Markus Motum
As a child
I was born in Wiltshire, though my family moved away from there when I was very little. In fact we moved about quite a lot growing up. From Nottingham to Reading, to Somerset, and even Belgium and Berlin, I went all over the place as a child! This all meant changing schools a lot, and each time I left behind a great set of friends (this was before Facebook so it felt pretty permanent!) but my brother and I always landed on our feet and made great new friends. My love for drawing definitely began in my formative years – I would spend hours drawing until my pens rang out. My brother was the more natural academic!
As an adult
I started drawing at a young age like a lot of children – these drawings were overwhelmingly of either dinosaurs or super heroes – but admit I stopped as I got older. I never altogether stopped being into art and creativity, but I didn’t quite know how to channel it. Fast forward a decade and I was working in a job I really wasn’t enjoying, and remembered how much fun I had all those years ago drawing and just creating things. I wondered if I went back to uni and worked really hard, if I could somehow turn that into the job, surely that would be the best job ever? I ended up studying Illustration at the University for the Creative Arts, Maidstone and graduated in 2012.
As an author-illustrator
Nothing too crazy or off the wall here – I’m quite traditional in that I like to work at home in my studio (which also happens to be the living room), listening to music, accompanied by a tea or coffee, surrounded by books and other inspirations. Curiosity is my publishing debut.
Ten things we didn’t know about Markus Motum
- Favourite colour has to be blue – the kind of blue you see in the sky on a nice sunny day. Living in England I don’t get to see it much!
- Even though Curiosity is about space and science, my science grades in school weren’t very good!
- Favourite food is pizza. I think I could probably eat it every day for the rest of my life if I tried. Though I should probably leave that to be the subject of a fictional picture book down the road, rather then try it myself…
- Technically, Curiosity isn’t the first story I’ve sold. When I was young, I would draw entire comics on A4 pieces of paper stapled together, then set up a stall outside my house on the pavement and sell the issues to other children in the neighbourhood for 50p an issue. I’m not sure if that was a bargain or a rip-off.
- After I had finished writing and drawing the initial draft for this book, I put it on my bookshelf and left it there for over a year, believing no one would be interested in reading it!
- My first name is spelt with a "k". This is the Norwegian way to spell Markus. The
other name my parents considered for me was Magnus, which definitely sounds more Norwegian!
- I’ve lived all over the UK, in Belgium, and even Berlin prior to its re-unification.
- At a young age I’d convince my cousins to draw alongside me. One time we used a massive roll of paper to draw one continuous 10 metre long drawing.
- I’m not very good at finishing lists!
-