Chris Baker, who also goes by Fangorn, is best known as the Redwall cover artist for UK and German editions of Redwall novels that were published from approximately 1992 through 2001, starting with the Red Fox paperback edition of Mariel of Redwall and concluding with the Taggerung hardcover.
Baker also illustrated the interior icons for three Redwall novels, contributed artwork to multiple Redwall accessories and full-page illustrations for the UK's 10th Anniversary edition of Redwall, created several German Redwall covers, and also consulted on the Nelvana Redwall TV Series.
He currently works as a feature film storyboard and concept design artist.
Today, we share our interview with Baker in regards to his Redwall contributions and career. We're very grateful for his time. Let's get into it!
How did you first become involved in illustrating the Redwall series?
My involvement with the Redwall series came about after Pete Lyon (the original artist) went on to pursue other projects. I'd produced a few other covers for the same publishers, so I guess it was one of those cases of "being in the right place at the right time".
There wasn't much art in my portfolio similar to Redwall, so it was quite fortunate the powers that be thought I'd be a decent replacement for Pete.
I'd always been a fan of the original Redwall cover art, so when the opportunity came to produce the art for the Mariel of Redwall cover it was quite a hard act to follow. I felt it was also important that I try not to emulate the look of the previous three covers and find my own style and identity, in particular with the depiction of Brian Jacques characters.
Although Mariel was my first cover I did, in fact, paint a second version some years later for a newer edition.
Did Brian Jacques and/or the publishers provide suggestions, concepts, or any guidelines for the cover artwork?
Yes, I'd usually receive a manuscript and a few of Brian's notes from the publishers...sometimes even a very crude doodle of what he'd like to see on the cover.
Generally these notes were very helpful, although, obviously, it was down to me to make the idea work within the context of a book cover.
On a practical note, it also allowed the progress of the artwork to move along much more rapidly. I've never been one to offer publishers more than a couple of roughs for a cover, as I'd much rather spend the time allotted on the actual painting! Also, with any piece of commissioned art, an artist also has to weigh up how much you're being paid for the job, by the amount of time spent on producing the final artwork, of course.
Looking back, there are a few things that I probably would have done differently, but with any book cover I always try to take in to account that it's the authors world I'm depicting, so any input that might come from them should always be appreciated.
I didn't receive any guidelines as to the design of the characters, other than what they might be wearing etc. My approach to how the creatures, themselves, were depicted was generally with an eye for realism rather than caricature.
Brian was keen for me to be involved with the character design for the [1999 Nelvana] Redwall movie, as he wanted the look from my cover art to be transplanted to the film as closely as possible. So much so, I spent a short time working with the artists and animators over in Toronto working on a look that he was, hopefully, happy with...as to how successful this was, I can't really remember, as it's probably been 20 years or so since I looked at the film!
Did you ever meet/talk with Brian Jacques directly (or in person)?
I met with Brian just the one time when I visited he and his wife, along with [Nelvana Redwall TV series executive producer] Ramsay Cameron, at his home in Liverpool. As I've already mentioned, Brian was keen for me to be involved with the character development for the TV series so we had a good chat about that before Ramsay and I headed out to Toronto, where Nelvana were developing the series. It was interesting to finally meet him after all the years of working on the covers for his novels.
Do you have a personal favorite Redwall cover, illustration, and/or book? Why?
I've produced around 80 or so book covers over the years and have to admit that some of the Redwall covers are my personal favorites and several of them I have hanging on my walls.
The Pearls of Lutra, The Bellmaker, Salamandastron are those that come to mind as works I particularly like, probably as they work well as fully fledged paintings as well as cover art. My personal favorite, though, is Martin the Warrior. I just thought it worked really well overall and still think is one of my strongest pieces of cover art.
Most of those Redwall paintings were really quite small and VERY detailed. These days I tend to paint on large canvases in oils, however back then I worked exclusively in acrylic using fine sable brushes.
The average size of a completed work was around 19x12 inches.
Were there any differences working with the British publishers vs. the German publishers?
