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Don’t you love that emphatic certainty a below-twelve year-old has whenever they hear a remix of a song dating from the golden oldie era? ‘They got that song from such and such movie, Mum!’ Um well, no actually it was around way before me…Stories evoke similar conviction. Modern retellings of classic children’s stories might seem […]

I have had a BLOG BURB lately, due to the fact that time always runs out. )That time, always gadding off somewhere else.)

Lately I have been asked for my opinion for stuff. Bu stuff I mean children's illustration, something I am getting to know a bit about. It's a process of osmosis - from listening, reading, networking and living and breathing it. I am still impressed when someone asks me about it when I still feel such a newbie! (As I am). So, I dig into my archives and breath out the knowledge gleaned from the reading and talking and listening to those who have been doing it a lot better than me, for a longer time. And somehow it makes a bit of sense.

I was interviewed by a very nice art student from UMaine, in her final degree year. It was fun. Except. It was on video. GROAN. She wants to send me a DVD when it's finished. I think I probably won't watch it! I hope it helps her on her path to children's illustration, and I hope the pointers I gave her as to where to find the knowledge she needs, help. I know they helped me.

And then I find, every now and again, I get an email asking for advice from someone just getting going. I always write back and give what help I can. I am just paying forward all the excellent advice I have received in the last couple of years. That's one of the things I love about this industry ... people helping each other.

The last interview was AWESOMENESS. Bobbi Miller did a splendid blog article about VOICE interviewing LUMINARIES like Emma Dryden, Cheryl Klein, Eric Kimmel and Dianne de las Casas. And Bobbi asked ME about Voice in illustrating, which iilustrators usually term as STYLE. Thankfully I had just read a great article by Marla Frazee on just this subject, so ... I paid it forward. Check out the article here ...
http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/blog/radar/?p=558
Also check out Marla's website at http://www.marlafrazee.com/

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I am always a sucker for a competition. A while back I received an email from a start up ebook website called UTALE.COM. I heard that Dryden Books was working with them, so decided they were definitely worth checking out. The competition was to produce a retelling of a classic tale as an ebook. They just brought on board some cute animation and sound effects, so I gave it ago and retold 'The Ugly Duckling'. The deadline was 2 weeks! But I couldn't resist, (especially as the first prize is an ipad2 and I WANT ONE). Here's a few of the pages and drawings from the book ... as soon as it is available online (utales is waiting for a launch date from Apple) I'll let you know! And hope you will give it a go, because it's cute and there are lots of fun books available.