Nathan Hackett / Readers Digest / It’s Not Whether You Fall…

Nathan was asked by Readers Digest to illustrate for a story written by Dan White telling the story of how lessons learnt as a widowed father and how near misses while coping with loss helped him grow closer to his daughter.

Beginning with falling through some floorboards of the attic while helping his daughter prepare for her garage sale and being distracted by some old artefacts that belonged to his late wife, the story is an introspective cataloguing stories over the last year and acceptance of his role as family clown and the healing qualities of funny. Forgetting garbage night and dealing with the infestation of raccoons, to risking ‘a punch in the nose’ from a confrontation over his daughters defaced yard sale signs, Dan teaches us to be a little easier on ourselves.

Nathan illustrated a two page opener that set the themes and tone of the story with the narrative hook and point of action of falling through the ceiling, and two spot illustrations that reflected the writers despair and feelings of inability, to a character of conviction when confronting the neighbourhood bully. The difficulty of the brief was balancing tragedy with humour, and Nathan tackled this with the sequence and storytelling of the illustrations and colour palettes that lightened the theme and best captured the personality of the writer.

Art Director: Jessie A. Sharon