Barbara Reid Photo By Ian Crysler

Barbara Reid was born in Toronto, Ontario where she currently resides with her husband and two daughters. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art. Reid has always been an avid reader and artist. She would doodle in the margins of her school notebooks, but she never thought of taking up illustration as a career until a career day in high school when she chanced upon a room set up for the Ontario College of Art. As a child she would often recreate pictures she found in published books when the existing illustrations weren't to her liking. Reid believes this activity was a great way to practice drawing and excellent experience for a would-be illustrator. Reid is best known for her vibrant style and unconventional medium. Her plasticine sculptures have earned her a tremendous amount of praise. Her use of plasticine began early. She would work with it whenever possible, making models for nearly every school project. At OCA, she did a reproduction of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus in plasticine.

Barbara Reid often found her early illustration projects disappointing because she thought the printed version seldom looked as good as the original drawings. Reid's first large illustration project was Mustard by Betty Waterton which was published by Scholastic. Although she enjoyed illustrating Mustard, Reid still felt there was room for improvement in her work. She considers The New Baby Calf to be the first "real" book of illustrations she published. This was also the first book to feature her plasticine sculpture illustrations. Now an experienced and accomplished illustrator, Reid has had the opportunity to create illustrations that satisfy her high standards and entertain thousands of children:

Winning the 1997 Governor General's Award for Illustration is wonderfull, it means a lot more people will come to my party!

She currently illustrates children's books, textbooks and magazines.

In order to create the dynamic colours that appear in her work, Reid uses the sophisticated illustration techniques she has developed over her extensive career. Her knowledge of colour theory serves her well, allowing her to make dull plasticine into vibrant lively illustrations. She places blues against yellows and the resulting contrast makes each colour look brighter. Reid enhances the range of colours available to her by blending colours together creating shades and hues that cannot be found in a store. Her delicate looking illustrations are actually very heavy. Some of her final pictures weigh up to seven kilograms. They must be packaged carefully to ensure that the malleable plasticine is not damaged. Pizza boxes are the perfect packaging for these illustrations and each one has its own box. Unfortunately, due to the size and weight of her work, Reid cannot keep all of her illustrations. Many of the original pieces are sold after the book is published. The Canadian Children's Book Centre owns an illustration from Effie as well as the illustration for Children's Book Week 1995. Reid also works with media other than plasticine such as in ink and paint. In addition to illustration, Reid has begun writing her own texts. Her most recent work, The Party is one of several books since 1987 that she has both written and illustrated. In fact Reid's Governor General's Award winning book was inspired by an actual party:

The Party is based on a real event celebrating my husband's Grandmother's birthday. It is always a garden party, and it never rains. Some scenes and characters from the party are included in the book, many others come from my childhood memories of big family gatherings. I enjoyed re-incarnating my old dog Rufus and recreating crimpolene colours and 1960's food.

When illustrating someone else's story, Reid begins by engrossing herself in the manuscript. She reads the story over many times. Based on her reading, Reid envisions a mood and colour scheme that would be most appropriate for the story. She spends a few weeks reviewing the text and doing research. She brainstorms until she has a clear picture of how the book is going to look. During this period of conceptualization, she also collects the materials and images that influence and inspire her work. She then plans out the book with rough drawings and sketches. This rough layout is used as a guide for the plasticine work. A typical illustration begins with a thin layer of plasticine which she spreads across an illustration board. This layer forms a foundation which makes it easier to apply the successive layers and three dimensional shapes that make up the final piece. She also uses the original layer as a base colour. She then textures the first layer to make the backgrounds interesting. Once she is satisfied with the foundation she begins to work out the details. She moulds the plasticine with her hands, into various shapes. Reid uses common, household objects to create the unique characters and fascinating details which populate her illustrations. She often uses knives to create precise lines for fence posts or buildings. She scraps green plasticine with a comb to create a lush lawn of grass. A sharp pencil is perfect to create nail holes, whiskers or the hollow of a nostril. Sometimes Reid must develop innovative ways to create a new effect in her illustrations:

One of the biggest challenges was creating lime Jello salad. I used a mixture of white glue and paint to get a transparent effect, the only part of the book that isn't Plasticine.

Each page takes anywhere from one to three days to complete. The length of time needed to complete an illustration often depends on the size of the page. Large two-page spreads, like the ones found in The Party, can take three days or more to finish. When the illustrations are completed Reid's husband, photographer Ian Crysler, photographs them. It is the photographs that appear in the published book. Reid states that she is more attached to the finished product, than she is to her original artwork.

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