Philip Pullman on illustrating his own story

September 20, 2023

The inspiration behind the art

The Folio edition of The Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass in the US and Canada) includes illustrations drawn by the brilliant Philip Pullman. In this blog, Pullman explains for Folio readers how he created these incredible black-and-white images, and the inspiration behind them.

The Folio edition of His Dark Materials also comes with full-page illustrations by Peter Bailey.

Where it all began

The idea for a small illustration at the head of each chapter of Northern Lights came from its first publisher, David Fickling. I kept nagging him till he agreed to look at my own drawings, and I expect because I was cheap he agreed to let me do them.

Finding the balance

I had much more fun drawing than writing (this remains the case). Finding an appropriate drawing for each chapter wasn’t hard, but making a drawing that would look good when printed that small was harder. I had to have several goes before I got the balance between black and white, between white space and cross-hatching right. I worked with a fine-pointed fibre-tip pen on white Bristol board, and each drawing occupied a square 60 millimetres in length and breadth.

Where do you create your illustrations?

Each drawing except one has a frame around it, and the one that doesn’t is the last, the close-up of Lyra’s face as she looks out at the wide-open universe. Naturally that one was the hardest to draw, but having seen it in my mind’s eye. I wasn’t willing to put up with anything else. Anyway, I think I got her expression right.

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Philip Pullman on illustrating his own story