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Ten Little Pirates is published today! ARRRRRRR!
It's an epic tale of sea battles, sharks, hurricanes, giant squids, alluring mermaids, mayhem, destruction and sea-faring thrills and spills. It even has a happy ending... and all this in less than 250 words.
Big thanks to
Frances Elks and all at
Orchard Books for publishing, and
Simon Rickerty for his inspired illustrations. Me and the Ten Little Pirates all say "TAAAAAA!"
I have a new book out next week! It's called
'Ten Little Pirates' and is published by those nice people at
Orchard Books on July 4th. Words by me, pictures by the brilliant Simon Rickerty.
As it's not due out for seven days, I'm only going to show you the back page for now. I'm mean like that.
More next week if you're good and promise not to go plundering the Spanish Main again.
A new exhibition of some of my work opened at the weekend at the Museum in Bruton, Somerset. There was a lovely private view on Saturday (thanks to Jackie Brooks!) and the show runs until the 30th May.
It features original artwork, animation, pop-ups and toys from a selection of the picture books I've done, plus a sneak preview of 'Ten Little Pirates', which is published in July by Orchard. Drop in if you're in the area. There are lots of colouring-in sheets in case you get bored.
I was excessively chuffed to find out last week that I'd been awarded the 2012 Pewter Plate Award for Best Cover of the Year, for a cover I did for Highlights High Five magazine in the USA!
I've been illustrating and writing for a considerable number of yonks now, but I've never won an engraved pewter plate before.
This is the cover in question...
Highlights is the biggest and most prestigious magazine for children in the States. It's been going for over 60 years and has sold over a billion copies since it started. Just so you know.
By:
Mike Brownlow,
on 3/9/2013
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Please, please with knobs on, check out the funEverse website if you can... (www.thefuneverse.com / funny blogs / funny poems). It's a site brimming over with chucklesome wonderfulness, a temple of rhyming jollification where schools, poets and illustrators come together to have a hearty poetical laugh. This month I'm chuffed out of my socks to say that they're using a selection of my illustrations as their starting point. So far we've had brilliant poems from Alex Cragg, Kathryn Evans, Lesley Moss, Laura Louis Stewart and Maureen Lynas. And my heart is all-a-flutter to tell you that there's still more to come! Go on... have a giggle. Pirates, monkeys and bad haircuts all figure so far!
Those nice people at Highlights High Five magazine over in the States asked me to do another cover for them for their February edition. This is it. Kelley the art director thought it really strange that we in Europe call the gentle ski slopes for beginners 'nursery slopes'. I think I find the term 'bunny slopes' a tad odder. Pity about the big white area bottom right. In the layout I was given there was supposed to be a large magnifying glass in the white space which has mysteriously disappeared from the final design. Probably some sort of last minute editorial dilemma to blame. That's usually the way things happen. Anyway, not to worry. It's got me in the mood for my own skiing trip, coming up in a couple of weeks time. And no, I don't need the bunny slopes these days.
I was asked to contribute to the Stars on Canvas Exhibition again this year. It's a charity exhibition run by the Willow Foundation, set up by Bob and Meg Wilson to provide special days for seriously ill young people.
Artwork featured includes canvases specially painted by such well-known children's book illustrators as Korky Paul, Peter Firmin, Mini Grey, Leigh Hodgkinson, and Thierry Henry.
This is my little effort. I dusted off my old acrylic paints to do this. Most of the stuff I do these days is digital, and I kept wanting to press the step-backwards button. A lot. It was fun to paint all the same.
The exhibition has its private view and press launch on the 29th November at the Maddox Arts, 52 Brooks Mews, London W1K 4ED (nearest tube: Bond Street). The exhibition runs to the 1st December. There's also an on-line eBay auction which runs from 22nd November to the 2nd December, so you can pick up a classy canvas with a click of a mouse.
By:
Mike Brownlow,
on 5/4/2012
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Here they are -- the two new books of mine from Scholastic, Make It! Robot and Make It! Rocket. It occurred to me that this might be the only occasion I'll be able to say "I had two books published today." To have one book published is an event. To have two published on the same day is really pretty unusual, even if the books are very closely related.
Sometimes as I grind through a mountain of artwork or sweat over a text or have a cherished project rejected, it's easy to become disgruntled with working in the publishing industry. Then they publish stuff of yours and the world seems a better place. This week it's safe to say that, just for the time being at any rate, I'm extremely gruntled.
I'm very pleased to announce that two books of mine are being released in May! They're called 'Make It! Rocket' and 'Make It! Robot' and are published by Scholastic. They star Hugo and his mad bonkers inventive family. As you read the story, you can pop out the various pieces and actually build your own rocket and robot. Coooo! I thought I'd give you a sneaky peak of one of the spreads before the books reach the shops. I know -- I spoil you. This is where Hugo interrupts his Mum, Dad and sister Dottie in the middle of some mysterious goings on. (I was quite pleased with the name of the rocket fuel.)
