We sat down with Ben Whitehouse to talk all about his illustrative process behind Try written by Rob Burrow, and Kevin Sinfield, with Emma Adams, and published by PanMacmillan.

In your own words, what is Try about?

Try is about true friendship between two little boys that are the best of friends. They are tasked by their teacher, Miss Phelps, to answer the question “Who is your hero?”. The chaps then start learning what a hero can really be and also find out more about each other and what makes them such a good person.

Tell me about your illustrative process, what inspired you?

Lately, I have been very much enjoying a mixed media approach to my illustrations but as this project had a pretty tight schedule and quick turnaround, I had to use a mainly digital process. The main characters were designed first and as they needed to have a resemblance to the real Rob and Kev, and needed to be approved by them first. Then came sketching up the interior pages. Also, it was digital roughs and digital painting but with a few handmade textures scanned in and overlayed here and there as even though I have been a digital brush hoarder for a very long time, you can’t beat getting some of your own handmade textures in there. I’ve had a lot of fun focusing on light and texture. Characters are normally the first thing I focus on with roughs but this is reversed when it comes to painting a scene up as I will paint the background first then leave the characters until last. That is when the illustration comes together and I can then do my next favourite bit, the lighting. Trying to show time passing with the use of sun direction was something I tried to play with. I really enjoyed working on this book as I could channel what it was like to go to junior school many, many moons ago.

What was your favourite part of working on Try?

Definitely my favourite thing about working on this book was learning about Rob and Kev. Not being a follower of the sports world, I had not heard of Rob and Kev before and it was an incredible eye opener the instant I started researching about them. There really couldn’t be a better example of pure friendship and love. I didn’t need to know anything about rugby to be inspired by them and their amazing story. It has definitely been the most rewarding book I have worked on so far in my career as a children’s book illustrator.

Why is the book important to you?

One of the first lines I read in the email about the project was that it was to help with anti-machoism with boys and to “show young boys (indeed, anyone who reads it!), that, for want of a better expression, boysy boys who love sports, rough and tumble, can also be affectionate and loving in their friendships. That strength goes far beyond the physical; there are lots of ways to be brave and strong.”

As the father of a little 5-year-old neurodiverse boy, this subject is incredibly important to me and something we try to naturally instil in him and hope it is just a normality for him as he grows.

Because of the urgency of the schedule, I did ask them why the deadline was so tight, as sometimes it’s just down to an illustrator falling through or clashing deadlines etc. But the answer to this made things even more important to me, they said it was purely so Rob had more time to enjoy it with his family as life with an illness and in general can take a turn for the worse at any moment. With the deeply sad passing of Rob on the 2nd June, all the time I spent working to get everything done, was all worth it as he got to see and enjoy the book in time.

Is there anything specific you hope readers take away from reading Try?

I really hope they enjoy reading it and that they really take away the message of what a true hero can be. You don’t have to have huge muscles or be tall or be able to walk or see or run or anything like. You just need to be you.

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Try is available to purchase here.

To work with Ben, get in contact with his agent Amy Fitzgerald here.