Salvatore Rubbino Gallery

Salvatore Rubbino grew up near the Arsenal Stadium in Highbury in North London, although he says this didn’t make him any better at football.

He studied printmaking at art college where he discovered that you could think about drawing in lots of different ways. Later on at the Royal College of Art he studied illustration, and in 2005 was shortlisted for the Victoria and Albert Museum Illustration Awards for a series of paintings set in New York.

This series has been transformed into his first picture book, A Walk in New York (Walker Books), which charts the adventure of a walk through the Big Apple.

Salvatore was chosen for a Booktrust Best New Illustrators Award in 2011.

Salvatore describes his illustration technique:

I have always lived in cities and enjoy the sense of excitement one feels when everything is constantly on the move and, particularly, the wonderful spectacle of street life. There’s something to look and point at in a city all the time, and you’re never quite sure what you’ll find around the next street corner, and this keeps things interesting.

I take a sketchbook whenever I go travelling and find that the process of drawing really helps me to look and see things that might otherwise go unnoticed. The drawings I made whilst on location in New York provided valuable research for A Walk in New York. The “walk” in A Walk in New York is an actual route, carefully designed with families in mind, not too strenuous but with plenty of variety and the chance to take in some of New York’s landmarks. The main characters in the book are based on me and my son. I took great pleasure in making myself look taller — you can, after all, do anything in a story!

The pictures are built up using drawing and coloured textures from print-making with some painting. These elements are then collaged together digitally, using a computer. Once the basic layout of the page spread has been established, I continue to add layers of detail — things like street signs, fire hydrants, school buses, policemen, for example; all these details help to mark out a city’s visual identity and reinforce a sense of place.

New York certainly lived up to my expectations and was a great city for walking. The grid pattern of numbered streets and avenues meant I never got lost and could always count my way back to my hotel. New Yorkers, it seems, walk with a sense of purpose and ambition, and this is reflected in the city’s buildings. A good example is the New York Public Library, a building that celebrates books and uses modern technology to whisk book requests by conveyor belt to readers.

Amongst the dense urban network, one can nevertheless find green spaces and the chance to give tired feet a rest. Union Square Park blossoms into full colour during the spring and summer months and makes for an interesting contrast to the city around it.

In the end, I generated much more material that could be accommodated. Perhaps there’s the potential for another walk…