For this studio tour, we visited illustrator PIerre Pratt's studio to see where he created the illustrations for My Subway Runs, written by James Gladstone. 

Describe your creative process. How do you begin? What tools do you use? 
 
I look at a white page and fill it without waiting too much. I love to see things happening on the paper. Characters come to life, the story takes form, all this with the flow of ideas. Sometimes it needs many tries, sometimes it comes quite easily. There are no two books, no two drawings, that are the same. This is true from the very first sketch to the final painted image. I always start thinking on paper. If I have to use the computer, it’s at the very end, as a wrap-up tool.

I work with all type of materials in all coming-to-mind associations of them. I use many techniques and tools, from pencil to inks, watercolour, gouache, acrylics, oil.

On my worktable, you find all this: pen, pencils, brushes, India ink, charcoal, pastels, tubes and pots of oil and gouaches. I also buy all kinds of paper to make tests to get the right texture, depending on what effect I’m looking for. All these are not necessarily used in the commonsense ways. 

What are your ideal working conditions? Do you listen to music, or do you need silence to work? Do you work in daylight, or are you a night owl?

I work during the day, with daylight when it’s available, and never in direct light. I start working around 10:00 a.m. and usually stop around 7:30 p.m. I work in silence (when available) for the first creative process of finding ideas, and with or without music while painting, usually jazz, Brazilian and what we call world music, or classical.

I used to have a very cozy studio. This one is not. It’s a place I share with fellow illustrators in Portugal. But it is absolutely where My Subway Runs was created.

Pick 2-3 of your favourite items in your studio. Where did they come from? What makes them special?

My old Ramirez Spanish guitar I bought in Toronto 20 years ago. It was already old (it’s from 1964, two years younger than me) when I bought it, it has many cracks (repaired), the varnish is old, but it sounds wonderful. I always need a guitar nearby. As a sideline, I repair stringed instruments and I’ve also built one. I’m waiting to have time to build more, if this ever happens. 

 The other objects are boxes of pen tips that are also quite old, bought in Portugal many years ago. They are very good and I love to draw with them. My Subway Runs was painted in a very controlled way using Flashe paint, a kind of gouache mixed with vinyl emulsion, but I also love to draw pen and ink, as a very spontaneous way to express myself. And as you can see in my shelves, I love to try many products we can find in the market, and them mix them in an unexpected way. Keeps me young!