AAA<\/p>\n
Most mums keep their kids\u2019 drawings, tucking away the best ones for posterity, and Graeme Base\u2019s mother was no different. Except she most likely didn\u2019t secretly throw out the many mediocre offerings that most mums do after bedtime.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly Base, who grew up to become a world-renowned author and illustrator whose unique style blends extraordinarily rendered realism with fantasy imagery, had always wanted to be an artist. Even though he knew that some people thought art was \u201csomething you do for therapy, or when you\u2019re not actually doing your proper job\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even if you don\u2019t recognise his name, you know his books \u2013 his breakout 1986 book Animalia has sold more than 5 million copies (and still counting).<\/p>\n
![\"Base\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/8e02ce3b87686c332311f3d5423ce5fbcb8aa5a4.jpeg\")
Base\u2019s 1986 book Animalia was a global hit.<\/p>\n
He also grew up to be someone who never throws anything away, a habit that will please his fans: next week, for the first time in his 40-year career, Base unveils a selection of his hundreds of unpublished artworks.<\/p>\n
The Hidden World of Graeme Base will showcase some of the thousands of works he\u2019s squirrelled away in \u201cgod knows how many\u201d boxes for years. He\u2019s kept almost everything he\u2019s drawn, from finished artworks to preliminary sketches, many of which would eventually evolve into his now world-famous alphabet, or his mystery book The Eleventh Hour.<\/p>\n
The idea for the new exhibition came off the back of the National Library of Australia approaching him. Australia\u2019s largest reference library already had his books and some of his artworks, but were also keen on some of his earliest works for its collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, I wanted to give them everything because I wanted it to be in a safe place for posterity, but while I was trawling through all this stuff, preparing what to give them, I thought there might be an exhibition in it,\u201d Base says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was so much stuff, and that\u2019s when the idea started growing in my mind to show works nobody had ever seen before, rather than just stuff from the books they\u2019d recognise.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tally](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0b57c3cab7aa802e101a66d4303037850d4e0f02.jpeg\")
Tally Ho!, 1980 – one of Graeme Base\u2019s unseen artworks featured in The HIdden World of Graeme Base.Courtesy Graeme Base<\/p>\n
Some of these illustrations \u2013 pencil doodles, ink sketches and more \u2013 would be better off with people who would want to hang them on walls, he thought, rather than putting them back into a cupboard. And it sounds like Base could definitely use the cupboard space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat started when I was young when I was a little tacker and drawing stuff or writing stuff. Mum kept it all \u2013 I never knew until years later, but every time I did something she\u2019d put in a box, and when I was twenty-something, she said \u2018I\u2019ve got something for you\u2019 and it was just jam-packed with scribbles, sketches, story ideas, you know, doodles.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time, Base will show a selection from that box, including, \u201cwhat they call \u2018juvenalia\u2019; stuff from when I was in high school and college\u201d.<\/p>\n
The doodles and preliminary sketches offer an insight into the way he painstakingly creates his meticulous, mischievous illustrations; often one page of his book will take a month to create.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I work is \u2026 OK, this is the idea for the picture, and then I\u2019ll draw a character over and over and over and over, until I\u2019ve refined it to exactly how I want it to be, then I would transfer that shape into the final artwork, and I would do that over and over with every character, so there would just be colossal numbers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the drawings were just scribbles, sometimes they were highly finished, so a lot of those pieces are in this exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3cdb2dc6a6b3dcdce0cefa3e04d0e3ddc8f019c8.jpeg\")
One of Base\u2019s sketches from the exhibition The Hidden World of Graeme Base..Courtesy Graeme Base<\/p>\n
There are little drawings done for their own sake, and others that led to published projects such as The Worst Band in the Universe, and his version of Lewis Carroll\u2019s Jabberwocky. \u201cAnd then the stuff that was just me as a young kid goofing off in maths lessons \u2013 and keeping them for some reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Base was born in Britain and his family moved to Australia when he was eight, which is when he began drawing seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a really strong Pommy accent when we first moved here, and you know, I didn\u2019t know how to kick the funny shaped ball, that kind of stuff. Any kid in that position quickly figures out, if you\u2019re good at something, start doing it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the way you carve out your niche in the playground. For me, it was drawing and, within a couple of years, maybe by the time I was 11 or 12, if anyone said, \u2018What do you want to be when you grow up?\u2019 I said, \u2018I want to be an artist.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
After high school, he studied graphic design, and ended up working in advertising – a job he quickly loathed.<\/p>\n
Then he thought he might be a rock star. He was \u201cdabbling in music\u201d, and joined a pub-rock band in 1980 – largely because he \u201cfancied the singer\u201d. Robyn, to whom Base has been married for 44 years, was the band\u2019s singer and Base became the drummer and songwriter. \u201cBut then we found a better drummer, so I moved on to keyboards,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The band, Rikitikitavi, (a bastardised spelling of the Rudyard Kipling short story), was quite the fixture in the Melbourne live scene throughout the \u201980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played all the pubs and clubs, mostly doing supports,\u201d says Base. \u201cBut for some big bands! We supported bands like Hunters and Collectors, Icehouse, the Models \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n
Inspired by the likes of Talking Heads, they sported a new romantic look. \u201cRobyn had multicoloured hair, and I remember having, sort of, my ordinary hair, but just with this long blond droopy bit which came down almost to my mouth in the front. Very \u201980s \u2013 sort of \u2026 Depeche Mode.\u201d<\/p>\n
While awaiting their big break, Base was working at his advertising gig by day, but was eventually fired, his boss telling him the reason was that he was \u201cdestroying my business\u201d. (No, he didn\u2019t get a reference).<\/p>\n
TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GRAEME BASEWorst habit? Eating peanuts.Greatest fear? Anaphylactic reaction to eating peanuts.The line that stayed with you? \u201cI\u2019m making this up as I go along\u201d – Indiana JonesBiggest regret? I once met Steven Spielberg, and his producers – they were going to do an animated version of The Sign Of The Seahorse. But something went wrong with the legal process and they dropped the project. I should have got on a plane, gone over there and said, \u201cI want to fix this,\u201d and I didn\u2019t \u2026 and it went away.Favourite book? Lord of The Rings by J.R.R Tolkien.The artwork\/song that you wish was yours? God Only Knows by The Beach Boys. I think it\u2019s the most sublime song ever written; it\u2019s heavenly.If you could time travel, where would you choose to go? I think I\u2019d go back to the Jurassic because\u00a0 I think that would be the most extraordinary thing to see that world pre-human.<\/p>\n
For his own sanity, he\u2019d been working on his \u201cfantasy\u201d drawings at night and, after his sacking, decided to see if he could get work illustrating book jackets, or record covers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a writer was never part of the game plan,\u201d he says. But he started hawking his artworks around to publishers, and landed a few book jacket gigs, and illustrations for other people\u2019s books. But he\u2019s never been a fan of working to someone else\u2019s brief. \u201cThat\u2019s why I hadn\u2019t worked in advertising,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
![\"Actor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/789cffcb26faf16f3557940629a5d5548540890d.jpeg\")
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