Drawing Room

Atop a staircase with risers painted to match the spines of his beloved children’s books, author/illustrator Chris Van Dusen’s Camden studio is stocked with toys, kid lit, and the makings of his next story. (Spoiler alert!)

By Sarah Stebbins
From our November 2018 issue

1. Cover Art

Van Dusen keeps most of his original paintings, and displays a few, like the cover of The Circus Ship, in frames. “I tend to hold onto them [versus selling them] because once they’re gone, they’re gone.

2. Awards

The Maine Library Association’s Katahdin Award for lifetime achievement and Lupine Award for The Circus Ship decorate the wall. “I have other awards, but the ones from my home state are really special.”

3. Characters

The robots in Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit are literally and loosely based on Van Dusen’s collection of reproduction 1960s machines. The Iron Giant bank references a favorite movie, and tutu-wearing pig Mercy Watson stars in the eponymous Kate DiCamillo series he illustrates. In his hand: a clay version of “Hudson,” on whom Van Dusen modeled his Hattie and Hudson sketches.

4. Brushes

“I use cheap watercolor brushes I buy in bulk,” Van Dusen says, noting that the opaque watercolor paint he employs, known as gouache, quickly frays bristles.

5. Palette

Van Dusen pulled the vivid, retro palette he used in If I Built a Car from a 1964 Sears catalog he bought on eBay. He’s using the same scheme in his latest book, called — you heard it here first — If I Built a School, due out next fall.

6. Work in Progress

Next, he enlarges each picture on a copier, rubs the back with pencil, and lays it, image side up, on illustration board. Tracing the drawing with a pen transfers it to the board, where he’ll create his final painting using the earlier, more detailed picture for reference. A book’s worth of illustration takes six to nine months.