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the very first day of my MOST FAVORITE SEASON is finally here!! HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE, MY FRIENDS!! :)
to celebrate (because this is a day i look forward to every year) well, i'm offering a 20% SALE on ALL WINTER THEME items in my etsy shop. drawings, prints, paintings, ornaments and pendant necklaces....just enter code:WINTERSALE2016 at checkout. sale ends 12/31/16 at 11:59 est.
{fake snow filter-not included.}
0 Comments on so, it's official.... as of 12/21/2016 6:25:00 PM
hard to believe it's already the final day of november. geez, where did the second half of this year go?! wow. ok, i digress....
today is the LAST day for this special offer...and it kind of gave me a great idea about maybe featuring a certain print/painting/item every month in my etsy shop at a discounted price come 2017. yeah, i kinda like that idea...stay tuned for further details. :)
PS~hey december, i'm so ready for ya!! most favorite month ever!! oh, and some SNOW would be FAB!! :)
0 Comments on LAST DAY... as of 12/14/2016 2:13:00 AM
of my ORIGINAL drawings will be offered all throughout the month of NOVEMBER ONLY!!
this truly is a LIMITED TIME OFFER as i don't normally offer prints of my drawings unless the original is sold. ORIGINALS are still available in my etsy shop.
either way, it's always nice to do a little holiday shopping....early. ;)
0 Comments on LIMITED EDITION PRINTS!! as of 11/2/2016 9:55:00 AM
I had a brilliant time at Foyles in Birmingham doing a reading HOW TO FIND GOLD and then drawing a massive picture with everyone...in the end it turned into an impromptu book! Here it is.
So there you go, now you've met Crocodile's LARGE FAMILY and seen some strange omens in the upside down world, and you know that there's fine cake to be had by the Dream Lake of the Nose Sharks.
but managed to leave it on the train. Amazingly, I was provided by the excellent people at Foyles with a replacement roll and some paint, and it all worked out just fine. THANK YOU, EXCELLENT PEOPLE!!!! Especially Matt who last minute brought new paint and paper and Andi who organised it all brilliaintly and let me glue a massive book together in the middle of the shop. And also especially everyone who drew this.
0 Comments on ANNA AND CROCODILE find ADVENTURE in Birmingham, in Foyles. as of 8/15/2016 5:20:00 PM
I am so proud to be part of this - it's an amazing song from a brilliant album. I had to listen to it a LOT to synch up the drawings, and I still love it.
It took me a week of mostly drawing and redrawing rain drops, with assistance from my niece Paula who did the lettering.
An early test. A bit too inky!
Making a big neat sheet of regular rainfall, painted with a calligraphy brush pen.
Scanned and animated.
Most of the rain is hand-drawn to suit the specific scene, though.
Editing the rainfalls drop by drop to make it look more natural that they are missing her face...
Isn't that awesome! First month of the year and Anna and Crocodile win a surprise honour.
I wrote a making-of feature for the Walker Books blog, you can read it here.
I wondered who these instructions were for. Was this a chapter from a pirate primer? Who was reading it now and why? I started to illustrate it, first imagining myself as a small child, practicing to sleep with my eyes open to make sure no one could steal the gold I hadn’t found yet.
“Get yourself a pet that will surprise you at night,” the story recommended. “A crocodile is ideal. Carry one with you wherever you go to build up your strength. Start with a young crocodile. It will grow.”
This was an idea taken from the Greek myth of Milo who carried a calf on his shoulders every day until it grew into a bull and he grew into a mighty Olympian. More importantly, one summer when I was tiny my mother bought me an inflatable crocodile in the supermarket. It was big enough to ride on and intended for the seaside. I carried it everywhere, dragging it by the tail until its snout wore through on the tarmac and it deflated before the holiday even started.
I drew a girl and her toy crocodile. It wasn’t quite right. They just seemed very quiet and small. - I drew them in on a new page and asked the girl some questions about the crocodile. She said it was called Rupert Maureen, and didn’t move unless she threw it and she wasn’t supposed to throw it. I didn’t expect that.
As promised, here is the first of a few MAKING OF posts about How To Find Gold, my new picture book that's just been published (go buy it, thanks)!
I was developing the characters of Anna and Crocodile by letting them act out some of the ideas I had for the book on paper. I had no idea who they were yet. Anna had my haircut (it grew out gradually while I was working on the book) and the crocodile was a toy which Anna had told me was bought from IKEA ("when we got the wardrobes").
This is from the second sketchbook (there were many).
So, yes, that's how I work... I recommend it, it's really rewarding to see what these little made-up people come out with when you just let them run wild.
Next: Painting Like A Child. Watch this Space.
0 Comments on MAKING OF "HOW TO FIND GOLD": letting the characters speak as of 1/1/1900
Hello, it's me and I'm blogging and I'm still doing daily inky things for #inktober. Yesterday I did inky things up a mountain. Or a Peak. On Kinder Scout to be precise.
