We're excited to bring you a very summery studio tour with author and illustrator Thao Lam! Thao's new picture book, Everybelly, is a sun-soaked celebration of an oft-maligned part of the body — the belly! This book is full of detailed illustrations of bodies and bellies of all kinds. Get a sneak peek below at her studio — AKA the kitchen table — and how she brings her books to life.

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?

There is always a television show streaming in the background when I am working on art. Often it is a show that I have seen, like, 10 times and always a series with at least five-plus seasons. The white noise really helps me focus. I don’t often play music because music can get repetitive and distracting (and podcasts require too much brain power also). When I do play music, it is often in a language I don’t know so my brain can’t latch on to the lyrics.

Cafés, hotel lobbies and airports are my favourite places to write, these locations produce the ideal level of white noise, not to mention great places for people watching (my favourite pastime).

Writing is better in the morning and art is at any time. Depending on my daughter Maddie's schedule, I could go twelve to fourteen hours lost in the creative process or squeezing work in between Maddie extracurricular activities. In fact, a lot of Everybelly was written while Maddie had her swimming lessons.

Describe your creative process. How do you begin? What tools do you use?

I start with a brain dump so everything that has been floating around in my head gets put down on paper, then I procrastinate; cleaning, baking, but mostly researching the topic I am planning to write about. I borrow everything I can from the library on the subject, flipping through picture books for inspiration or reading everything I can on the topic. 

Once I am done procrastinating or when I get a nudge from my editor, I take everything in my notebook and start giving it more structure, piecing everything together to form a manuscript. After the manuscript comes the thumbnails which is a rogue visual flow of the story (mostly stick figures), followed by layouts. This is where I problem-solve all the visuals, compositions get worked out, details get added and the drawing gets tightened up. This is also where I do a ton of visual research on how things look. I am not confident in my drawing skills so I need a lot of visual references.

While I wait for the layouts to get approved I go shopping … for art supplies. Picking out textured and patterned scrapbook papers for the book. Once all the visuals are solved I move on to final art.

Over the last couple of years I have been trying to get more comfortable with digital tools like drawing on the Wacom tablet but it does not bring as much joy as working with my hands. I still prefer pencils, scissors, glue and paper over staring at a screen for hours.

What are your favourite things in your workspace?

Maddie’s Fish Art

I am very lucky to be part of an industry that I love but sometimes I get bogged down by the business side of picture-book making (scheduling, deadlines and contracts) that I forget to enjoy the creative process. This piece of art, made by Maddie when she was five years old, is one of my favourites. Bold colours, lots of textures and feels so spontaneous. Such joy radiates from it, she wasn’t concerned about colour scheme or composition, she was just creating stuff. Every time I look at it, I hear her voice telling me to just chill and have fun.

Framed baby photos of me.

This is the only baby photo of me. It was taken in a Malaysian refugee camp when I was three years old. It’s a digital copy of the original photographs since I wanted to frame the handwritten note at the back of the photo too. This photo is a reminder of where I came from, my family’s history and how far I have come.

The Kitchen Table

We don’t have a big space so our dining room also acts as my studio space. As a family we spend hours at this table: eating meals, chatting, doing homework, gathering for meetings, hosting parties, playing board games, working on puzzles, watching The Simpsons, baking, drawing, making crafts and making picture books. When Maddie was little she used to play under the table while I worked. My work tends to spread out, especially when I am working on final art, so she would do her colouring or reading under the table by my feet. When it’s play time, our table turns into a tent, school or a restaurant with dinosaurs in chairs eating my good cheese. The cats also use the table too, either stretched across on the table top or hiding under the table, or curled up on one of the chairs taking a nap. This table holds many memories.