Street Art v. Book Art

Kyle Hughes-Odgers is the illustrator of Meg McKinlay’s Ten Tiny Things and has just released his first solo picture book, On A Small Island. Kyle is also a street artist who gets commissioned to produce large-scale public artwork. We were interested to find out about the process for each. Here is Kyle’s response.


Street art from Perth International Airport

I often get asked if it’s hard to switch between creating artwork across different scales and mediums, particularly children’s books and large-scale street murals. The short answer is that each process has its own challenges and interesting creative problems to solve.

The common thread between my artworks (apart from stylistically) is that they are based around a narrative, be it a single image on a five-storey building or across thirty paintings for a children’s book. Before I paint anything I ask myself: ‘What story or idea am I trying to tell in this work?’

When I am at the early stages of any project – whether it’s a street mural, public art or a children’s book – the process is the same. Everything starts with my sketchbook. It is the fastest way for me to get down simple sketches or sentences about an idea or concept. I go through a sketchbook every six to eight weeks, which gives me a lot of material to reference though only thirty per cent of the ideas in my sketchbook end up progressing to a finished project. I like working this way because it frees me to try things and get the idea out, no matter how ridiculous or strange. I like to think if I get an idea into my sketchbook, it will allow me to see the next idea that was hiding behind it in my head. So twenty ideas back there might be something worthwhile.

Once I have decided on a path for a project, things change dramatically for books versus the street.

When painting for books I get to be in the studio, which I love. It’s very calm, focused, warm and quiet. I work and experiment with lots of different mediums: tiny brushes, acrylic paint, pencils, watercolours, paper and raw linen. I get to wear normal clothes and drink as much coffee as I want.

More artwork by Kyle

In contrast, painting on the street is a very physical activity. The creative process is similar in terms of sketching up, layering and finalising an image, except everything is on a much larger scale. I work with litres and litres of paint, roller poles and aerosol cans instead of tiny brushes and small paint tubes. I use machines to access high walls and wear a mask, a harness and sometimes a hardhat. The weather, pipes, windows and cracks in buildings are variables that I don’t have to consider when painting on a canvas in the studio.

I really enjoy both creative processes. The studio is very calm and controlled versus the physical and environmental challenges of painting large-scale murals. In the end, both are ways for me to tell a story.


On A Small Island by Kyle Hughes-Odgers is available now.


This fantastic one-minute video shows Kyle at work on his book.


Photographs © Kara Peacock. Video © Chad Peacock.

Cover image for On a Small Island

On a Small Island

Kyle Hughes-Odgers

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