Liebet Jooste | Illustrating Colouring-in Books
Liebet is a South African illustrator and painter living in Pretoria where she was born in 1983.
In 2006 she obtained a BA Fine Arts degree from the University of Pretoria and has been a practising artist ever since. In 2015 she self-published The Colouring Book by Liebet which was featured in The South African Artist, Weg and Go magazines. Visi magazine also named it one of their Picks of the Week in December of that year.
South African artist, Liebet Jooste, spontaneously creates characters, plants and things within a wonderfully strange landscape. Through the juxtaposition of detail and simplicity, bright colours and monochrome, she brings to life a world where imaginations, both young and old, can wander freely. Liebet's passion for the ocean and the fauna & flora of South Africa, her love of gardening and keen observation of her pets, are what inspire her work.
Liebetland: A Colouring Book is her latest colouring book and it's made up of one long landscape illustration of more than six meters. The creatures, plants and things are very quirky and can't wait to be coloured by you!
An Author Interview with Liebet Jooste
1. When did you start illustrating and designing?
I have been drawing and making things from a very young age. I made it my profession when I finished my fine arts degree in 2006.
2. Why have you started illustrating colouring-in books?
The idea of illustrating something to be coloured-in by someone else is something I have always found fascinating. As a child, I made a colouring book. Alas, it never went to publishers (though the dream never left me).
When the adult colouring craze began, people started commenting on my very detailed illustrations saying that they would make great images for a colouring-in book. I decided to make my life long dream a reality and make a colouring-in book.
The process of drawing for colouring-in has helped me grow as an illustrator and as a painter to a great extent. Both in terms of the use of line and the use of composition. Seeing as I often colour the original illustrations or the finished pages, the process has also expanded my relationship with colour.
3. What is your favourite illustrated book?
I don't have one favourite, but I'm a very big Dr Seuss fan! As cliché as I may be in saying so, how can one not love his books? They are filled with such creativity and wonderfully unusual use of colour combinations.
4. What is the power behind "illustration"?
The power behind a great illustration is that it not only communicates a message, but transcends the viewer into its world.
I illustrate because it takes me on a journey, where anything is possible. It shows me things I wouldn't have imagined.
The aim of my work is to communicate messages with substance and share with people the wonder, adventure and joy that the imagination holds.
5. Where did Liebetland come from?
The realm of Liebetland originated many years ago, out of my fascination with the oddness of animals and plants (how they exist and interact with each other). When positioned in a space in a certain way, and by creating a certain scenario, the oddness of everything becomes amplified.
Liebetland is the world that was created when I started playing around with all these things. It was, however, only recently given its name, and Liebetland: A Colouring Book is the first project that bears this name.
6. What do you do when you aren’t illustrating?
When I'm not illustrating, I do large scale oil paintings. When I'm not working, I love spending time with my partner, family and friends; playing with the dogs in our lives; growing things we can eat; sitting by a fire, swimming in the sea, walking in nature and traveling.
