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Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: drawing, talk, workshop, sketching, Urban Sketchers, Add a tag
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: children, storytelling, school, talk, Class Two at the Zoo, Add a tag
... I was also called upon to judge 2 competitions.
The first was the 'Extreme Reading' photo prize. It's something lots of schools do for book week: kids have to bring in pictures of themselves reading in weird and wonderful places. There were so many really imaginative ones, we gave a prize to each year group. My favourites were a girl and her book inserted into the shell of a giant tortoise (how?), a small boy atop a princess-and-the-pea style tower of cushions, pretty much to the ceiling, and a brilliant action-shot of someone reading while turning a cartwheel!
Throughout the day, every Rec - KS1 child in the school bought a book, so I worked my socks off, signing in every spare minute.
Everyone was so appreciative, I felt very loved. Mrs Clarke, who booked me, said it was the best author visit they had ever had, and they have had a few big names, so I came away glowing like the kid in the Readybrek commercial (remember that?). Here is Mrs Clarke in the library:
Don't forget kids: keep practising your drawing, because it's like magic - the more you do it, the better you get, until eventually you get so brilliant that you explode (that last bit is a fib, but the rest is true).
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: SCBWI, illustration, talk, Add a tag
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: SCBWI, talk, workshop, Add a tag
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: drawing, talk, painting, sketchbook, sketching, Add a tag
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: storytelling, school, John, talk, workshop, Add a tag
It's a long way to go for one day though. I was originally spending a couple of days in another Norwich school too, but they cancelled on me at the last minute. Not ideal, despite the cancellation fee. But I couldn't let Reepham down, so I'm still going.
Luckily another event has come up: Marilyn Brocklehurst at the much-admired Norfolk Children's Book Centre was supplying books for signing at Reepham School but, as it happens, she also coordinates the Norfolk branch of the Federation of Children's Book Groups. The Federation do all sorts of amazing things to promote reading, not least run the highly acclaimed Red House Book Award.
Marilyn arranged for me to do an author event for the Norfolk group on the evening before my day at Reepham Primary, which has definitely helped to get more value from all that travel time.
I was originally going to take the train but, with the changes to the plan, John volunteered to be my chauffeur instead (an ever-expanding job-description!). We got home last night and I'm declaring today a day of rest, so we'll be putting our feet up, probably with a book and a coffee, quite possibly in a nice local coffee shop. There might even be cake involved...
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: drawing, talk, sketchbook, sketching, Hallam University, Add a tag
Before I strutted my stuff though, illustrator/printmaker Sean Gee, a recent graduate of the Hallam degree course, did a short introductory talk about his work: he is going to be helping the students create drypoint etchings for the project, as a culmination of their sketch work. It was lovely to meet him and look at his fabulous screenprints: he was in the audience as a student for one of my earlier lectures!
John came with me too this time (he took the photos) and filmed the whole event, so watch out for highlights on my YouTube channel...
By the way, if you are an illustration student, don't forget, there are now lots of useful resources on my website, not just the various videos of me talking about my sketchbooks and my illustration work, but also highlights from my hot tips blog posts, gathered together, as well as short, anecdotal analyses of aspects of specific book projects, in the Getting it Right section.
Blog: A Year of Reading (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Poetry Friday, Teaching, Talk, Add a tag
For my mini-lesson today in Reading Workshop, I'll project the 5th grade Week 2 poem from
The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core ALL GRADES (K-5) e-book) (The Poetry Friday Anthology E-book Series (Grade-by-Grade))
It's a fun poem by Irene Latham in the voice of a backpack. It will get us talking about personification.
And about that talk...I've had great success with what Ellin Keene calls "Open Forum" in her book, Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Comprehension
When we're sitting in a circle (in chairs or on the floor) and I call for an "Open Forum" discussion, it lets the students know that they will "pass the conversational ball" from student to student, rather than every comment going through me. They do not raise their hands to take turns. After the first person speaks, the next person says that person's name, along with a statement of agreement or disagreement, or some other conversational segue. ("Billy, I agree with what you said about your backpack. I had the same thing happen one time...")
During the independent reading time on Poetry Friday, students read poetry alone or with a partner (or two). The goal is for everyone to participate in the oral reading of a poem at the end of the period during share time. Eventually, we will work together to develop a rubric to use for self- and teacher-evaluation of their presentations, but at the beginning, it's all for fun.
