This week Illustrator’s place chief designer and author Steve Keeping was interviewed by the Costa Levante, Spain’s number one selling British news paper. The interview included twenty five questions which varied from ‘when did you first discover you could draw?’ to ‘how different are you to other illustrators?’ to ‘Do you plan to write others in other genres?' 

When did you first discover you could draw? Like many other artists, past and present, from a very early age probably before I even realised it myself. People began to notice that I could draw, probably my parents first of all, but I also remember discovering that I could draw when I was in primary school. I remember it very well. I drew a caricature of my form teacher with the head mistress in his arms, for that I was called to her office and had a right good 'telling off'. It didn't put me off, in fact it probably helped me to draw even more.

How does drawing/illustrating make you feel? I think that I could spend a long time answering this question, the easiest way for me to explain it, would be to compare it to listening to nice music, most of the time it is really therapeutic, smooth, feeling relaxed, in harmony and tranquil, leading up to the end of the song when the artwork is complete and can finally be seen admired and appreciated.

If you had to choose, would you choose writing or drawing and why? This is a difficult one to answer as I have been drawing nearly all of my life and really only started to write over these past few years. If I had to choose between the two then I’m sure that it would have to be the drawing, but having said that, I have my head bursting with ideas for other books. So I need to get writing pretty soon. This time it will definitely be an adult crime novel.

How long did it take you to write the book? The World Adventures of ‘Chubbly the Aviator’ took me around two months to complete, that also included fifteen original colour drawings and the creation of the characters as they came to life on the drawing board.

Do you plan to write others in other genres? Looks like I’ve spoilt this question already in one of my previous answers, but I will try and save it. Of course the answer is yes I want to write in other genres. I read a lot of books and above all I love crime fiction with London’s Simon Kernick being one of my favourite authors.

How are you different from other illustrators? I have always considered myself very different but this is more as a person and the way that I think than on an artistic level. I think that if we were to take a serious look at the work of any artist, professional, or maybe someone who just paints or draws for a hobby, we can see straight away that every individual has their own way of expressing themselves, what materials they use, how they apply them, what material they are working on. For example fine art paper, canvas, drawing board etc and finally in the way that they think. My opinion is that probably all professional artists like to think that they are just a little bit different to the rest.

Do you have a special place you write and draw? Yes I do, I am very lucky to have been able to construct my own studio, with all that I require above the garage where I keep my faithful old VW Beetle, so that’s the special place where I go to do the majority of my artwork. It is comfortable, peaceful and I can really settle down and get stuck into whatever I’m doing. On the odd occasion I manage to get out and do a little painting or drawing outside, maybe a picture of someone’s house, landscapes etc, this can also be very relaxing.

What are your best times of day for drawing and writing? For me I would probably have to say that the best time of the day for getting stuck into a drawing is during the morning hours, but having said that it’s also good when I have finished a project, to complete it during the afternoon. As for writing, I find that the best time is during the evening, I’m not a big TV addict, my children are in bed, so this is when I normally find the time to write.

You have four children. How old are they? My four children Rosie, Christian, Ellen and Pablo are 17, 16, 15 and 4 respectively.

The benefits of having children to bounce your work off must be wonderful. What are the downsides of being an author/illustrator with four children? The benefits of having children is that you get immediate feedback with reference to children’s book writing and illustration for example. The downside is as you can imagine that young children also need a lot of time dedicated to them, so sometimes fitting it all in can make things become very busy indeed.

What made you want to become a pilot? A change of direction in 1983 after completing University found me working for my father in the Executive jet charter and maintenance business, guess it was a result of not wanting to move to London to continue in the graphic business, where the majority of the Design work was in those days. So with a complete change of scenery and a lot of studying, I became a licensed aircraft technician. In 1988 I started to work for another Aviation company who fortunately later on in 1991 had several in house company pilot sponsorship programmes. I went for the interview and less than a month later I was off to New York to start my pilot training.

How long were you a pilot? I was a pilot from March 1991 through to the end of 2000, so nine years in all.

