Project brief: Bookworm buildings

Buildings! With arms! And books!

This might be one of my favourite editorial projects of all time, because it was so much fun to put together.

After seeing a callout for submissions for the UNESCO City of Literature for illustrated and written pieces for their Facebook page, I started thinking about Melbourne in terms of places that feature in books. I’d recently read The Rosie Project which featured the bar Jimmy Watson’s in Carlton, a beautiful white building on Lygon Street with a very cute rooftop bar. For some reason I could see this building with arms and legs, one hand reading the book in which it’s featured, the other holding a signature cocktail.

Jimmy Watson’s bar reading Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project (read more here)

Writing the pitch

I had the idea in my head, the next step was to try to describe it in a way that someone else could see it in their head. I wrote up a pitch that was all about literary landmarks of Melbourne reading the book in which they’re featured. I had three off the top of my head; Jimmy Watson + The Rosie Project, Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip, which features the Fitzroy Pool, and a book I read in high school that stuck with me, Alice Pung’s Unpolished Gem which opened in the Footscray market.

The Footscray Market reading Alice Pung’s Unpolished Gem (read more here)

I’d use each book/place as a jumping off point to talk about the work of literature and the significance of the building or area. I suggested 5 books total, even though I only had the three so far. The editor loved it and set me to work.

Searching for the other two

Thank God for librarians. Librarians are the best. Special shout out to the guy at the Fitzroy library, who asked me if I was looking for anything in particular.

“I’m looking for books based in Melbourne where a specific building is really significant in the plot,” I said. “As in the location is almost another character.”

The Fitzroy Pool reading Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip (read more here)

The guy thought for a while and then came up with some really great options that I’d never have found on my own; the memoir of Uncle Jack Charles, a prominent Aboriginal actor (and reformed cat burglar) which featured the Builder’s Arms Hotel in Fitzroy, and Alice Robinson’s The Glad Shout which takes place in an unnamed arena (that’s almost certainly the Melbourne Cricket Ground).

The Builder’s Arms reading Uncle Jack Charles: A Born-Again Blakfella (read more here)

I borrowed both of these and got to reading. I was on a deadline, but I wanted to finish both books before I started the illustrations!

Mixing illustration with digital collage

I started sketching the various buildings, sometimes in person (if they were close) and sometimes with the help of photo references if they were far away (it was Covid, and there were lockdowns). I had quite a lot of people come up to me while I was sitting on the sidewalk to check if I was ok!

Part of the way through Jimmy Watson’s, I got the idea to photograph and use textures from each of the buildings as a digital collage behind the building that I’d draw by hand. The result was really fun and quirky, and so different to my usual art style.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) reading Alice Robinson’s The Glad Shout (read more here)

If you want to read about these buildings, you can check them out on my website:

• The Rosie Project + Jimmy Watson’s

• Jack Charles: A Born-again Blakfella + The Builder’s Arms

• Monkey Grip + Fitzroy Pool

• Unpolished Gem + Footscray Markets

• The Glad Shout + the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)