I've just finished this illustration to accompany a poem called Snip! for those nice people at Highlights High Five Magazine in the States. So go on, see if you can spot all ten letter S's. And no prizes, but how many pairs of scissors? Hm? If you have any difficulty, get a 5 year old to help.
This is an image from a book I've just finished illustrating for Simon and Schuster in New York. The book is called 'Dino School' and as the name suggests, it's about a school for dinosaurs. This particular story is about a T-Rex called Teddy, who can only roar extremely loudly. Think Brian Blessed in dungarees with scales and teeth. Actually, don't. It's too disturbing.
This is an image from a book I've just finished illustrating for Simon and Schuster in New York. The book is called 'Dino School' and as the name suggests, it's about a school for dinosaurs. This particular story is about a T-Rex called Teddy, who can only roar extremely loudly. Think Brian Blessed in dungarees with scales and teeth. Actually, don't. It's too disturbing.
This another cover I've recently finished for those nice people at Highlights High Five Magazine. A Mother Hen with her chicks
-- it can only mean Easter is not far away!
This is a cover that I recently finished for Highlights High Five magazine in the States. Happy, smiley animals for a bright, sunny morning.
Last month I had the pleasure of being invited to be a judge in the annual competition run by BIC -- the BIC PICTURE -- to find talented young artists amongst Britain's primary school children. My fellow judges were children's TV presenter Kirsten O'Brien, and colour expert Cecile Parenton, who heads the children's division of BIC. The winners have just been announced.
The theme was 'What I want to be when I grow up,' and the ambitions of the nation's children ranged from becoming a mad scientist to a roller coaster designer. If this small sample is representative, there'll be lots of footballers, astronauts, dress designers and chefs around in the future!
It's not as easy as you might imagine, picking winning pictures from a room full of shortlisted entrants, and there were several (good-humored!) arguments along the way. We had some really lovely designs to sort through though, and choosing an overall winner was especially difficult. Well done to all who took part. Congratulations to all the age group winners, and especially to Laura Burton who won the main prize. Laura wants to be a children's book writer, and with her winning picture she's made an impressive start.
I've pictured a few of my favorites here, but this is a link to the BIC Kids website, which gives more information: http://www.bickids.com/index.php?p_sa=actualite&p_actu=1 and to the Flickr site which shows more of the winning entrants: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebicpicture.
I've just received the proof copy of a book I wrote and illustrated for OUP earlier in the year -- a re-telling of the Elves and the Shoemaker. It was a bit of a departure for me because I decided to do away with a holding line, which for a long time has been the way I've preferred to work in Photoshop. I rather liked the result. The pictures felt fresher somehow.
I think a dissatisfaction with your own style is something that most illustrators feel at some point or other, and I've certainly jumped about more than most in an attempt to find a perfect formula. This approach made me re-examine the way I added shadow and texture, and I even found myself drawing the roughs in a slightly different way, aware that I could do more than usual with elements such as candle light... if that makes any sense. Anyway, I felt I was using a different part of my brain, which was enjoyable!
I was recently asked to illustrate a story by Michael Rosen for a book that’s being put together on behalf of the Bristol Children’s Hospital. Contributors include Jacqueline Wilson, Alexander McCall Smith, Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo, Anne Fine, Nichola Bayley, Quentin Blake, Michael Foreman, Emma Chichester Clark, Nick Sharratt and several others. The story is called 'The Worst Cough In The World', and this is the illustration I came up with. Nice to work in black and white again. It's the first purely B/W illustration I've done in ages.
I'm pleased to announce that "Dog Did It!" is released today! It's written by Lynne Garner, illustrated by me and published by Piccadilly Press. The story is about a troll who eats too much green worm soup and tries to shift the blame for the ensuing series of farts onto his pet dog. But Dog doesn't like being the fall guy and plots revenge...
We're working on a sequel at the moment. Look out for previews at the Bologna Book Fair.
Here's a double-page spread of Boris the Troll guzzling his green worms. Yum!
It's been a very busy period for me. I've been doing lots of work in time for the publishing extravaganza that is the Bologna Book Fair. Held this year at the end of March, it's the biggest book fair in the world devoted to children's publishing.
I've been working to produce artwork for three books. Two of them feature my little character Hugo and his madcap scientist family. In the first book they build a giant robot and in the second, a rocket ship. These will be published by Scholastic next year. The third book is a sequel to 'Dog Did It!' written by Lynne Garner and will be published by Piccadilly.
Here's a sneak peek at a spread from 'Hugo and the Robot', showing the family as they begin to cobble together a few bits and pieces they've found around the workshop...
Libraries are closing all over the country. Our town lost its small library two months ago, just one of many. Just as worryingly, there is a pervasive trend to reduce the number of books on shelves and replace them with banks of computers. This means a profound disenfranchisement for many people of older years who don't have computers, don't know how to use them and yet retain a deep love of books.
