Interview with Esteban Erlich

Interview with Esteban Erlich, Illustrator of The Most Curious Girl In Her Class: The Adventures of Hecky and Shmecky.  

How long have you been working as an illustrator?

I was trained as an architect and, early on, became fascinated with architectural illustrations. I started my architectural career doing illustrations for other architects. Although I work professionally as an architect now, with the birth of my own children (starting 5 years ago) I started drawing other things that I thought might be interesting to them (vehicles, animals, etc) and that is how I started illustrating children related themes. I started working on this book 2 years ago and this is my first illustration work for a children's book.

What are your sources of inspiration?

I'm inspired by many different things (music, nature, other art). I learned a lot from the work of Studio Ghibli, a japanese animation studio, in particular by the work of one of their artist called Kazuo Oga. I also greatly admire the work of Miroslav Sasek (The author of "This is New York" and others). 

What is the most fascinating part of being an illustrator? What is the most frustrating?

It is fun to be an illustrator, specially when you do it as a hobby like me. For me it is an opportunity to do something different from my day-to-day work. It's exciting to look for sources of inspiration and learn new techniques. It is a bit frustrating when things don't come out the way you want them but you get better over time.

What advice would you give to aspiring illustrators?

I'm far from being an accomplished illustrator myself! I could probably use more advice than I could give on this matter. I guess I would say do it if you enjoy it and try to learn from the artists you admire.

Could you tell us a bit about any of your upcoming projects?

Herm Huber (the author of "The Most Curious Girl in her Class") has written two more books with the same characters and is waiting for my illustrations. I'm also starting working on a graphic novel.

What part of Queens do you live in?  How long have you lived in Queens?

I live in Sunnyside Gardens, in what is actually Woodside, and have been around here for 8 years.

What do you love about living in Queens?

I love that it is so culturally diverse and rich and the sense of community we have. The Sunnyside Gardens Community Park is a source of joy for us and I, of course, love the architecture and the trees in the neighborhood.