The story behind “The Weed that Woke Christmas”

Ellie Peterson: Who were your favorite authors and illustrators as a child?
Polina Gortman: Growing up, I was surrounded by books, but mostly novels, encyclopedias and dictionaries filled with very dry language and zero pictures. My mother was a translator. Whenever she had a foreign work trip, she brought back a couple of books in the language of the country she visited. I vividly remember an Italian picture dictionary illustrated by Tony Wolf and a stack of Great Fairy Tale Classics Series illustrated by Piero Cattaneo. I had no idea what those books said, but I spent a lot of time enjoying the pictures. Although I didn’t have picture books growing up (picture books as a genre were not a thing in late 80’s USSR), I had lots of illustrated kids’ books and magazines with beautiful watercolor illustrations by Pyotr Repkin, Maĭ Miturich, Yevgeny Charushin and Victor Chizhikov.

Ellie Peterson: How has your culture and upbringing influenced your work?
Polina Gortman: I’m not sure I’m fully aware of this influence quite yet. I’m still trying to figure out who I am and what my voice is like. There are some things that I know are very important to me. I’m an immigrant, so my experience of not belonging, of being an outsider is something that informs my work. Themes of inclusion and acceptance are at the core of my creative process. It’s important to me to portray people with disabilities and beyond simply adding a wheelchair. It’s challenging to show different kinds of disability, like an invisible disability or limb difference, in an authentic and respectful way, but it’s harder not being able to find yourself in books and believing you were not ever meant to be shown.

Ellie Peterson: What drew you to the manuscript for The Weed that Woke Christmas?
Polina Gortman: When I first read the manuscript, I knew it was a warm story with a message of unity and kindness. This is the kind of book that I love. But the thing that drew me the most to this project was the vast visual space that I could inhabit with my own little stories. The manuscript of The Weed that Woke Christmas tells the story of a little weed, but it doesn’t say anything about other characters. The challenge of filling the pages with diverse characters excited me the most.The Weed that Woke Christmas is based on a true story, which presents its own illustration challenges. What kind of research did you need to do to “get it right?”

I was granted a lot of creative freedom by the author, Alayne Kay Christian, to adapt the visual story. I spent a few weeks researching local newspaper articles and TV news stories that featured the Toledo Christmas Weed, saving all the pictures that I could find. I was interested in what people wore, what the weather was like, what gifts were donated, what decorations were put up nearby. I also had a good look at the Google Maps street view to try and figure out the geometry of that intersection. I tried to include some buildings that were inspired by real Toledo shops, although not all of them were near the actual location where the story took place. I also watched documentaries on homelessness, because I wanted to avoid cliches when portraying one of my characters.

Ellie Peterson: Tell us about the process you used to illustrate The Weed that Woke Christmas. What media did you use?
Polina Gortman: To be honest, at first, I didn’t know what my illustrations were supposed to be about. I remembered that my critique partner Tina Hoggatt mentioned Bob Staake’s method of finding the main emotional message for each of his illustrations before drawing. I tried doing the same and created a storyboard with only emotions labeled on each page. Then I overlaid colors that would help the story flow from one feeling to the next: muted colors for indifference, warm colors for joy, cool colors for sadness. That’s when my first characters started appearing and I was able to see what direction I wanted to go. As with any project, I did all my sketches, the roughs and the clean ones, digitally. Doing the messy thinking part digitally saves a lot of time and paper, while also keeping me sane. For final illustrations I transferred my sketches to watercolor paper and painted them with watercolor and colored pencils. I painted some parts, especially the ones with many characters, on different pieces of paper, and then scanned and assembled the final spreads in Adobe Photoshop.

Ellie Peterson: This book is impressive in the sheer number of characters you follow throughout the story. How did you manage to do that and why was it important to have that in the book?
Polina Gortman: Thank you for noticing! I fear creating illustrations that are redundant to the story. I couldn’t just introduce random characters that would pop up, interact with the Weed and disappear into oblivion. I wanted readers to make connections, recognize the characters and maybe even reconstruct a little bit of their background. I started off with simple faceless labels that you can find in the manuscript: “two women”, “a little girl”, “a man”, “a boy”, “a woman”. Then I thought of the ways I could make these characters more memorable and diverse. Soon “a little girl” became “the baker’s daughter”, “a man” became “a person experiencing homelessness”, “a man passing out sandwiches” became “the baker” and so on… There’s a big cast! My next step was to figure out when they first appeared and how they interacted with each other. At one point it became hard to track all of them! I had to come up with a colorful bookmark for each character and I would put it on a dummy book page where the character was supposed to appear. I had a lot of fun making the double-page spread where most of the characters gather in a circle to sing. 

Ellie Peterson: Is there anything in particular readers should look for in your illustrations? A hidden object? A unique building? A nested story to follow?
Polina Gortman: Well… you can have fun tracking a spunky old lady with a dachshund, a guy with a violin, and a mom-kid duo who helped decorate the Weed. Also, the bakery goes through quite a transformation during the story. I hope Toledo citizens will recognize a couple of landmarks.

Ellie Peterson: Do you have plans to illustrate your own books one day?
Polina Gortman: I do hope to have an opportunity to illustrate my own book one day. I’m just a little hatchling of an author right now, but I have a cute board book for babies in the works.

Ellie Peterson: What advice would you give others who are interested in illustrating picture books? Is there something you wish you’d known at the beginning of your journey?
Polina Gortman: One piece of advice that was crucial to my journey and that was given to me early on by illustrator Dana Sullivan was to read a lot of picture books. I check out dozens of picture books, old and new, every week. I try to figure out why I like them or not, what’s working for me and what doesn’t. Reading picture books and paying attention to creative choices that authors and illustrators make helps me hone my storytelling skills. I didn’t think much of it until our libraries closed for a few months in the Spring – that’s when I realized one of my biggest sources of inspiration and growth. Speaking of inspiration and growth, I think having an opportunity to be a part of a critique group is very helpful. It’s a vital support system that will help you find your way through the creative woods. I’m very thankful that about three and a half years ago I met wonderful author-illustrators who became my critique group, The Broad Strokes! They help me stay afloat when I overthink things and nudge me to face new challenges.

Ellie Peterson: Thank you Polina! You can find out more about Polina at her website: gortmanillustration.com. The Weed that Woke Christmas is available now through Indiebound, the Book Depository, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.