Ferdinand Modernized: A Discussion with Pura Belpré Winner Abraham Matias About Ugo

Just last year when we were making all kinds of Caldecott predictions about what might win, there were a couple of outliers in the mix. One book that I personally thought had a pretty good chance at some kind of an award was the magnificent Popo the Xolo by Paloma Angelina Lopez with art from the incredible Abraham Matias. And while it didn’t get a Caldecott, it sure as heck did get a Pura Belpre Illustrator Award! No small prize that!

But, and forgive me, who the heck IS Abraham Matias? Well, he’s the kind of fellow who does a lot of different things. One minute he might be creating paper puppets and the next updating his incredible Instagram page. But for the purposes of our talk today, the most important thing he has going on is providing the art for the upcoming Ugo by Dr. Habib Sadeghi (out September 29th). Just imagine Ferdinand the Bull if he were a donkey. Or, put another way, here’s the publisher description:

“Ugo’s great big donkey heart loves to dance.

Ugo has been trained from a young age to follow the trail to the market, carrying the farmer’s grain to sell. He knows it’s important to stay on the path. But when the music of the trees calls to him, he just can’t resist the urge to drop the grain and…

Shake! Spin! Stomp!

To tame Ugo’s wandering spirit, the farmer trains ShinShin the monkey to be his guide. But when an accident befalls Ugo on this well-worn path, the music fades away, and he must dig deep inside himself to find his true place in the world.”

Today, we talk with Abraham himself to learn a little more about his art, his work, and what makes Ugo the title to read this fall season:

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Betsy Bird: Abraham! Such a delight to get a chance to speak to you today. Your work on POPO THE XOLO was, quite frankly, jaw-dropping, so I know a lot of people have been excited to see what you have coming out next. UGO is an interesting new direction to go into. It was described to me as “a modern day homage to the perennial & beloved The Story of Ferdinand.” With that in mind, what was it about this particular manuscript that appealed to you? 

Abraham Matias: Thank you so much for this interview, Betsy. I’m a huge fan of yours and so grateful for all the love for Popo the Xolo and for this space. Ugo came my way right after I had finished the final artwork for Popo. There were a few things that appealed to me. I was instantly drawn  to the playful relationship between Ugo and his chattering monkey ShinShin. Like Ferdinand, who wants to spend his days under a tree smelling flowers, Ugo wants to spend his days listening and dancing to the tree’s music, but here comes ShinShin with the responsibilities calling. It’s the tragic childhood experience of being pulled away from our pleasures to attend our first duties. Ugo’s wandering spirit and living in his own musical world spoke directly to my ADHD brain. Lastly, after exploring heavier themes of grief and Mesoamerican lore in Popo the Xolo, Ugo provided the perfect combination of lighthearted fun and gentle wisdom I was looking for.

BB: It’s also the only case I can think of where the monkey is the serious workaholic party in a tale. And I’m so pleased that I finally get to ask you this next question. An aspect of your art that’s just incredible is how you manage to imbue your scenes with this incredible sense of natural light. In this particular case, there’s pre-dawn light, rising sun light, mid-day light (you never neglect a shadow), and even the light that filters through gray clouds. What techniques do you use to get these effects?

Abraham: Thank you! Lighting each scene is painting with light. With the nature of puppets, even the smallest adjustment of the lights can impact the texture of the paper and the intensity of the shadows cast by their joints. Once the puppets and sets are constructed, I give myself some time to just play around with lighting. Since everything is crafted within a physical space I am able to control the intensity and color of the light depending on what mood I wish to convey. Whenever I can, my goal is to set up the entire scene much like a stop-motion stage. On other occasions, if the scene is too complex, I will capture individual elements with consistent lighting and combine them digitally later on. Even with digital composition, I build every piece physically to maintain that handmade aesthetic.

BB: Well, and much along the same lines, photography seems to be as much a part of your final product as the paper art itself. How long have you been photographing your own work? And at this point in your life, is it always a smooth process or do you often find some bumps along the way? 

Abraham: I have a basic knowledge of photography but it’s one of the aspects that I feel I still have a lot to learn. It’s tricky when photographing entire scenes, because different elements within a single shot can conflict with one another. For instance, the background might look perfect but the subjects are too dark. If I adjust the aperture to allow more light through the lens, the characters may be perfectly illuminated, but now the background is overexposed. It’s definitely a process of back-and-forth adjustments until I find the right balance. When I photograph each element separately it is much easier because I can just focus on that single piece, the trick is to keep the lighting direction cohesive so once I compose them it will still look as if it was shot altogether.

BB: Tell us a little bit about your process of finding the final look of these characters. How do you go about figuring out how each one should look? 

Abraham: I go through a series of sketches to find their right design. I will sketch out not only the character design but I also use the manuscript to inform their personality, and map out what kind of situations they will experience and how they will react to them. There are always concepts that come immediately after reading the manuscript. For ShinShin the monkey, I knew he should be dressed the same as the farmer, like his mini-me. Once I settle for the design, I build a prototype of the puppets to experiment with different materials and kinds of paper. I made every facial feature adjustable: his eye, eyelid, eyebrow, ears, and the round light brown spot behind his eye. This is where the true magic of these puppets reveals itself. The slightest adjustment to any of his facial elements would change Ugo’s emotional expression. Puppeteering each character is also part of the character design process. Manipulating his eyebrows, opening or closing an eyelid, or shifting the direction of his gaze becomes a playful process of puppeteering, as if  Ugo would slowly awaken and unveil his personality. 

BB: Was there anything you initially tried when you first started working on this book that ultimately didn’t make it into the final version?

Abraham: Oh, yes. The summer I received Ugo’s story I was experimenting with making cut-out illustrations made from various scraps of paper of all kinds of textures, colors, and thickness. One prototype of Ugo was actually patched together with blues and yellows scraps, almost like a rag doll. It was great fun but became too visually cluttered when I started building out the scenes. It just wasn’t right for Ugo. However, I did use some of this patched technique for the hills and some of the backgrounds. I attempted to integrate other materials like wood and straw for the barn scenes, but it didn’t quite work out. Then I tried a slightly more realistic approach for the trees but it didn’t look right. Ultimately, all this led me to a color pencil stylized background design and a graphic contrast to the puppet’s three-dimensional world. With puppets and sets there is a stage of design that can’t be figured out by drawing it but by actually building it. Finding the right materials and textures is its own process and I have to remind myself this is still part of the design stage and not the final art. 

BB: Woah. Half the time I ask that question I don’t any kind of an answer. So finally, what else are you working on these days? What can we hope to see from you?

Abraham: This summer, I’m making my author debut with The Huntsman and the Witches, a retelling of a Mexican folktale beautifully illustrated by Molly Mendoza and part of HarperCollins’s “Everlasting Tales” series. It’s my first time sitting on the author’s chair and it has been an incredible opportunity to experience picture books from this other side. A little further ahead, I am incredibly excited to be working again with the same Ugo team at Macmillan for my author-illustrator debut, Song of Nahual! A shapeshifting Nahual child lost between the world of humans and jaguars follows a mysterious song in search of home. Scheduled for release in the fall 2027. Once again, thank you for this space, Betsy! 

BB: Thank YOU, Abraham! I have already read The Huntsman and the Witches and it one of my absolute favorites of the year. You are clearly a man of MANY talents.

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And I’ll stand by that statement too.

A big thank you to Abraham for his intriguing and in-depth answers to my questions. Thanks too to Nicole Banholzer and her team at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for helping to put this all together. Ugo will be out September 29th so be sure to look for it then.

Filed under: Interviews