Landscape probably wouldn't be my subject matter of choice, but I'd never rule any subject out. These days I love to tackle something I wouldn't normally tackle.
But I don't really know how to approach landscapes, that's the problem. Or the challenge.
So, I approached these rocks and this landscapes in the way I know how, by seeing them as a 1950s textile design. Did it work? I dunno.
To be honest, I don't care. I had fun trying. And that's what #inktober is about for me. That's what drawing is about.
0 Comments on Ink on Kinder as of 10/9/2015 9:49:00 AM
I've been hugely busy, and at the moment my life has been turned upside-down while I explore new horizons that lie before me, but I'm also slowly getting back into my work routine ... with exciting projects coming up that I'm already in love with.
I'll elaborate on those projects (that will be incorporated into my coursework for next year as well) a bit later on, but here's a hint:
I'll just add that it's something I've wanted to do for years but never quite had the confidence to tackle before ... It's going to be a lot of fun!
With that in mind, I enrolled in a couple of online classes as refreshers and also to learn something about the practical side of illustrating children's books. I've just started on the first one, Picture Book Illustration: Animal Characters by Eric Johnson, on Craftsy, and have been sketching elephants for the first class. Still need to do more drawings and still need to learn a lot more about them, but here's a bit of a start:
I'm also being reminded of how grounding and therapeutic just having a pen, pencil, or brush in my hand is. I've missed it these last few weeks. As it is, I shall be moving house very soon so things will get slightly chaotic once more, but I'm sticking to my art therapy - I need it.
Today I drew people as Space Cats, as part of the Galactic Fete at Creation Space London.
I especially enjoyed drawing families - I asked them to do a space pose.
I managed to forget my drawing pen, so I had to hack a writing pen by adding a pipette I happened to have in my brush roll as a reservoir for drawing ink. I also cut a nib from a beer can and used some correction fluid and a toothbrush for stars.
Well, that was fun.
0 Comments on Space Cat Portraits as of 7/18/2015 7:06:00 PM
In St Christopher's School I helped with a project where the kids made their own picture books. I did a day of tutorials, some sketching and in the end made a whole dummy book on stage. They had a biology lesson in the gym, handling exotic animals, which was great fun to draw.
In the Haberdasher's Aske's School for Girls I visited for a day with Alexis. We read them our books and drew monsters together.
Very important to have a party stomach.
modular beasts.
It was awesome.
Thanks everyone!
0 Comments on School visits as of 7/3/2015 7:26:00 AM
I went to the Anti Austerity Protest today and took my sketchbook.
The march started at Bank. Here are some people assembling and wondering if they are in the right place.
Here they worked out that they are in the right place.
Still at Bank. The streets are closed. The athmosphere is friendly. Drumming, chanting, leafletting. Every few minutes a sudden cheer goes through the crowd, not sure why.
Lots of families here. The crowd is starting to move.
There's not much police, surprisingly. Much less than I expected. A lot more protesters than I expected... really a lot.
Some surreptitious tagging going on at Bank. There's the first helicopter.
The chap in the background is inviting people to join the Socialist Party, I think.
Moving into Fleet Street.
There's an overwhelming amount of groups. Goths against austerity, Chefs against austerity (here in the foreground). The blimp is tethered to a fire engine crewed by the Fire Fighter's Union. Lots of local groups turned up to protest about hospitals, council housing and assorted public services (there's Haringey).
Here's a cluster of artists, mostly.
And some music.
Someone was asking "why don't they chant back?" Because they are the National Union of Sign Language Interpreters. They are chanting, look.
The Strand is packed. There's a tired child with a CUTS KILL paper hat, she perked up afetr a few minutes of being carried.
Sisters Uncut had an impressive presence, their crowd spanned the width of the road.
Some masked people. Most wore their masks on the back of their heads, like this girl with the princess backpack and the YOUTH FIGHT AUSTERITY placard, and her mum.
That dragon statue is quite alarming from the back.
I've never seen so many people marching together, and I didn't see anyone being aggressive to anyone else. I just watched the news, they did get some footage of "fireworks" (smoke bombs, the colourful sort, I stepped over a pretty bright purple one in passing) and people dressed in black with masks trying to block a road. They didn't try very hard. No point anyway, the city was full of people peacefully protesting.
(This is all scanned with my handheld scanner, excuse any wobbles.)
0 Comments on Anti Austerity Protest: SKETCHES as of 1/1/1900
The amazing Katherine Kontz devised a new piece for the Tête à Tête opera festival. I drew the poster for it and I'll be participating in some way or other... will you? Sign up if you want to be come a part of the art.
An invitation to bring your rolling suitcase along and embark on a musical journey of boisterous wheels and beatific voices in sunny King’s Cross. Prepare for a dose of flip-flopping holiday fun!
