From Magic Pencil (Csodacereuza) Magazine

Magic Pencil (Csodaceruza) Magazine:   For how long have you been illustrating children’s books and how did you get involved in this activity?

Katalin Szegedi:   I received my diploma in 1991 at the Magyar Iparmuvészeti Foiskola Mesterképzo Intézete [Master Educational Institute of the Hungarian Industrial Arts College] in the Faculty of Graphic Arts and Book Design. After finishing college, I had lots of varied and interesting work – for example, I designed puppets for theater productions and, as is the case for most graphic artists most of the time, I developed graphic art designs of corporate images. In the meantime, I taught graphic arts for a couple of years at the Technical Secondary School for Industrial Arts in Kaposvár. Even when I was just finishing college, books were being published with my illustrations, but book illustration was not my main activity at that time. For the past 3 years I have done children’s book illustrations exclusively. For me, this is complete happiness – along with a well-balanced family background of course.

MPM:    What kind of books do you like to illustrate? Do you have any favorites?

KS:    Each manuscript is different and it is very important to have a basic attitude of respect towards a literary work. By this I mean that although every work of mine is immediately recognizable by my style, it is still different in each case. A classical work needs a totally different pictorial formulation than a humorous work. For example, I illustrated an absurd Rodari work lately and I was able to do freer, more relaxed drawings.

Although book illustration is difficult, it is also a very nice kind of work because many different expectations need to be fulfilled. First of all, the illustrator must concentrate on the children. The illustrator must create beauty for the children, but must ensure that this beauty does not become kitschy at the same time. Many publishers of kitschy works want to support their being right with respect to the taste of children. However, children do not need kitsch, but beauty.

At the same time, attention must be given to the viewpoint of the publisher. It is not easy to find an optimum balance. I remember moments of my own childhood when I was enchanted while leafing through the pages of some of the beautiful fairytale books. The same tingling feeling comes over me when I hold these books in my hand today.

It is interesting that even as an adult, even as an educated graphic artist, I still like the favorites of my childhood in the same way. My favorite was the big Andersen fairytale book, with which so many generations have grown up. I also very much like Hauff’s Most Beautiful Fairytales with the drawings of Emma Heinzelmann, and Alice in Wonderland with the illustrations of Tamás Szecskó. I would like to illustrate the same books myself (and maybe a little bit of Oz…). Therefore my highest goal is that children today will relive the same experience so that when they grow up, they will have the same moving feelings when they pick up books that I have illustrated. This is a big responsibility. I think these goals are not only important to me. There are lots of very good illustrators in Hungary. Last year we founded the Society Beyond the Seven Seas with three friends, Edit Szalma, Krisztina Kállai Nagy and László Bátki,. Although we work in different styles, our similar thinking connects us.

Fortunately the beauty of the book is not only important to us, but also to those active in the publishing business. The Society of Hungarian Book Publishers has a competition for books every year and rewards worthy published works with the “Beautiful Hungarian Book” prize. It is interesting that in the last two years, two of my friends from the Society Beyond the Seven Seas received this prize in the children’s book category – Krisztina Kállai Nagy and László Bátki – and this year it was me with the Ludwig Bechstein book “The Enchanted Princess”.

I was very, very happy and I think this is the Hungarian book profession’s greatest achievement.

MPM:   How did the illustrations of “The Enchanted Princess” come about?

KS:   The General Press Publisher approached me with a plan for a classical fairytale book. I think very few classical fairytale books are published nowadays in Hungary, and in my opinion, they do not have the appropriate graphic art. (Unfortunately, many of these are kitschy.)

When I received the manuscript of this book, I knew from first moment how I wanted to design the pictures. This is a classical fairytale in a complete sense, with its old-fashioned beautiful values. When doing the illustrations I wanted to emphasize this classical line using all the tools possible. Today’s children are not really spoiled in this way. I believe that today’s children also need these classical values. I wanted to show them this magical world, which belongs to a genuine fairytale. Beautiful scenery, nice clothes and well-decorated castles…

In my opinion, every girl is already a princess. Every girl likes to draw princesses and dress up with long veils…

I was the same princess girl – and stayed the same. Now I finally can professionally paint princesses as an adult and now I have the tools to do this.

I wanted to enhance the dominant classical line. Therefore, I painted ornamental capital letters and hand-drawn calligraphy titles.

©Magic Pencil (Csodaceruza) Magazine