What sort of planes did you fly? I flew lots of different types of small aircraft, but commercially my first aircraft was a Lockheed Electra L188, which probably doesn’t mean much to a lot of people, but I can explain. It was old with four gas turbine engines and propellers, (went into service in 1958) pretty noisy with lots of vibration. The majority of my flying took place within the European countries. I feel privileged to have flown the Electra as it was a big part of aviation history, which sadly is almost over. My second and final commercial aircraft was the Airbus A300, again probably doesn’t mean a lot to people in general as there are so many types in the Airbus family. The A300 is a wide bodied, two turbofan engined, 165 metric ton, 361 passenger aircraft with a 45 ton payload. This was a big change for me, not just in the physical size of the plane, but it meant completely different routes, spending more time away from home with contracted routes around the world to places like the Middle and Far East, Africa and America.

What did you love about flying? I loved the sensation of having so much power in my hands, being in total control of something so enormous and so sophisticated. I loved the sensation of being pushed back into my seat as the power was applied for take off. I loved the sensation as that huge mass accelerated down the runway and became airborne, climbing away into the sky. I loved the thrill of doing an auto land in zero visibility, my heart pounding away as I carefully monitored the aircraft instruments, descending deeper and deeper into the outside darkness, with not one sighting of mother earth until maybe 50 feet above the ground, My life completely in the hands of modern computer controlled electronics. I loved the sensation of being settled in the cruise around 40,000 feet, especially on a clear night, everything seemed so peaceful and calm. I loved the sight of the faint glow of lights breaking through the clouds from the towns and cities below. I loved the way that people treated you.

Why did you stop flying? For personal reasons, I became a single father trying to find a nanny to look after three young children, for up to two weeks at a time was almost impossible. I was now left with only two options, send my children away to boarding school or resign from my job. Due to circumstances outside of my control, I resigned from my job in April 2001, my company were excellent to me, even to the point of wanting to give me back my position at any time should my situation change.