{it's been a crazy couple of weeks....new drawings, commissions and my lovely little lily (see pic below) all trying to get done at the same time. busy, busy, busy....and loving every single second.}
"I am Henry Finch" seems to be doing well since it was published earlier this year, it's getting good reviews and I keep meeting it in bookshops. - People have asked me about illustrating Alexis' texts, how we work together seeing that he is also an illustrator and I am also a writer. So I thought it would be good to write this MAKING OF. So, first of all Alexis wrote the text - I had asked him to write something about finches because I like them. Then he showed it to me.
I could see the book straight away. It made me laugh a lot. It was pretty much perfect.
At the first few presentations, people weren’t sure about the philosophical aspect, whether it would get across to small children. I was sure that it would, and kept crudely fingerpainting rough illustrations on my ipad. “Look, look, this will be awesome!” I insisted, drawing more and more beady-eyed lumps with stick legs. The monster was just a wild scribble, and the night paint-bucketed in. I drew a picture of a finch thinking of himself, and Ben Norland, the art director, laughed and said: “Oh, I think I see…” so we started working on it. After that it seemed like every week there was someone else who saw the latest version, went “Oh I see…” and started laughing.
I think that moment is heart of the whole story. A finch, hardly more than an anonymous scribble, sees himself and realises that he is somebody. His thought is identical to himself in that very moment. Truth, but no meaning, no future, no past… he could stop there. It’s a perfect moment. But he goes on, and that, I think is the greatest thing he does: he keeps thinking when he doesn’t need to, that’s what leads to all the rest.
I wanted the finches to be all the same but every one unique, that’s why I used fingerprints. Henry is always printed with the same finger, actually, and no one else has that particular print. While working on the book I started to recognise my friends’ fingerprints. I fingerprinted everyone who came to the house or the studio for a few weeks to get a good collection - I needed big thumbs for finches in the foreground and daintier ones for the background, also different shapes for different moods. Finches change shape a lot. I used to keep finches myself, so I know. I love finches more keenly than any other kind of animal, I think, they are amazing little creatures, brave, resilient and funny.
The linework is drawn with my favourite fountain pen. I always carry that one.
The beast is painted in watercolour because that’s how I instantly imagined it. I have a fear of marine invertebrates which I know most people don’t share. I figured that referencing them, I will be able to feel scared enough myself to draw a convincing monster without making it so frightening that small children will hide from the book. - Its internal organs are a mixture of drawings of sea creatures and cross sections of the human inner ear. It’s just a particularly odd-looking organ, the inner ear, and it amused me that the beast has one in its guts.
The actual design of the beast is a collaboration with Alexis - we spent an afternoon playing a drawing game with watercolour blobs, and I assembled the parts that seemed right.
I put a lot of little interactions in between the finches so that the book would be fun to look at even if you don’t follow the text, and tried to make the more conceptual philosophical pictures accessible enough that each one could be discussed separately, in simple terms, without the text. The page where Henry understands the circle of life pertaining to his part of the world is supposed to be like a little story in itself, but one that you can grasp in one moment, like a thought. Comics are great for that, showing any amount of time presented as one moment, and not even linear but as we experience it - everything interrelating. The rest of the book is paced in a linear manner, mostly by page turns, but on that spread you can spend a moment or an hour, see all at once or follow the threads, say “It is!” or speak about everything you see.
click to make bigger!
I am very glad about the way this book came together. If I hadn’t been so excited that I fingerpainted those hurried digital scribbles on the spot and made someone laugh with them, I wouldn’t have known to keep the art this simple. If Alexis hadn’t been doing workshops turning blobs of watercolour into creatures, I wouldn’t have thought of making the design of the beast into a drawing game. - Working with Alexis makes these accidents easy because he really knows how to improvise.
I hope that people will like Henry Finch as much as I do. I had him tattooed on my arm, to remember what I learned. Keep thinking, keep listening, speak, because You Are, and It Is.
0 Comments on I AM HENRY FINCH - The Making Of (well, my bit) as of 4/15/2015 12:05:00 PM
One of my first books was Shark and Lobster's Amazing Undersea Adventure - a tale of Shark, who is afraid of Tigers, and his best friend Lobster. It was very hard to write - I had already written one draft years before when I was still in school, and now I had to learn how to rewrite and edit and make a picture book story of it. One thing I did then, which I've kept up since, is make a diary for my characters to see what they got up to and who they actually were. I did find out a lot about Shark and Lobster this way, almost none of it made it into the book, but that's not the point of character development work.
I thought it would be nice to stick it on my blog so that you can see how I work (or how I worked when I was starting out in 2001 - I've gone lest wistful over the years, but my approach is still very similar). Here you go!
0 Comments on Shark and Lobster - a diary sketch book of character development work as of 3/3/2015 1:12:00 PM
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