Landscape – it is all around us, the background to our lives. Usually, perhaps, the term conjures up the idea of a rural setting – we think of all those Dutch paintings, and of Constable and Ravilious. We might not often associate the idea with an urban setting or somewhere with people working and living. It can set a mood or populate the imagination. Landscape is powerful – and authors, illustrators and storytellers draw on it in their work to not only inspire their imaginations but to provide a place for their audience.

David Almond talks about the landscapes that are there in the background to his writing and his relationship to them – the landscapes of the north of England that imbues his writing with such power and reality whether we are walking across the moors or descending to Hades. Though the countryside is always present in his work, there is recognition of the urban – the mining communities, the chimneys, the streets.

It is this world that fascinates the illustrator Salvatore Rubbino; a place where people live and work. This may be busy crowded streets such as in London or Paris where the buildings themselves are the landscape – and because buildings can be tall, allow the viewer to look out to another landscape as one can standing beside the gargoyles of Notre Dame. Or the landscape is the background to people and their lives; the fishermen we meet in Ride the Wind. Rubbino opens the door to show us what captures his attention in bringing these worlds to life.

Levi Pinfold is another illustrator for whom landscape is important. In a brief interview he reveals some of the landscapes that have become part of his imagination and inform and influence his own work.