September 9th, 2024

By Kyo Lee, a Grade 12 WRDSB student
Images courtesy of Michael Martchenko

Students who grew up reading beloved Robert Munsch books like The Paper Bag Princess or Smelly Socks will immediately recognize its unique and vibrant illustrations. What many students may not know is that the artist behind the illustrations, Michael Martchenko, is an alumni of the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB).

Martchenko attended Glenview Park Secondary School (GPSS) the year it opened, in 1958. He had been drawing his entire life and by high school he already knew he wanted to be an illustrator. Even though there were no art courses at his school at the time, Martchenko still involved himself in the arts as much as possible, designing posters, theatre sets, and year books: “I was pretty much the school artist. I did all the artwork for the school paper. I had a very bad comic strip that I ran in the paper,” he said.

A yearbook cover and two covers of the "Glenview Review" created by Michael. One Glenview Review cover features a pen illustration of people in a ski chalet. The other features students carrying skis on their shoulders.

Examples of some of Martchenko’s work at GPSS

All of the different projects he was involved with gave him valuable experience. “The yearbook was a good thing and it did expose me to almost professional design work,” said Martchenko. “I went to the printer and saw how printing was done.”

Martchenko says that he was “always looking for any excuse [to do art]… I used to fill my textbooks and notebooks with all kinds of drawings. I always liked humour and I liked to do terrible things to Shakespeare and Hamlet.”

Two cartoons drawn by Michael, both focusing on Macbeth. The one on the left features two people cleaning a "damned spot" with sandpaper. The other is an illustration of Banquo.

But high school was more than just a chance to hone his artistic abilities; it was an opportunity for personal development: “[High school] was fabulous. It got me out of my shell a little bit.”

Upon graduating from GPSS, he attended the Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD), which had been his goal since he started high school. His first art job out of university was in advertising. When he was first told he would be paid $100 per week (when his OCAD tuition was around $300), he remembers excitedly thinking, “I’m going to buy a sports car!”

Two colourful paintings. One is of a man riding on a white horse, in front of a landscape featuring white houses with terracotta tile roofs. The other is a blue and yellow airplane flying against a cloudy sky.

He worked as an art director during the day, and spent time illustrating on the side in his spare time. This all changed when he put up one of his illustrations at a showcase run by his employer. Robert Munsch and his publishers who came to see the show saw Martchenko’s work just as they were about to leave the event and called him. Martchenko now thinks of it as “serendipity.” He says, “If they had gone through another door, it could have been a totally different story. That illustration has a place of honour on my wall.”

Two original illustrations showing both the paper bag princess and a large green dragon.

Original illustrations from The Paper Bag Princess

When Martchenko was first asked to illustrate a Robert Munsch book, he was skeptical after hearing the book would be about “a princess and a dragon and a prince.” Upon reading the script, though, he thought, “It was hilarious…I said I’ll do it. And the rest is history.” The project turned into the wildly successful The Paper Bag Princess book, which will be 45 years old in 2025.

Martchenko says, “[The Paper Bag Princess] was life changing” but he’s “not that crazy about the artwork.” It was during their second book “The Boy in the Drawer” that Martchenko started developing his signature style, although he notices that it has evolved over the years.

Two original illustrations by Michael, one is of a happy moose, skunk and three children. The other is of a man in a red coat talking to a fish through a hole in the ice over a frozen body of water.

Since then, Martchenko has illustrated over 100 books, two of which he wrote himself. Close to 50 of them have been ones produced with Munsch, including “50 Below Zero” and “Moose!,” which are still read in WRDSB classrooms today.

Martchenko shares a few pieces of advice for aspiring artists. He encourages being inspired by other illustrators: “Don’t copy them, but use some of their techniques…See how they treat lights. See how they use expressions.” He adds, “Your style will eventually develop [so] don’t worry about it.” And finally, “no matter what—draw…It doesn’t matter if you’re going to be a painter, illustrator, or you’re going to work on a computer. You have to know how to draw.”

Martchenko’s artwork has impacted many WRDSB students, and his words can guide our future as well.