Patrick Shirvington: The Story Behind Can You Find Me?

THE IDEA                                                                                                                                 
While sketching in the bushland near my studio, I suddenly noticed a stick insect on a branch and realised there are so many similar creatures that go unnoticed. Being in the bushland doesn’t always result in us seeing the hidden creatures that live there. With that in mind the
idea was born. So let’s find these animals.

THE PROCESS                                                                                                                          
The process of making a picture book is usually fairly standard. However in the case of this book “Can You find Me ? “, the procedure was reversed. I collaborated with renowned children’s book author Dr Gordon Winch, who wrote the text to describe the illustrations of the animals I produced. After some discussion with Gordon we decided on which animals to use, giving me the freedom to go ahead and create them. We decided to come up with a variety of animals from different habitats from the land, air and the sea. The difficulty of finding the animals on the pages would increase as we moved through the book.

THE SKETCHES  AND FINAL ARTWORK                                                                                                 
Being an artist, I tend to produce my work onsite or as it is termed en plein air. I begin with little sketches, getting the feel for the particular landscape, feeling the movement and observing the light. For this purpose I will look at the echidna and gecko, both of which inhabit my immediate surrounds. I was fortunate enough to see the echidna scratching around when I was on a bush walk not far from home, so was able to get a reasonable photograph.