Last week, I limited the students to only the books in my poetry collection by Douglas Florian and J. Patrick Lewis, so this week I will choose books by topic -- perhaps only putting out books of nature poetry from which to choose. And, in keeping with the poem in the mini-lesson, we'll keep our eyes peeled for examples of personification the poems we read.
Poetry Friday is fairly informal and definitely a lot of fun. Even if you don't have a large collection of poetry in your classroom library, you can check 20-30 books out of your school or public library and be ready to have fun reading poetry once a week throughout the school year. Infect your class with your enthusiasm for having fun with poetry!
For fun with Poetry Friday on the blogs, go to Katya's blog, Write. Sketch. Repeat. for the Poetry Friday roundup of posts.
Blog: DRAWN! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: creativity, talk, presentation, John Cleese, Graham Linehan, Add a tag
Have we posted this before? Maybe, but it’s worth watching again: John Cleese’s wonderful talk on creativity (circa 1991 (?), and found on the Google+ profile of The IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan). It’s about a half-hour long, but you can play it in the background.
Blog: ACME AUTHORS LINK (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: talk, book promo, book blurb, Add a tag
One thing I've noticed about book promotion. There's a lot of talking going on.
New book. Buy. See. Sign up, etc.
Everywhere you turn - Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs... it's authors-- promoting to others, yes, but doesn't it seem sometimes like you are promoting to other authors, or talking to yourself?
Authors with backlists have endless promos, some good, some funny, some just never-ending.
Sometimes you stop simply since you feel like you're talking too much. You know, me, me, me.
So, what do you find to be the best promos?
What promos do you like - and admit it, hate?
What turns you off as a reader, or author?
Yes, you can talk. Please speak your mind!
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: talk, exhibition, Bears on the Stairs, libraries, Add a tag
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: children, school, talk, workshop, pencil, sketchbook, sketching, roughs, characterisation, sketching on the train, Big Bad Wolf is Good, hot tips, Add a tag
Last week, it made a nice change to work for 2 days in a secondary school. They are so BIG compared to primary schools!
I was working the whole 2 days with Y7 students (1st years). We started with a lecture to them all - around 170. Above I am talking about characterisation: how you can use pointy or round shapes to suggest evil or vulnerable creatures, and how carefully chosen clothing can give hints to a character's personality.
5 Comments on Becket School: Workshops with Older Kids, last added: 12/14/2011
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: storytelling, talk, exhibition, artwork, Giddy Goat, An Itch to Scratch, Add a tag
Blog: DRAWN! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Norman Rockwell Museum, Jaleen Grove, russell patterson, Illustration, Talk, Add a tag
I’m giving a talk this Sunday, October 2 at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on the great jazz-era illustrator Russell Patterson. It’s titled Sex, Booze, and All That Jazz, and I promise to wear an awesome outfit.
Blog: DRAWN! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: robert weaver, jaleen grove, illustration, talk, Add a tag
I’m giving a talk on Robert Weaver Thursday 29 Sept in St Louis - free!
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: libraries, storytelling, school, talk, workshop, pencil, sketchbook, sketching on the train, Add a tag
Can you imagine: you're sitting on the loo, doing your business, when a great, warty toad plops into your lap?! Well, it might have happened at Padfield School, because the space that's now full of books was once a grotty old loo, so damp they had resident toads and newts! No, really.
I was at Padfield all day Friday, doing a talk, a storytelling and a workshop, then cutting a yellow ribbon to open their lovely new library. Everyone at the school has apparently been fundraising like crazy for ages to pay for it, and are so proud of what they've achieved. And rightly so - well done guys!
The school itself is in a truly beautiful location, surrounded by hills and meadows, in Derbyshire. The children have a proper allotment and access to a wood. Inner-city it's not! I did this quick sketch from the staff room window, but it doesn't do it justice:
Actually, I nearly didn't make it: I went down with a cold (again) on Wednesday and had been feeling quite rough all Thursday, but I didn't want to let them down, as they had the press coming and everything. As it turned out, I felt better than expected and we had a fun day. The children were SO excited and everyone gave their all. At 2pm, I wielded my ribbon-cutting scissors, and chatted to parents invited especially to view the library. Then I signed books. And signed books. I sold every single one from my loaded suitcase and took it home empty. Thanks so much Padfield.
