"I’ve finally learned to lean into the way that I draw" – Tim Probert on creating the art of Lightfall

I went to school for painting and got a BFA in painting from Boston University. While I knew I wanted to go into art, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do exactly. And all of those fields felt very impenetrable to me. It was like thinking, ‘You don’t become an illustrator of kids’ books or anything like that. That’s what other people do.’

So I was like, ‘I’m just gonna go.’ I went for painting and learnt about drawing the human figure and colour theory. And while I was there, I started getting all of the art-of books from Pixar movies. And I was like, ‘Okay, this is it. This is what I want to do.’ So I focused on that and started teaching myself Photoshop at night.

After I graduated, I interned for a little bit at an animation studio doing clean-up art. I was picking up little illustration jobs where I could, and all the struggle of that. Then I did a book called New York, Phew York, which was a scratch-and-sniff book about New York City. It was my first kind of real job, and that helps.

The person who wrote it, Amber C. Jones, was really good at publicity and marketing and got us interviews. I was around 22 years old. I didn’t know what I was doing. New York, Phew York got seen by people, and I think that’s how they found me at Macmillan [Publishers]. Then they asked me to illustrate a chapter book.

Hayao Miyazaki is a huge influence. Not just for his beautiful films and the unique way he tells a story, but for the way he draws. His Nausicaä manga is a favourite of mine, and the drawings are full of such weight, motion, and detail. Each panel is a little world.

Amulet [by Kazu Kibuishi] was a big influence as well. Kazu’s work editing the Flight anthologies introduced me to the wide variety of stories and styles going on in comics. Amulet is not only a great series of books, but it helped open up the way for big, serialised fantasy stories in comics. Also, I helped out painting some backgrounds on book six, and a bit on eight. That was like a masterclass in how to put together a large, painted graphic novel, and was hugely helpful for me.

Reading the complete Bone [written and illustrated by Jeff Smith and first published in the early 1990s] was another big deal for me. I saw that you could tell a sweeping, epic story with comics. And it could also have humour and cartoony moments. It showed me anything goes in comics if you can make it work.”

At the same time that I was beginning book illustration work, I did a little bit of work for Nickelodeon, some concept work, and that was seen by Nathan Love, the animation studio in New York. I ended up freelancing there and then became staff there. And then I had this kind of dual career for a while. I

did ten years at Nathan Love, mostly as art director. And then I was also illustrating chapter books at night and on the weekends. I did both of those for a long time, and then I was able to pitch Lightfall. I did the first couple of books while still working at Nathan Love. And just recently, I left Nathan Love to become a full-time author and illustrator. It’s a different world.

Right now it is. I have some other projects that I’m kind of chipping away at on the side. After I finished the fourth book, I was able to do a couple of little comics, like mini comics, which was nice. And I still freelance at Nathan Love on occasion.

It’s been a bit of both. I always kind of knew where I wanted it to end up, but I didn’t know when we would get there or not. I was given a two-book deal up front, and so I knew I was doing the two. And then, while we were working on the second one, we decided we were going to do more, and we settled on six.

So then I kind of had an idea; but every time I sit down to write, I’m like, ‘What am I doing? Where’s this going?’

Generally, 18 months is the ideal. I think that with the last one I ran over… it was probably like 20 or 22 months, maybe.

We were down to the wire on that one. But in the ideal world, it’s 18 months. It’s about six months of writing and thumbnailing, and then six months of drawing and six months of painting. 18 months sounds good. It almost inevitably takes me a whole year to write them, at least. And then everything else gets kind of truncated into the schedule as quickly as it could get done.

I don’t know if it’s like a guiding aesthetic so much that it’s like I’ve finally learned to lean into the way that I draw. I spent many early years of illustrating trying to draw different styles and trying to draw like different people that were doing well.

It was like thinking: ‘What are they doing? Let me try that.’ And it just all felt very unnatural. There was a point where the illustrator Cory Godby – he’s wonderful – was doing a mentorship programme I applied to.

I wasn’t accepted, but he still wrote me this really nice note. He was looking at my work and he said, ‘These are the images that look like you were drawing like you wanted to. So you should do more of that. And for me, it was like, ‘Whoa! Okay.’ So I feel like that’s been sort of my aesthetic principle, I guess.

I learned a lot working in animation. For my role at the animation studio Nathan Love, I took on a lot of tasks. I would storyboard and design characters, work on environments, and paint colour keys – basically anything in the pre-production pipeline – in addition to checking in during later phases to make sure the look was coming together.

I think my illustration background helped with this stuff. But, in turn, all of these skills helped out when it came to making a graphic novel. Storyboarding especially taught me to draw quickly, clearly, and efficiently, and to not be afraid to throw stuff out. This is immensely important when you’re thumbnailing a 250+ page book. So the two worlds have constantly fed, informed, and improved each other.

I’m starting to think about my post Lightfall life and starting to work on some new ideas. I’m starting the fifth Lightfall book now, and the plan is for there to be six in all. I can now see the end of the books in sight, and then there’ll be that freak-out moment of ‘What am I going to do after that?’.