I definitely had a closer relationship with the British publishers, because of location and the connection with Brian, of course. I'd also occasionally make visits to Random House for meetings with the clients, not just on matters Redwall but also various other projects I was involved with.
My working relationship with Bertelsmann was pretty much limited to emails and faxes back then...ah faxes! During the time working on the German covers, I'd also started work on Steven Spielberg's interpretation of Artificial Intelligence, a project that I'd worked on years previously with Stanley Kubrick. This obviously meant much less time available for working on the later editions.
At one point I would be working on the film during the daytime and trying to paint book covers in the evenings, not the ideal scenario for being creative! If I'm honest, because of the extra workload and time constraints, I wasn't particularly happy with the quality of some of the later covers I produced.
So much so, I felt it was only right to give up that kind of work completely, rather than trying to juggle both...my days of working through the night were long over!
As much as I had enjoyed painting a variety of book covers, over the years, working in film is a much more financially lucrative pastime anyway, so I threw myself totally into designing and storyboarding for feature films. In fact it was around 2001/2002 that I stopped painting completely.
It wasn't until 2009 that I picked up a paint brush again to produce much more personal work using oils on canvas.
Do you have a favorite Redwall species to draw? Was there a favorite character?
I wouldn't say that I had a favorite species as such, although I quite enjoyed painting Cluny. Villains are usually much more interesting to paint than the good guys, I guess. If I had to paint Cluny now, I'd want to make him a tad more vicious and nasty than I did back then.
If I ever have the time, maybe I'll go back and rework some of those old paintings!
You mentioned your work in film. Is storyboarding and conceptual design your primary line of work at present?
Yes, my work in film is primarily concept design and storyboarding. In general these tend to be separate jobs but quite often I've been employed to do both while working on a film. I just happened to slip into this dual role while working on Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence and it kind of stuck.
On [James Bond movie] Skyfall I did a huge amount of design and storyboarding. If I had to choose though, storyboarding is what I enjoy most, as it's an opportunity to really contribute to the storytelling and action on a film.
Your IMDB credits include movies that cover numerous genres - animation, sci-fi, fantasy. Do you gravitate towards any in particular?
I've worked on quite few films now...I'm not sure if I have a preference for any particular genre, though. Obviously, when it comes to concept design, fantasy and science fiction offers more opportunity to be creative, however when it comes to storyboarding, blocking out the action for a Bond movie and help[ing] design the huge battle sequence in Ready Player One, was so much fun. George Lucas's Redtails was a fantastic film to storyboard and a whole new departure for me and working with the director, Anthony Hemingway, who had been part of The Wire, one of my all time favorite TV shows.
Road to Perdition was the first time I was hired just to storyboard and is still one of my favourite films I've worked on. Mary Queen of Scots was a film I produced designs for and was a nice change of pace visually...I guess ultimately, it's all about whether the story tweaks my creative juices.
Did your experience with Redwall influence the way you approached The Tale of Despereaux?
I wouldn't say I was overly influenced by The Tale Of Despereaux...I was designing interior and exterior locations for that film, which had to have its own design sensibility. It was the same for a film like Arthur Christmas, which I also did concept design for. Actually, I've still yet to watch The Tale of Desperaux, so I've no idea how my designs turned out.
How exciting was it to work on a project like Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
The Force Awakens was an interesting job, to say the least. I was originally brought on board to sketch out ideas for sequences in a similar way I had for Kubrick on A.I. However there was no finished script and ultimately the director didn't want to do much storyboarding at that point, so I left the project early. Having a Star Wars film on my list of credits was a great thing of course but if I'm honest, I can't really say I enjoyed the experience, although I think in my younger days I would have enjoyed it much more. Oddly enough, several months later I was asked to come back on the film to storyboard.
I had to turn that down though, as I was busy finishing art for an exhibit at the World Science Fiction convention that year. I also got a call to work on Rogue Squadron but it meant working at Pinewood. I'm at a point in my life now where I only work from my home studio...we have to put in long hours on these films and I enjoy the comforts of home too much!
It's been great talking to you Chris, we appreciate your time. Thanks so much!
Chris Baker Redwall Covers[]
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