Illustrator Spotlight: Celia Krampien

Three Troupe 21 members are authors and illustrators - Anne Appert, Leah Hong and Neesha Hudson. You’ve seen their adorable art all over our website and social accounts, including this graphic for new picture book SECRET, SECRET AGENT GUY!

You’ll continue to get to know all about their stories here on Troupe Tales! We also want to introduce you to the illustrators of the books by our Troupe 21 authors, through our Illustrator Spotlight feature!

This week, we’re featuring Celia Krampien, illustrator of SECRET, SECRET AGENT GUY, the debut picture book of Troupe member Kira Bigwood (Atheneum), which published May 11, 2021.

Celia Krampien is a Canadian illustrator and author, who has created illustrations for newspapers, magazines and children's books. Her clients include Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House Canada, Macmillan Publishing, Simon & Schuster, The New York Times and Variety, among many, many others.

Want to know more about Celia and how she approached illustrating SECRET, SECRET AGENT GUY? You’re in luck: Celia has stopped by the Troupe Tales blog for an interview to share exactly that. So please give a tip of your detective’s fedora and a warm welcome to illustrator Celia Krampien!

Illustrator Spotlight

CELIA KRAMPIEN

What drew you to this manuscript?

What really excited me about SECRET, SECRET AGENT GUY was how Kira’s words left room for interpretation. There was no description of the jetpack, what the spy gear looked like or even where the lollipop was located. There was a lot of discussion between myself, my fabulous art director, Lauren Rille, and wonderful editor, Alex Borbolla, about how to tell these parts of the story with the illustrations.

What qualities of character and/or concept did you want to convey in the cover?

While all picture book illustrations are a highly collaborative effort between the illustrator, the art director and the editor (and countless others), the cover illustration is when I get the most direction from publishing team. The book cover has to do a lot of heavy lifting; it has to stand out on book shelves, communicate what the book is about (without giving too much away!), and it has to appeal to the intended audience of readers. SSAG is a bedtime story so incorporating a bed into the cover was important. We also wanted to communicate how fun and action-packed the story is so we included some of the spy gear and spent time perfecting Secret Agent Guy’s pose, making it feel like he’s just hopped out of bed and is off on a mission.

How did the text/story influence your color choices when creating the illustrations?

The main character moves through many rooms of his house so using color to define those spaces became a useful storytelling tool. I used teal for the upstairs hall, blue for the downstairs where shadows lurk, red/orange for the kitchen where the danger and high stakes happen!

What about the story did you most enjoy/was your favourite to illustrate?

The dog in the story was one of my favourites. The dog is a beagle (Alex and I both have beagles so we were on the same page about this detail). The spread where we meet the dog was the first spread I worked on because I was most excited about that scene. I also really enjoy the frog slippers. I had originally intended Brother to wear them but it was suggested that Secret Agent Guy wear them instead (this was a great call).

What was the hardest part to illustrate?

The trickiest part for me was working out the fun heist details while also keeping Secret Agent Guy’s progression through the house (and his mission!) consistent and logical. We had to think, ok, so at some point he needs to pick up a ‘jetpack’, where can that happen? Or, the text calls for opening a cupboard, what’s inside? What kind of traps would Secret Agent Guy set and where does he get the supplies for that? We worked backwards from the text, kind of like piecing together a puzzle.

Do you have a favourite spread or illustration?

My favourite spread is the jetpack scene. Coming up with imaginative versions of the spy gear the kids use in the book was so fun. We talked early on about how the gear should be things (or constructed of things) that the kids would conceivably have in their house. A backpack with a pull string and a red blanket stuffed in a pocket seemed like the perfect solution for a jetpack. I know when kids pretend to fly, it’s usually a lot of running around but in books you can’t show action like that. Striking a series of dramatic poses seemed like the next best thing.

What was the process like for illustrating this book? What medium did you use?

I started by doing character sketches and an early version of the beagle as an example to show the publishing team. Then I moved on to really rough thumbnails of the spreads to figure out the progression of the story. There was a lot of back and forth between Lauren, Alex and myself at this stage, getting the details of each scene just right. Then it was time to add color and start on the finished artwork. I use Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom tablet for all of my work these days.

Have you illustrated other books?

My first authored and illustrated book, SUNNY (Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press) came out in 2020. I’m starting work on a new, fun picture book by author Kristen Dickson called FIONA BUILDS A FAIRY HOUSE (Macmillan, 2022). Some other titles I’ve illustrated are A BOOK OF BRIDGES: HERE TO THERE AND ME TO YOU written by Cheryl Keely and MY FAMILY FOUR FLOORS UP written by Caroline Stutson.

Where can we find your work?

People can find more of my work at www.celiakrampien.com or follow me on Instagram (@celiakrampien) or Twitter (@celiakrampien).