Interview | National Illustration Day – Interview with local illustrator Gareth Sleightholme

Gareth has created three books to date for Hull Maritime, following local children Lily and Jacob as they look at the history and folklore that makes up part of this city's amazing maritime heritage. From the Kraken and Sirens to the story of sunken medieval island Ravenser Odd, the Maritime Tales comics are a must read with beautiful illustrations suitable for children and adults alike.

Emma, Hull Maritime: Hi Gareth, thanks for talking to us about your comics. We’d love to ask you more about your illustration and what inspires you. First, what is your favourite thing about being an illustrator?

Gareth: Well, my favourite thing would likely be the storytelling. The ability to build worlds with images and inhabit them with characters, that might, overtime, appear to have some sort of life in that image based continuity.

As for inspirations, I'm a big fan of reading around history, local and wider world, mostly it has to be said, ancient world history, though everything up to around the Napoleonic era. That and folklore and Mythology would be my biggest influences as a consumer of media.

I look at a lot of visual media amongst that obviously, and am an enthusiastic comics reader, and love the artwork of Duncan Fegredo, Mike Mignola, Dean Ormston, Toppi, Mobius, Alberto Breccia, Steve Yeowell, Bernie Wrightson and others. But I also like sculpture, and because of my previous work (as a production designer for visitor attractions and museums), am happy sketching in 3D, whether physical or digital.

Emma: You mentioned that you love myths, legends and folklore. How did this interest start?

Gareth: Well, that likely started as a kid, I’ve watched a lot of genre film and TV over the years, but I particularly loved the old Ray Harryhausen mythology adventure films growing up, which probably influenced me and my love of that subject a lot. But I also remember an old blue fabric hardbound collection of Greek Myths from when I was a kid, Bellerophon and the Chimera, Daedalus and the Labyrinth, The Twelve Labours… etc. No dust jacket, just a gold embossed pan in the centre of the blue cover, so probably second hand. The inside was printed in double columns, no illustrations that I can recall, and I lay in the floor and pored over that book for hours. After that came the Sinbad movies, Clash of the Titans etc. Finally beginning to compare it all with other myths and tales I read from around the world and seeing the connections between stories that had travelled so far, changing as they did so.

Emma: I love reading and stories too, I can often be found reading a book on my lunch break! It’s clear that a lot of research goes into the Maritime Tales comics you create. Could you tell us a bit about your process?

Gareth: I tend to start by writing down everything *I think* I know about a subject. Then, a little bit of research, whether at the library, history centre, museums, online, or in my own book collection, usually flags up some errors or conflations I've made and so it's good to set those straight early on. After that I try and find a theme on which to hang the main elements of the story, and through that try to draw in more ideas that might be more tangential but fun or interesting. Adding visual parallels to try and reinforce ideas and dropping visual clues to other related ideas is also something I enjoy. I try to take a look as much contemporary info as I can find, published archaeology and history papers to see if there are new or counter-“tradition” ideas to things I learnt way back in school.

With the Ravenser Odd comic, I was very lucky to be able to have a great conversation with the two historian academics curating the exhibition*, which was an invaluable addition to my research on the project. With that in mind, I'm hoping to have some similar expert input on the next book too.

*Hull/Ravenser Odd: Twin Cities, Sunken Pasts, an exhibition which was on display at the Hull History Centre from March – May 2024.

Emma: We’re really pleased that you’re working on a fourth Maritime Tales comics. I’m sure everyone will be excited to hear more about it soon! Talking about research, your Maritime Tales comics are always crammed full of easter eggs and hidden references for people to spot. Can you tell us about a few of your favourites?

