For Graton author, it’s a London family affair

Sean London’s first dream in life was to be an illustrator, but he had to take a few zigs and zags before he could make it happen.

“I took a roundabout trip but it was absolutely what I’ve always wanted to do,” said the 28-year-old artist, who grew up in Graton.

London was a running back and captain of the freshman football team at El Molino High School. But in the midst of JV training in his sophomore year, he abruptly dropped the ball to study martial arts and dance, figuring his body would never hold up on the gridiron after suffering several concussions and a succession of broken bones.

That same competitive nature that made him a force on the football field helped him advance quickly. He won a professional role in a production of “The Nutcracker,” and was accepted into the dance program on scholarship to the prestigious California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. But after a year he took another sharp pivot after stumbling onto the school’s storied animation department, the training ground for Disney animators like John Lasseter.

But what led him back to his boyhood dream of illustration is an old story: It’s who you know. And in the case of Sean London, that happened to be the famed children’s author Jonathan London, who has produced more than 100 books, including the popular “Froggy” picture book series published by Viking. He happens to be Sean’s father.

When the elder London needed an illustrator for his first book for middle readers, he figured his No. 2 son, now married, living in Santa Clarita and doing contract hand-drawn animation for DUCK studios in L.A., was a seasoned enough artist to take on the challenge.

It was a natural fit. The adventure book, “Desolation Canyon,” was inspired by the London family’s adventures in white-water rafting. And the harrowing trip that becomes the storyline for the book, scheduled for release on Feb. 10 by WestWinds Press of Portland, Ore., was based on a real white-water rafting trip that Jonathan took with Sean’s older brother Aaron, down Utah’s Green River. Geared to 8 to 13-year-olds, the story, which was first syndicated to newspapers in a shorter version through what was called, “The Breakfast Serials,” is punctuated with some heart-stopping moments, including confrontations with a rattlesnake, a runaway raft, a thrown oar, intergenerational conflicts and a disappearance. Some of the characters are loosely based on the Londons and some of the friends who went on the trip.

When London thought of trying to publish the story as a book he was told that, at 89 pages, it was too short. He’d have to more than double it. And illustrations seemed one way to fill it out.

“I just knew Sean could do the illustrations,” said the elder London, 67, who showed Sean’s work to the art director at WestWinds and got an immediate thumbs up. Usually, authors have no say in who will illustrate their books. Jonathan figures he’s worked with at least 50 different illustrators on some 110 books.

Sean London wound up doing 32 illustrations, including the cover. It was a challenge working on deadline.

“Up until this assignment doing illustrations, I would spend weeks on a painting,” said Sean, who married his high school sweetheart Stephanie Muir, also an artist. “Some of these illustrations in ‘Desolation Canyon’ I did in less than a day. You get to the point where you really need to be able to push yourself. It was all done in 45 days. Most illustrators take up to six months.”

Father and son are not dissimilar. Jonathan London himself took a circuitous route to his current job as a full-time writer. With a master’s degree in social science from San Jose State University, he did a succession of different jobs, including working in a cannery and a stint as a dancer. For 12 years he made a living setting up trade shows and was a card-carrying union man. His first book, “Froggy Gets Dressed,” based on a story he made up to amuse his sons on a drive back from Pt. Reyes in 1989, wasn’t published until he was 45.

But by nature he was always a writer and a poet.

Similarly, Sean London was always an artist, even as a young child, and that baffles his dad, who confesses that neither he nor his wife, Maureen, have any aptitude for drawing.

As a dance major at CalArts, Sean found himself sneaking into animation classes, trying to figure out any way he could work his way into the notoriously difficult program. By his sophomore year, when he wasn’t dancing he was animating, building up a portfolio and finally getting accepted into the Animation Program.

It’s an even more difficult business to break into, with less and less demand for the traditional, in-house, hand-drawn animation he loves. So being able to pursue a tandem passion for illustration is almost a dream come true. He described working with his father as “amazing.”

“I’ve heard bad stories about sons and dads trying to work together,” he said. “But we just really click. We think a lot alike and some things can even go unsaid, which is a great thing for a partnership like this.”

The pair have a contract to produce another adventure book featuring the same cast of characters, with talk of even a third book. Meanwhile, father and son have already collaborated on a children’s picture book for Sproutkin, the children’s book subscription service, called, “Little Dragon and his Magic Underwear,” a silly tale of a small dragon who hasn’t mastered flying or fire-breathing.

In addition to “Desolation Canyon,” the prolific Jonathon London has four other books coming out in the next two months: his 25th Froggy book, “Froggy’s Birthday Wish;” a non-fiction book for young readers called “Hippos are Huge” for Candlewick Press; and “Little Puffin’s First Flight” in March for Alaska Northwest Books.

“I write very quickly,” he said with understatement, pointing to his workstation, a laptop set up at a picnic table on his back deck. “I write outside every day, if it’s not pouring rain.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.