The Poetic Illustrator
Sydney Smith is a Canadian children’s book illustrator and writer who was awarded the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award last year. The IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Foundation presents the biannual award for works that have made an important, lasting contribution to children’s literature.
The award is not the first for Smith, aged 45. During his career, he has won several international illustration awards, including the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year Award. Smith has illustrated nearly twenty books, and has published two works written and illustrated by himself: Small in the City (2019), a meditative book written from a child’s perspective, and the evocative Do You Remember? (2023), which has a lingering beauty to it. Despite the acclaim, Smith seems genuinely baffled by his latest recognition and uneasy when congratulated on the achievement.
“It’s still hard to wrap my head around it. It’s an incredible honour, but sometimes, I wish I could forget about the recognition – I just want to create art without thinking about the international audience. You start putting expectations on yourself, which you can never meet.”
He was finishing the illustrations for a new book when he heard about the award in early spring 2024.
“Suddenly, I was scrutinizing every brush stroke and illustration through the lens of being the ‘Hans Christian Andersen award winner’. It became a burden, the opposite of freedom,” he sums up the experience, but adds that he is also feeling grateful for the validation.
Smith studied drawing and printmaking at NSCAD University in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia on Canada’s Atlantic coast. In art school, Smith initially experimented with different art forms, trying to find his own technique.
Although he was aware of his interest in illustrating children’s books, he found it hard to admit it to himself in art university, where his fellow students aspired to become visual artists and exhibit their work in art galleries. At his teacher’s urging, he began to research the history of picture books and take a closer look at the New York Times Best Illustrated Books lists.
“The day I admitted to myself that I wanted to focus on children’s book illustrations, I felt a deep sense of calm. It just felt right. For some reason, I had viewed illustration as something small, less serious than other art forms. I had never been good at school, but I became a much better student on my own — I was determined to educate myself. I immersed myself in different styles and studied the work of the best illustrators for years.”
During his independent study, Smith found inspiration in the Gothic and darker classics. When asked about his role models, he mentions the English picture book pioneer Arthur Rackham, an artist and illustrator born in 1867, and the American writer and illustrator Edward Gorey, known for his pen-and-ink drawings for stories laced with dark humour. As a third source of inspiration, he mentions the Polish-born Józef Wilkoń, whose work features everyday realism, winter landscapes and delicate nuances – elements that are also characteristic of Smith’s style.
“For example children’s book fair is an instant snapshot, a palette of the current colors and styles from publishers. There’s not much that truly excites me, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. It means I’m searching for something I haven’t seen before, and the only way to find it is to create it myself. It means that there’s a need for illustrations and stories like mine. I’m always searching for something that excites me — I want to be caught off guard.”
Smith’s first solo exhibition is this spring at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. He also created the cover of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2025 Illustrators Annual, which features his sons drawing at the kitchen table. The boys love their father’s illustrations, but Smith says he often feels self-conscious reading his books aloud, which his children notice immediately.
Sydney Smith’s illustration for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2025.
Smith does not have an agency, but he receives a lot of contacts and selects the ones that resonate with his way of working. One of his most notable partners has been Groundwood Books, a publishing company in Toronto. Groundwood published the book Sidewalk Flowers, written by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Smith, which was a huge success.
Another important partner in Smith’s career has been the Emily Van Beek literary agent and collaboration with Folio Jr. publishing company in New York, which published Smith’s first own book Small In The City.
“I’ve noticed that I work best with certain types of people. But the greatest privilege is that I get to do what I love.”
Illustrating books is a dance between beauty and truth.
Smith, who lives in Nova Scotia and works alone in his studio, has found an important support network for himself in Toronto’s artist community. The support of the professional community has become an important part of his life.
“It’s valuable to be able to meet other illustrators face-to-face, since often you can only see their work online. It has felt liberating to see that they are going through the same struggles as you are. When you share stories with others, you realize you’re not alone. At the same time, you learn to celebrate other people’s success! It’s not about individual attention, but a common direction and growth.”
Smith does not do commercial collaboration projects or magazine illustrations, but focuses exclusively on book illustrations, which he creates about one a year. A good day at the studio is one in which he has somehow managed to surprise himself.
Illustrating books gives him an outlet to be vulnerable and to take creative risks. Sometimes taking risks means creating an ‘ugly’ image.
“Pretty pictures don’t do that much for me anymore. Once I painted a book illustration that was unpleasant, almost ugly. Not because I wanted to see if I could pull it off technically, but because I knew the image was an important part of the story. For me, illustrating books is a dance between beauty and truth.”
Smith’s illustrations, painted on paper with watercolours, gouache and ink, are dreamy and lingering, with dark undertones. The rhythm of the sparsely-worded books borders on poetry.
Smith says that he moved often as a child and wonders how growing up with divorced parents affected his experience of the world. Smith’s second, autobiographical book, Do You Remember? is dedicated to his mother. In the book, mother and son reminisce about their car ride together and moving to a new home.
“I have vivid memories that are tied to emotions – not just the big and obvious moments, but I also remember some of the small moments where childhood boredom meets everyday situations. I’m fascinated by fleeting, natural moments that are not forcefully created, but linger in your mind. I’ve always been interested in how memory works and how certain details can stay with us for years.”
I love lingering in the moment, breathing it in.
Although Smith has also written two children’s picture books of his own, he considers himself an artist and a picture book illustrator, not an author. He does not want to give advice or guidance to other illustrators because he “wouldn’t have listened to that either”. But he does have one thought that he would like to share with other professionals in the field:
“Illustration is a wonderful art form. I would encourage you to look and find inspiration for illustrations from other art forms as well, such as films. You can learn so much from them when it comes to storytelling.”
In Smith’s books, visual storytelling plays a strong role, and concise sentences punctuate the languid pace of the story. For him, the most important thing about his work is presence.
“I love lingering in the moment, breathing it in. I want to explore it even further: the power of stopping and taking in the moment. Observation is an important part of the process. Small details add authenticity to the story and make it relatable.”
At the heart of Smith’s books are family and the love we have for each other, and he does not shy away from expressing raw emotions. There is one recurring message in his books: You are not alone. Everything is going to be okay.
“In hindsight, I think that’s the message I wanted to give my younger self.”
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This article was published in Kuvittaja Magazine 1/25.