It took so long that I thought I was going to miss my tr
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: hot tips, libraries, illustration, talk, Add a tag
I sometimes get emails, asking if I ever do talks for adults that are open to the public. It's unfortunately not something I do that often (though I'm always happy to...), but this month I have been invited by The Friends of Harrogate Library and the Harrogate Children’s Book Group, to give a lecture:
AN ILLUSTRATOR'S LIFE FOR ME!
The lecture is about my work and the making of picture books. It follows the life of a book from the germ of an idea to the bookshop. I look at character development, the evolution of ideas, creating pastel artwork, pre and post-artwork design, production methods and publicity. I also look at some of the hilarious and frustrating effects of foreign markets.
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: storytelling, school, talk, workshop, festivals, Add a tag
Once again I had to pack my suitcase. I was away from home for all except 1 night, so it was especially nice that everybody was very kind and looked after me really, really well. A special 'thank you' to Sophie Peach, the driving force behind the wonderful Shrewsbury Bookfest who, despite all the balls she had in the air, still made sure I had company for dinner every night I was there.
I visited 6 schools in 5 days! I was on the tail end of a cold all week, blowing my nose left, right and centre and, once again, was in fear of losing my voice. It got really quite shaky around Tuesday lunchtime. I tried my best not to push it too far and, miraculously, this time I survived. Phew.
The children were, without exception, all smashing. It's been fun as well, to have a fair bit of variety, lectures, workshops, storytellings - I have been with 4 year olds and 13 years olds and more or less everything in between!
Unfortunately there is no time to tell you much more, or to say hello to my new friends individually, as I have to be off again at first light tomorrow morning, for another 2 days away, this time I'm staying overnight with a kind teacher, to visit Allerton Bywater Primary School in Garforth, near Leeds.
By the time you read this, it will be well underway...
As you can see, last week's adventures meant I had lots of opportunity for train sketching again (hurrah!). These drawings are just some I did on Friday's journey to and from Leicester - I haven't had time to scan the Shrewsbury ones yet.
It's another almost as
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: talk, pencil, sketchbook, Sheffield, Urban Sketchers, Hallam University, drawing, Add a tag
Something else I've been beavering away at on the sly, is a PowerPoint lecture about my sketchbook work...
I was invited to talk on Reportage Drawing at Hallam University (where I've done occasional bits of Life Drawing teaching over the last couple of years). It sounded like good fun but, though I do sneak the odd sketchbook drawing into my lectures, I've never done a talk exclusively about sketching before.
The worst bit is always gauging the timing - I have a tendency to add-lib once I get excited. I have been practising, delivering the lecture to thin air (or to poor, long-suffering John). Luckily, doing this as a one-off lecture (rather than part of a packed timetable in a school or festival) I was allowed plenty of time.
Last Tuesday afternoon, I took myself, my memory stick and a few sketchbooks to Hallam Uni, and was shown to a nice, posh lecture theatre: all padded seats and high-technology. I'm so lucky that I don't really suffer with nerves on such occasions, so I enjoyed myself immensely.
The students all listened and laughed in the right places. When I'd finished, I asked for questions. They all sat mute. One lad finally put his hand up. His question: 'Can you do my project work for me please?'
I invited them to come down to the front, and look at the actual sketchbooks. For a moment, it looked like they might just all shuffle off, then suddenly a couple got up the courage, then it was a deluge (phew!). They gathered round, chatting excitedly, and several said they were off to buy a sketchbo
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Blogosphere, Tech, Meta, Talk, Add a tag
Be forewarned: Unless you are interested in nitty gritty web crap stuff, this post is NOT for you. In fact, if you don’t like it, I suggest skipping down to the section called “So what have we learned here?”
Although this is going to be as nerdy as shit, in the hopes that others who find themselves faced with the same challenges as I have met may google this and find some guidance. For those who don’t want to wade through it, there are two lessons to be learned:
1) OWN AS MUCH OF YOUR CONTENT AS YOU CAN.
