I’ve always worked from photographs but for my most recent book The Property (about a grandmother and granddaughter searching for possessions lost during the second world war) I used a new method. I hired actors to act out every panel in the book and drew from that. On this page I was drawing two actors who had been recommended to me because they were a real-life couple. They were just how I imagined my characters: he’s very manly but a bit devilish; she’s beautiful and charming, a contrast with the cynical dialogue I had written for her. The acting took 10 days. Drawing the comic took a year. Alongside these drawings are some notes. I use my sketchbooks for everything: writing lists, phone numbers, anything. I love looking back on them because they remind me of how I lived my life at that time
Illustration: Rutu Modan
This page relates to a comic I did about my army service. It’s compulsory in Israel but they have no idea what to do with all these girls who can’t fight. I was sent on a craft course to learn how to make pompoms. They were some of the most difficult weeks of my life. It was so stupid, it depressed me. I turned out to be excellent at making pompoms which depressed me even more. We were always being fed bananas in the army. As they are so fattening, I imagined a story in which all of the girls making pompoms became incredibly fat and eventually floated away
Illustration: Rutu Modan
These are sketches for the lead character of Numi, a young female soldier, in Exit Wounds. I wanted her to be charming but not beautiful. You can see she has the same posture as that old man in the photo. In most comics – and in fact most cultures – the woman is always beautiful. It’s very frustrating for regular women like me. I wanted to show that a man can fall in love with a woman who is awkward and not that pretty
Illustration: Rutu Modan
This was a graveyard in Warsaw, where I was doing research for my book The Property, about a grandmother and granddaughter searching for family property lost during the second world war. In Poland they have a Catholic Day of the Dead where everybody gathers in the graveyard at night to place lights on the graves and remember the dead. The graveyard became a key scene in the book and appears on the cover. I kept the Time Out review because I thought it was funny
Illustration: Rutu Modan
It’s easier to think when my hand is in action. It’s like a meditation. Whether I’m hearing a lecture or on the phone, the purpose is not the drawing but the concentration. I carry a sketchbook and a Pilot Easy-Lead refillable pencil which is soft and dark. The only time I’m not drawing is if I’m cooking or driving – and for two weeks after the birth of my first daughter
• Rutu Modan will be in conversation with Hannah Berry at Foyles, Charing Cross Road, London, on Wednesday 21 August
Illustration: Rutu Modan
