London Book Fair

Hi Chaps,

Well, I was at the London Book Fair this week, so I thought I'd do a bit of a post about it.

The best bit was seeing a couple of the RSPCA books I illustrated up on the Scholastic stand.
You can see them here, Puppy Gets Stuck and The Abandoned Kitten on the top shelf, above books by Julia Donaldson, Alex T Smith and Sarah Warburton, so I feel in very good company here.

I didn't do the covers, but here you can see one propped open and one of my illustrations peeping out :)

But it was nice to look round the show, had some chats with a couple of publishers who I'm gradually getting to know after seeing them here year after year, and a nice pepping chat with my agents.

But I always feel inspired after seeing all the new good stuff coming out, keeps me trying hard.

But I'll post some sketches from the Scholastic RSPCA books soon, so you can see what it's all about.

Cute Dinosaurs

Hi Chaps,

Here are some sketches I did for a sample for a project.
They are of a cute pet baby T-rex, and a six year old boy, who is a Raptor.
It was an interesting angle, to do a cute T-rex and Raptor. I've done them sort of dorky, or normal, but never a cute version, as if they were dogs. So it was a nice challenge, and fun, not do a usual interpretation of a dinosaur.
But I was quite pleased with how they turned out.

Mouse Sketches

Hi Chaps,

Well, I've been busy for rather a while, which is nice, but here I've managed to fit in time for a blog post at last.
But, one of the busy things I've been doing is a story game book about a mouse's birthday at an amusement park/fun fair.
This is a story/picture book that also has board games in it, which I have to design, which is great fun.
But I have something nice for you to look at - here are some sketches of the mouse, .
I've not drawn that many mice before, so it was something to figure out.

 But anyway, I'll see if I can get some more posts up soon :)

Christmas Fair Stall

Hi chaps,

I shall be manning a stall at the Christmas Fair at Orleans House in Twickenham tomorrow selling Books and Christmas cards.
So do please come along and say hello if you are nearby.
I shall be there between 1 and 4pm.

There will be mulled wine and the Sally Army band :)

Here is the poster for the fair, with all the info.

Big Draw at Strawberry Hill

Hi chaps,

Well we had a Big Draw event on Saturday at Strawberry Hill House.

Strawberry Hill House is a great venue to have an event, it's Horace Walpole's old house, and is basically a Gothic Castle, so is very inspiring.
The event was organised by Clare and Lizzie, and in keeping with the surroundings, they decided to get the kids to do frames in a stained glass window, which then formed part of the exhibition in the house. Very nice idea.
But it was basically felt tip pens on tracing paper, which works very nicely. May try it at home :)
Here are pens and scribbles of works in progress
 
and here's the window in place, nearly full.

It took place in their 'art room', where there are picture frames painted on the wall, which get filled up periodically, so we did that too.
 
I did this slightly psychedelic felt-tip fruit still life.

And here are some of the Gothic spires.

But it was a great thing to be involved with, and a lovely day.

Box of Blooz

Hi Chaps,

I got a big box in the post the other day, here it is.

And it's my copies of Stuck With the Blooz. It's great fun to open something like this. Thanks to they guys at Harcourt.

I was tempted to dance on the bed, flinging them up in the air, like people do with money in films.

But they are hardbacks, so I decided to just make a nice curved pile instead.

 

Also, there has been another review of the Blooz, this one at publisher's weekly, you can read it here - publishersweekly.com
But it strikes me as being a very intelligent review, I like the way they say the story has an impressively light touch and that the readers are given room to feel the arc of the girl’s struggle.
I think that captures it nicely. So that makes me pleased with what they write about the art too.

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.