What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you? I can clearly remember what would turn out to be the worst day of my life, it was a 36 hour period back in May 1996. I had arranged to go and visit my old flying instructor in Detroit USA. My company flew many routes for some large American companies like United Parcel Service and Federal Express. I also held an American pilots licence which meant that staff employees were able to get what is know as a ‘jump seat ride’ with other American airlines. This basically means that you sit in the flight deck and travel for free. I had arranged my flight through UPS headquarters in Louisville Kentucky, but when I spoke to my flying instructor he suggested that he would speak to a local company in Detroit as they were now flying three times a week out of London Stansted. A quicker and more direct flight for me. I booked a hire car, started out at 6 am driving to Stansted airport. I didn’t get as far as the airport, the new hire car became slower and slower, eventually failing completely alongside the M25, which made me late. I called the car hire company and they sent a taxi. I should have gone home! Arriving at the airport I went to our crew check in office where the American crew were doing their pre-flight briefing. I explained that I was there as a jump seat passenger, they phoned their company and within an hour we were all onboard the aircraft, engines running being pushed back off the stand. It was the first officer’s flight, he was having trouble with his seat adjustment lock which would normally mean a return to stand and have a technician fix it. I should have gone home! Instead the captain suggested that they jam a pile of manuals behind it so that it couldn’t suddenly slide backwards, they did and I then knew that my day was going to go badly. The flight was pretty un-eventful but seemed to take ages, I think around seven hours until we started the approach for Detroit airport, the weather conditions were atrocious, thunderstorms and heavy rain. The pilot never seemed to have the aircraft under his control at any time during the approach, sure enough he missed the runway so there we were climbing back out from Detroit, back into the thunderstorms to try for another approach. The second was better although still a controlled crash. Anyway we were down and I was pretty relieved. The American crew being US citizens went straight through passport control, whilst I waited along with several plane loads of American tourists returning from holidays in Mexico. I ought to mention that throughout all of this I was dressed in my company uniform, mainly because it made it much simpler when travelling through airport security etc. So there I was standing in line when a short, gun swinging Immigration officer approached me, ‘where are you travelling from?’ he asked. ‘London Stansted England’ I told him, ‘with what airline?’ he asked. I explained that I had taken a jump seat with the airline, which had been booked through their headquarters in Little Rock Arkansas. He left with a grunt and was back within two minutes along with the Aircraft paperwork. I should have gone home! Unfortunately I was on the Crew declaration paper work as Staff ‘Deadheading’, an American terminology used for travelling company employees. I was given a piece of paper and sent into the interrogation area, along with what appeared to be a worldly selection of dodgy looking characters. Eventually I was called into a small room and asked exactly what were my first words spoken to the Immigration officer who was now stood by my side, I told him exactly the same thing as before, ‘no you didn’t’ replied the officer now asking the questions, ‘you told him clearly, you said that you were dead heading’ now I was nervous these so called professional people were now blatantly lying right before my eyes. I suddenly remembered my suitcases were downstairs unlocked and by now unclaimed. What if they had put something inside them? I was thinking, they could easily falsify absolutely anything they wanted to, they then asked me to go downstairs and reclaim my baggage. I can tell you that I had never been so nervous before in my life. I started to have visions of not ever seeing my family again, visions of being sent to some really rough Detroit prison. I’d be finished. I came back upstairs with my bags, the two officers were now donning their latex gloves, my heart began to beat faster and faster. I started to sweat but I had done absolutely nothing wrong, why should I worry? well the point was that two representatives of the United States Immigration department had joined together to completely lie about what I had told them. My cases were opened and everything turned inside out even down to my socks, completely ridiculous! Are they really so stupid that they think everyone wants to go and work in the USA? Because this was what all of this was about. They rang my friend the flying instructor but were unable to get hold of him, or so they said, they telephoned the aircraft company down in Arkansas who could do nothing but apologise for the situation, they were then threatened and faced with a $20,000 dollar fine for incorrect paperwork if they didn’t immediately book a return flight for me to the UK. I sat for hours in the holding area before being accompanied by two immigration officers to the cabin door of a loaded Boeing 777 British Airways flight back to London Heathrow, how embarrassed was I? By now almost too shattered to realise much of what was going on. At least I was booked club class seat and it didn’t take long before the boys in the Flight deck got to hear about my ordeal. I was invited to go and sit up front only this time with a professional outfit! The crew had a laugh at my expense but it was a while before I ever saw a funny side of it. I had my passport marked ‘failed entry into the USA’ by US immigration, which didn’t really matter much as I had no immediate plans for returning there for a long while. I didn’t even mention it to my company I was so completely embarrassed. Three weeks on from that day I received a letter of promotion in the post from my company, I was off to start my Airbus A300 training, where? I hear you ask, well Miami airport Florida USA of course!

What is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to you? I think that the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me in my life so far was within the few hours waiting leading up to the birth of my young son, then to actually watch him being born was something so emotional and brilliant, it brought tears to my eyes at the same time as taking my breath away.

