Illustrator and alumnus Nick Sharratt delivers inspirational talk to students

Renowned children’s illustrator, author and Manchester Met alumnus Nick Sharratt delivered an inspirational talk to students detailing his remarkable career.

Sharratt, who studied Art Foundation at Manchester Met, has illustrated around 300 children’s books, most notably for Jacqueline Wilson, as well as writing and illustrating over 40 of his own books in his iconic style.

Sharratt visited the University’s Manchester School of Art and Manchester Poetry Library to give an inspiring talk to more than 200 students from across a range of courses including BA (Hons) Illustration with Animation, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, and MA Publishing.  

During his expansive career, Sharratt has illustrated for magazines, advertising and packaging, and from the mid-1990s has worked exclusively in children’s book illustration.

He is best known for his collaboration with author Jacqueline Wilson which saw him illustrate more than 50 novels alongside his illustrations being animated for the hugely popular BBC children’s drama series The Story of Tracy Beaker and Tracy Beaker Returns. His drawings were also featured on extensive Tracy Beaker merchandising.

Sharratt also writes and illustrates his own picture books, has been the official illustrator for World Book Day, and has won several awards including the Children’s Book Award, the Educational Writers Award, the Red House Children’s Book Award, the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, the Booktrust Storytime Prize and the Bookbug Picture Book Prize.

He began by talking about returning to the University and revealed he was nervous to undertake the lecture to a packed room full of adults as he usually delivers talks to primary school children.

He spoke about growing up in the 1960s and how he developed a passion for art at an early age taking inspiration from pictures and books featuring illustrations in a graphic, pop art style which influenced his own drawing.

Reflecting fondly on his time studying Art Foundation at the University from 1980 to 1981, Sharratt said: “I had a really great time studying here in Manchester. The foundation art course gave me an opportunity to go back to basics with drawing and helped me develop my skills through life drawing, etching, and painting. I loved exploring objective drawing and sketching people and places, including many Manchester landmarks, from real life.”

Ian Whadcock, Reader in Design at Manchester Met’s Manchester School of Art, said: “Nick provided an invaluable insight into the way you can develop and sustain a freelance career, and whilst the publishing landscape has changed enormously over Nick’s career, the core principles of professionalism, a commitment to developing an adaptable skillset combined with a healthy sense of ‘joy’ in the process, are as true today as they were 40 years ago when Nick was on the foundation course.

“Nick achieves the illusion of making it all look so easy, but the audience were left in no doubt as to just how much hard work and commitment it takes to achieve this level of professional success, industry award and recognition.”

He then took students on a journey through notable moments in his impressive career from his first commissions where he created illustrations for magazines including Country Living and Cosmopolitan, to illustrating packaging and educational textbooks which led to a job illustrating his first children’s picture book Noisy Poems in 1987.

By the mid-1990s, Sharratt was concentrating solely on children’s book illustrations and has since worked alongside many renowned authors including Julia Donaldson, Jeremy Strong, Michael Rosen, Giles Andreae, Kes Gray and most notably Jacqueline Wilson.

Sharratt also writes and illustrates his own picture books, with his Shark in the Park series being turned into a successful stage show alongside the multi-million selling book You Choose which he collaborated on with Pippa Goodhart.

During his lecture, Sharratt gave valuable advice to students about what skills are needed for working in the children’s book industry: “I think talent is important of course, originality and developing your own style, flexibility, drive - especially when starting out, as it can be challenging getting going, reliability (always meet your deadlines) and decent communication skills which are helpful when having discussions with publishers.

“When starting out, take it one step at a time. Everything you do is important, and each job you undertake could lead to something else in the future, so always do the best you can.”

Sharratt volunteered his time and advice to support students’ futures as part of the University’s  alumni volunteering programme, which now involves more than 2,000 alumni who are positively impacting 10,000 students annually.