Gareth: There are lots in the first book, but I think one of my favourites is being able to draw the three statues commissioned by Cuthbert Broderick to grace the top of his long gone Royal Institute museum on Albion St, the same ones that now sit in the gardens of the East riding and Street life Museums on High Street. The actual statues as they are today appear in the Ravenser Odd comic as Lily and Jacob wander around the museum’s Medieval Day event (Ravenser Odd got a passing mention in that first book too). Then in the second book I had fun incorporating a lot of art from the Ferens into my drawings of the various mythological creatures. That and getting Jacob to drop the Tom Waits mention into the “... Sirens” comic too.

Emma: What advice to do you have for people who would like to be an illustrator?

Gareth: It’s not an exciting answer, as early on it's really about practice. Getting as much useful drawing time under your belt as you can. If you want to draw things in a representational way, (i.e. not abstracted or over stylised), try learning a little about Perspective, Anatomy, and through Drawing From Life, a bit about how Light hits objects and is able to suggest Form, which with a little basic Composition can then begin to tie it all together.

But also keep drawing the things you love drawing. As that will keep your enthusiasm up, until you have done that much drawing, you will have naturalised the process, and can then think about other things while doing it. What do you want viewers to believe your characters are thinking about? What symbolism or visual metaphor or art tradition echoes, if any, might enhance the images message? etc.

That, and that there are endless types and specialisms within illustration, it's not really a single catch all industry, and can cover drawing kids books, to automotive design, from archaeological finds illustration, to concept art for cinema. Each with its own rules, favoured processes and pathways to enter it.

Most of all, even if you learn to draw and never use it as a means to earn a living, it will still be something that will enhance your life, like learning to play a musical instrument. So just enjoy it. Have fun. Make a lot of art.

Emma: That’s great advice, thanks. Hull is a really creative city too so there are always plenty of opportunities to take part in creative and cultural activities and see what other creative people are working on. On that note, which other illustrators inspire you?

Gareth: So many, my social media feeds tend to be exclusively illustrator and artist based. But there are favourites of course, and I have books on my shelf close to hand with the works of everyone from Durer, Rembrandt, Sargent, Repin, the fairytale illustrations of Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, through to early pen and ink illustrators like Heinrich Kley, S.V. Chamberlain, E.A. Abbey, E.C. Peixotto, Franklin Booth, Joseph Clement Coll and the Brandywine illustrators (NC Wyeth, Pyle) and their inheritors like Rockwell, Parish etc. Plus the latter illustrators of the early pulp Sci Fi and Fantasy adventure reprints like Frazetta and Jones, all the way up to the contemporary illustrators of SF and Fantasy, like James Jean, Gary Gianni, Karl Kopinski, Ian McQue, and others outside those genres like Paul Madonna and Shaun Tan. But I try to look at art outside of my own traditions too, and so can be found wandering about at contemporary art exhibitions in and around the city. Lists like this are hard, and probably change a little each time I'm asked, but the important ones for me are in there.

Emma: Finally, where can we see more of your work?

Gareth: You can always find more of my work on any of my social media channels, mostly under the name @hesir, @AKAhesir or my full given name, and you can find a fairly comprehensive portfolio (if not fully up to date, due to various NDAs) over at hesir.artstation.com

Hull Maritime: Thanks very much Gareth, and happy National Illustration Day!

You can now read all three volumes of Gareth’s Maritime Tales comics as e-books thanks to our friends at Hull Libraries. Download the comics for free with your library card via Borrowbox: Hull Libraries - BorrowBox

Gareth Sleightholme is a Hull based illustrator/creative who has produced Visual Development, illustration and other 2D and 3D creative work for the Leisure, Events and Museum/Heritage sector for 35 years. His work currently focuses on comics, plus illustration for indie and mainstream TtRPG (Fantasy & SF tabletop roleplaying games).

Gareth has spoken about comics as part of his former role as lecturer at the Hull School of Art & Design, as part of workshops for Hull and Barnsley Museums and as a guest speaker at DEFRA's 2020 Strategic Futures climate change conference in Bristol.

Find his work at: hesir.artstation.com on Twitter @hesir & IG @AKAhesir and ironshodapecomics.com