Terrific Toddlers

Hi Chaps,

I recently illustrated a set of three books for Toddlers called Terrific Toddlers, written by Carol Zeavin, Rhona Silverbush and published by Magination Press
They are about a diverse group of toddlers who are learning to share with each other, deal with hurt, and to say goodbye.
The books use simple language and are reflective of children’s realities, based on an understanding of the developmental level of young toddlers.
This series is the first to handle the topics in carefully researched, developmentally appropriate ways for toddlers, and is affiliated with the American Psychological Association
I'm really pleased to have been involved with such worthwhile books.
They were very interesting to illustrate, and I also think the designers did a fab job with the design of them :)
Here are a few illustrations

Netball Journal

Hi Chaps,

Anyone out there in Blogland involved in netball?
I've recently illustrated a fab new Journal aimed at young netball players, and it's now available to pre-order for Christmas.

This is a great journal with excercises and projects and quizzes, and stickers.
It was great fun to illustrate - there are a set of different characters that feature throughout, so there was a fair bit of character work, thinking of their characteristics and having those reflected in their looks and attitude and gesture -
and all the illustrations had to be technically correct to follow the rules of the game correctly, so I learned a fair bit about netball :)

The website is here at MyIncredibeleJournals so do have a look, and do mention it to anyone you know involved in the sport :)

Children's Group

I recently did this sheet to print out to be used as a basis for discussion at a local children's group, which was very interesting.
The discussion was about dealing with unkind comments, like "I'm more clever than you".

The idea was to think about the sort of comments and behaviour that may not be classed as bullying, that falls into a bit of grey area there, but that is still unkind and unfriendly.
The kids were asked to think of responses that wouldn't exacerbate the situation or get them in trouble, but that would be confident and assertive.
There was a lot of 'walk away', ignore them' and 'don't show you're annoyed'.

The Art of Children's Books Exhibition

Hi Chaps,

I wanted to write about 'The Illustrators: The Art of Children's Books Curated by Julia Donaldson' exhibition, which I saw a few days ago.

Basically it's an exhibition of illustrators who've illustrated Julia Donaldsons's books.
It was at the Rheged Centre just outside Penrith, info here - http://www.rheged.com/illustrators-art-childrens-books-curated-julia-donaldson-0
Here's the leaflet -

But it was very interesting indeed, it had examples of work by Axel Scheffler, Lydia Monks, David Roberts,
Emily Gravett, Joel Stewart, Paul Hess, Anna Currey and Thomas Docherty.
It was great to see the actual artwork, and some artists had supplied pencil roughs too.
There were some great ones by Anna Currey, which I enjoyed seeing.

It was especially good to see stuff by David Roberts and Lydia Monks, who I'm particular fans of, and own books by.
And there were some great streets and bulky clouds by Thomas Docherty.

The exhibition also had some great activities. there was a giant magnetic wall-mounted Gruffalo jigsaw and they had a Deep Dark Wood reading corner too, see the picture below.

And also a short film of Quentin Blake talking about his illustration, showing him working from roughs and idea sketches, very inspiring indeed.
So, if you're up by Penrith till 2nd Sept I recommend popping along.
Otherwise, I believe it's a touring exhibition, so keep a look out.

More Kids

Here are two more, and with the hands drawn in, too :)