Interview with Elīna Brasliņa, illustrator of The Dog Who Found Sorrow

We interviewed Elīna Brasliņa about her work in The Dog Who Found Sorrow, a picture book about an adventurous dog whose town has been taken over by dark clouds and smoke...

How did you draw all the smoke?

I made a whole bunch of smudgy clouds by crumbling charcoal on paper and rubbing it in with my thumb. Then I cheated – I scanned all these clouds and, by combining some bits and erasing others, I was able to create these smoky landscapes on my computer.

Where did you learn to draw?

At first I drew pictures of animals from encyclopaedias – I didn’t put the paper over the image and trace it like my classmates did, I looked at it and struggled to draw one that was just as good. I couldn’t, obviously. After that, I drew cartoons I saw on TV, then moved on to Japanese manga characters. It was only when I was 21 and started attending evening courses at the Art Academy that someone actually taught me the basics of drawing. I think all of it helped in some way!

What was your favourite picture book when you were little?

I don’t really remember any picture books – but there were illustrated books that I loved. Tove Jansson’s The Moomins and the Great Flood was one of my favourites. My mother used to read it to me – she did all the voices too – and I would look at the pictures.

Elīna Brasliņa studied Printmaking and Graphic Arts at the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 2014 she has illustrated more than twenty titles, including Moon Juice by Kate Wakeling, which won the 2017 CLiPPA. She has been nominated for numerous awards in Latvia and won the Zelta Ābele (Golden Apple Tree) National Prize for Book Art twice. She was awarded the International Jānis Baltvilks Prize in 2017.

The Dog Who Found Sorrow is available to buy on our website.