Oscar and the Bird

About Geoff Waring

As a child, he worried about the big, bad world (Vietnam, the Cold War), but found escape in bird-watching and messing about in ponds. His parents bought him a pre-formed plastic pond for the garden, where he used to feed his pet tench (called Jaws) with woodlice. His parents were actors, so he spent a lot of time in theatres. He always found the models for the sets more exciting than the plays (though not any more!). He drew and painted birds and insects, but then along came girls and punk rock...

He left his childhood in Barnet, north London, to study Graphics at Manchester Polytechnic. He graduated in 1984 and fell into magazines, where he's been ever since. Over the years he has been art director of Elle, Red, Vogue Australia and design director of Vogue UK. He is currently the creative director of Glamour magazine. As an illustrator, he has always illustrated ideas, and has hundreds of sketchbooks to prove it. His first books are based on his own cat, Oskar, who he missed when he went to live in Sydney for two years, so he created him as a cartoon. But it'll be almost ten years before he makes it to print.

Although he draws a lot with pen and pencil, his books are created solely on the computer in Adobe InDesign, a relatively simple design program (Glamour is designed on it too!), which keeps his pictures bold and simple - almost like having scissors and coloured paper to make a collage. He is not a computer whiz, so to have to learn only one program is fine by him.