What is the scariest thing that's ever happened to you? I was laid half asleep stretched out across the top of three and a half tons of Royal mail postal bags, in complete darkness with the deafening whine of two Rolls Royce Dart turboprop engines, they happened to be the payload on board that old Handley Page Herald on a cold and miserable November night back in the late 80`s. Suddenly through one old scratched plastic window that still remained uncovered, I could see large orange and red flames licking their way back down the sides of the port engine cowling, the burning aluminium metalwork being fanned by the large propeller, making it look like one giant ‘catherine wheel’ of fire on that dark cold November night. I froze, we were on fire, this was it, the end, what a waste, my heart raced, I felt sick, I was going to die. I thought this purely because we were still at an altitude of 8000 feet getting ready to descend for the approach into East midlands airport and with flames that size we definitely weren’t going to make it. I remember standing in the cockpit between the two pilots as they started to go through their emergency checklist procedures. The co-pilot was new to the company, low on hours so with little experience, when it got to the stage of deploying the fire extinguisher the poor guy was so nervous that he managed to almost bend the handle completely away from the control panel, both extinguisher bottles had been fired but the flames still continued to roar. All three of us were going to perish, although I can’t say at any stage that my life started to flash before my eyes, I was too involved with what was happening in the flight deck and whether or not the flames were getting any smaller. Emergency services were called, a mayday was declared and the captain probably made one of the quickest approaches in both his and the aircrafts history. Finally with the plane was on the ground, closely followed by the complete East midland airport fire services, it was brought to a stop and what was left of the fire put out.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you? I think that this would have to be during my flying career when I was flying in and out of Edinburgh airport. The flying was for five consecutive nights, the hotel had a nice swimming pool and gym which I made use of. That evening before leaving my room, I hung my swimming trunks to dry on a radiator then as normal got the mini bus to the airport. After a nights flying returning once again to the hotel, I was informed at the reception that my room had been changed, which in itself wasn’t a big problem, however in between changing my room they had somehow mislaid my swimming trunks. The search went on for a couple of days but they remained missing. On my final evening I showered, got changed into my uniform. It was winter so I was wearing my black overcoat. I left my room as tidy as possible and proceeded down the corridor entering the lift along with the other guests, making my way on down to the reception to check out. When finally I became the first in the queue, I thought that I should ask just one more time, ‘has anyone managed to locate my lost swimming trunks?’ I asked the young receptionist, she looked at me very seriously pointing to me ‘are they like those?’ she asked, I couldn’t believe it, I had somehow managed to pick up my uniform coat from my bed with a pair of my underpants attached to the Velcro fastening strip on the front of my jacket. I could have died there and then, I can only thank God that they were at least a clean pair. After that I never did ask if my swimming trunks had been found at that hotel, just gave them up as a bad loss.

For pleasure, what do you love to draw? For pleasure I love to draw cartoons or caricatures, it’s relaxing fun and always gets a laugh. On a more serious side I love to do fine pen and ink work, like old churches, chapels or pictures drawn from turn of the century photos. I just don’t seem to get a lot of time spare time to do it.

With painting do you prefer acrylics, watercolour or oils and why? I like all three and of course all three are very different indeed, but I would have to go for Acrylics, the reason being that I can get a finer detailed and more realistic picture using these paints as they have the ability to cover extremely well with a large selection of bright and vivid colours, also when dry they actually become very water resistant unlike their closest partner paints 'gouache’ which cover almost as well but do not become resistant to water.

What do you do in your spare time? I can honestly say that I don’t get too much spare time but when I do it’s probably spent flying my model helicopters, relaxing listening to music, reading or catching up on writing letters to friends around the world.

Would you like your children to be pilots, authors or illustrators? I think that in this day and age I would be pleased if they became any one of the above, but in a perfect world I would probably try and steer them away from becoming a pilot purely because of the unhealthy lifestyle. I would try and guide them more in the direction of becoming an author or illustrator, either of these two jobs are great as far as I’m concerned, not only do you get to do what you enjoy doing you finalise with an end product which you alone have created and which you actually get to see or read. It is knowing that other people are also going to enjoy your work whether it be the writing or illustration. Just like living here in Spain, what could be better?

What do you love about living in Spain? Spain is my home and there are many reasons for loving it so much. I was sitting in a studio flat after selling my house listening to an Ottmar Liebert beautifully playing the Spanish guitar. I dreamt about how much I needed to change my life. Now I’m living it. I love the way that we live in the streets during the summer months. I love the smell and taste of the Spanish food. I love the summer evening smells of Galan de noche mixed with Jasmine and the smell of the flowering orange groves as you drive past them in your car. I love the large variation of Spanish music. I love going to hear and feel the Mascletas each year. I love the fact that where my home is we have all that one could ever need, the huge backdrop of mountains behind us, endless fields of orange groves rolling their way out towards some of the best and cleanest beaches in Europe, rock climbing, mountain cycling, walking , boating, fishing, camping and it’s all right here on my doorstep.

What do you miss about England? I miss the wonderful countryside like the New Forest, the lovely old character architecture and quaint countryside villages. I miss the large selection of Oriental and Asian restaurants that we have in the UK. I really miss being able to buy the variety of spices and ingredients enabling me to make all different types of curries and foreign dishes that I love. Cooking is my a favourite hobby in my life. There must be something else that I’ve forgotten? Oh yes of course, all of my family that I left behind, especially my sister and young niece. Apart from that I can honestly say that I really don’t miss living in the UK.