the fab Clive McFarland, sees him bring his signature collage style to this endearing tale of a sleepy bear.

Bernard searches high and low for the perfect place to sleep in this lovely bedtime story from Clive. It's nearly winter and Bernard is getting ready to hibernate. There's just one problem, how can Bernard be expected to sleep in a bear cave? It's too noisy, too big and too crowded! So Bernard sets off in finding the perfect place to sleep. He comes to a pond and asks a frog if he can try out his lily pad. But being wet wasn't very comfy. He then comes across a nest in a tree. But the nest didn't feel right. He then asks a rabbit if he can try out his burrow. But it was a bit of a tight fit. 

It's only when Bernard comes across a mouse that he explains the perfect bed he'd like to sleep in. The mouse has the right place in mind and takes Bernard to it. They arrive at the interesting bed. It was dry and calm, with lots of space and plenty of company. The perfect place for bears, his bear cave. And Bernard slept all winter, the perfect bed for bear.

I've been a fan of Clive's since I first seen his work pop up on twitter a couple of years ago. His unmistakable collage style is striking and full of character. A Bed For Bear is illustrated beautifully, with textured illustrations that pop off the pages. The story is a classic one, inspired from fairytales such as Goldilocks and the three Bears. A great bedtime read that you will never bore of, and will hopefully help your little cubs drop off to dreamland. 

A Bed For Bear is available to buy now at all good bookshops and on the Harper Collins website here. If you'd like to know more about how Clive made the book, check out the interview I had with him here. I also recommend checking out the trailer below as it's one of my favourites!

A BED FOR BEAR by Clive McFarland - Book Trailer from Paper Panther on Vimeo.

The Fox and the Wild

The Fox and the Wild

By Clive McFarland

Published by Templar Publishing

This is the second authored picture book from Northern Ireland based illustrator, Clive McFarland. His follow up to A Bed for Bear is an animal adventure with a strong environmental message, all wrapped up in Clive's distinctive collage-based graphic style.

Fred is a city fox, born and bred. He has never left the city but longs to go to a place that's not noisy, smoky and dangerous. On one of his bin raids he comes across a flock of birds flying over the city. He calls to them asking where they were going but they don't hear him. Determined to find out where they were flying to, Fred asks some of the animals he comes across whilst walking through the city, but none of them can help him. that is until on the birds crash lands in front of him. Fred asks the bird and the bird tells him about 'the wild'. Fred then goes on a quest to find this place, often finding places within the city that match the bird's description but not being quite right. It's only when Fred gets scared by a rather scary digger that he finds himself in a tunnel which leads straight to the wild! 

Clive's collaged illustration is always a joy to look at. I love his work and have been a fan since his debut last year. His city scenes are stunning (the image below is my favourite from the book) and as always there are wonderful character designs for each animal depicted in the story. This is a really enjoyable picture book, with a story children will adore and a humorous ending that will certainly make you chuckle.

The Fox and the Wild is a joyous read with lovely colourful illustrations that are sure to make you a fox lover. It's out now to buy in all good bookshops and available to buy on the Templar website.