My mother is one such person. Recently when she visited the large library in the town close by, she went to the floor which had always housed the bulk of the books for years and was surprised to see only rows of computers. She asked where the books had been moved to and was pointed to the back of the room, where she found that a couple of shelves were all that remained of the library's repository of books. The rest of the collection had been sold off cheaply to make way for the computers.
Libraries seem to be seen as soft targets and councillors up and down the land, under great pressure to reduce costs, are slashing the amount of money available to the library service. This is cultural barbarianism. It's taken well over a hundred years to provide the country with its many libraries. It looks as though it will take but a few months to destroy a large proportion of them.
Jeremy Hunt MP and Ed Vaizey MP are the two ministers at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport who are responsible for over seeing the well-being of libraries. I urge anyone who reads this to write to these people, and to their own MPs and protest as strongly as possible about this disastrous policy.
Also you can contact Alan Gibbons and become a signatory to his Campaign for the Book http://alangibbons.net/?page_id=206. Alan is currently sending a letter to the ministers and requires more signatures. People like Philip Pullman, Michael Rosen and Jacqueline Wilson have already added their names.
By:
Mike Brownlow,
on 11/23/2010
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I was asked to contribute to the Willow Foundation Annual Exhibition and Online Auction. It's a charity set up by ex-Arsenal goalkeeper and TV pundit Bob Wilson and his wife Megs, in memory of their daughter, and provides special days for seriously ill 16-40 year olds.
They've asked people from the worlds of sport, art, design, fashion, music and entertainment to create a canvas in aid of the charity. In the Children's Illustration section, my little painting, (shown above, with a strangely orange background instead of the actual gold it's painted in,) will be sharing wall space with pictures created by Mini Grey, Keith Chapman (of Bob the Builder, Roary the Racing Car and others,) Sam Lloyd, Korky Paul, Nic Sharratt and Lynne Chapman. In the other sections, people such as Tracey Emin, Jamie Oliver, Zandra Rhodes, John Hurt, Jude Law, Giles Andreae (Purple Ronnie,) Tom Gauld, Blur, Razorlight, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry, Dawn French, Wayne Rooney and a whole heap more have all contributed.
All the details can be found here : http://www.willowfoundation.org.uk/starsoncanvas .
The exhibition takes place at the Catto Gallery, Hampstead Heath on 2-5th December. The online auction runs from 26 Nov to 5 Dec.
Go and break open the piggy bank!
I attended the SCBWI annual conference last weekend at Winchester. It was the first time I've been to one of these. It was made extra special this year as it's the 10th anniversary of SCBWI British Isles and the organizers decided to have a Group Book Launch for everyone who has had a book published this year. 'Dinosaurs of Doom' was released last month, so I qualified. Someone suggested that delegates should each write 10 things they learnt at the conference. Here are mine for what they're worth...
1) Group Book Launches are far more exciting than doing them on your own.
2) Group Book Launches are far less stressful than doing them on your own.
3) Group Book Launches have the potential to garner far more publicity than doing... hang on. I think I'm beginning to detect a trend here.
4) Group Book Launches are especially enjoyable when David Fickling is giving the address. He was funny, wise, and radiated boundless energy and optimism for the future.
5) Next time, remember to take a camera to a conference, then I can add pictures in a post like this. (You can see some great photos of the event at Candy Gourlay's site: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=332276&id=635152677)
6) Don't fret pedantically about research. Just make things up. Duh. (Pause for a quick slap of the forehead.)
7) It's never too late to embark on the inner quest for the Holy Grail that is your Unique Selling Point.
8) Maybe it's the mix of unpublished as well as published authors and illustrators that adds to the collective energy, but I've never been a member of a more enthusiastic, innovative and supportive group than SCBWI Brits.
9) It's easy to forget how much creative nourishment writers and illustrators gain from meeting up with each other from time to time.
10) I have SO MUCH to learn about Facebook and all the other digital ways to network.
The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, (SCBWI), recently held a competition for members to design badges for the upcoming conference in a couple of weeks time. I've just heard that my three entries came 2nd, 3rd and the last one (my favourite!) was placed in the top twenty. Not too shabby a result, then. These are they, in the order the judges picked them. Looking at them a second time, the colours are very Farrow and Ball, which could be something to do with the fact that we're shortly going to paint our entrance hall, and I've been looking through a lot of colour swatches lately...
The Dinosaurs of Doom have been released onto an unsuspecting world! The book, complete with Mega Pop-up, rampaging armoured dinosaurs, mad scientists and general mayhem has just been published and is in the shops now! Thanks once more to Hannah Ray and all at Macmillan's Children's Books. Go Time Pirates!
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Nice one Mike, it's easy to be inspired when the scribbles are so good!
We LOVED working with your illustrations - so much colour and life and humour - thank you Mike!