2) DON’T BE AFRAID TO LEARN
So…
A Seven Year Journey
The Beat started, if I remember correctly, in July of 2004. (Aside: Jesus Christ — six and a half years of daily blogging.) It was hosted at Comicon.com and, after a very brief struggle with a CMS called Greymatter
, mainly used Movable Type as the blogging platform. Seven years ago, MT and WordPress were competitors for the blogging crown; MT at the time was a bit wonky and unstable. Several crashes slowed things down and I even lost about two months of blogging at one point. I was a web neophyte at that time and Comicon’s mastermind Steve Conley had wisely given me extremely limited access to the backend — The Beat was hosted at a massive ginormous site that housed many other subsites and tinkering was out of the question.Eventually I got a fantastic offer from Publishers Weekly to move The Beat and actually get PAID to blog, so I moved over, and switched to WordPress which I was very happy with — I was already using the blogging client Ecto
, which I found super useful, and WP had even more functionality. That was Spring, 2006. Reed Business International, PW’s parent company, was going headlong into this “web” thing, and they were adding blogs, and it all made a lot of sense for everyone involved.As time went on, of course, problems arose — because no popular website is ever static, and amazingly, it turned out that the “Web operations” department at Reed Business “did not support WordPress.” As in they wouldn’t do ANYTHING to fix or upgrade the site. That’s because most of their site and some of their blogs were run on a ghastly Web 0.9 software called eLogic
, which RBI owned, along with Variety, Library Journal, School Library Journal, and many other B2B magazines. In some ways, I could understand sticking with the home product. But it made no sense for contemporary content management, especially something as dynamic as a daily blog. Even with no support, this was the Golden Age of blogging and The Beat’s traffic soared — to the point where it was soon nearlyBlog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Sarah McIntyre, SCBWI, conference, talk, Mini Grey, Marcus Sedgwick, sketching on the train, Jason Chapman, When You're Not Looking, Add a tag
My text rework is still going OK, so I feel I have earned the time to scan in some more of my train sketches and talk to you properly about the conference.
As well as the lovely Tim Hopgood, I also met Sarah McIntyre, whose illustrated characters are hilarious (and whose glasses I am SO planning to steal...).
Sarah took amazing, picture-book style notes throughout the conference. You can see more of them on her blog but here's just one of the sheets she did at Tim's talk:
She also sketched her own take on my conference space chicken:
In the conference bookshop, I discovered a new, favourite picture book, by Jason Chapman (sadly, no relation), called Stan and Mabel, which manages to combine beautiful, painterly backgrounds with great, cartoon animals characters. It also has the funniest endpapers I've seen in ages - go and have a look!
I met Jason in person at the celebration party on Saturday night, so was able to congratulate him. It was a rather classy affair, with a string quartet, free champers and colour-coordinated balloons everywhere.
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: interview, publisher, illustration, authors, publishing, talk, sketchbook, editorial, pastels, Gullane, The Show at Rickety Barn, hot tip, Add a tag
I'm still on the go: it's the Cheltenham Festival today so, while I'm away, here is the last of the short films I have to show you. It's sort of a prequel to the others, as it's me talking about how I came to be a children's book illustrator.
I talk about the textile designing and editorial work I did before I discovered children's books and how I got my first picture book commission. It lasts nearly 8 minutes:
If you missed the previous films here are links:
How to illustrate a book part 1
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: awards, illustration, school, talk, illustrators, Viviane Schwarz, David Roberts, Freya Blackwood, Kate Greenaway, Add a tag
The prize is not just kudos either: as well as their medal, the winner gets £500 worth of books donated to the library of their choice, plus the £5000 Colin Mears Award: a bequest left by the Worthing based accountant and children's book collector. Not bad eh?
I particularly like the way Freya manages to retain the vigour and purity of her original sketches in the final artwork.
This is a constant battle for illustrators, one that most of us lose, at least a little. No matter how well the final image works, there is invariable some freshness lost from the first drawings. It's generally not apparent unless you see the two versions alongside, so most people don't notice, but the artist knows.
Every year, schools and libraries all over the UK 'shadow' the Greenaway, asking children to read the shortlisted books and vote for themselves - it's interesting to see if the winner comes out the same!
The librarian at Lady Manners School in Derbyshire asked me to be part of a shadowing on Thursday. I met the 5 invited primary schools and gave talks to the children about my work.
The day was a huge success and very interesting. Each child had been asked to design a mask, based on their personal favourite, and I awarded prizes to the best 6. There were group discussions and then children slipped their votes into a ballot box.
We ha
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: illustration, authors, talk, workshop, fine art, Caryl Hart, Chris Mould, Add a tag
A title to keep you guessing, eh?
Well, 'Mouldy' is fab author/illustrator Chris Mould, currently Artist in Residence at Dean Clough, a gargantuan, restored carpet mill, now a business and arts complex in Halifax. That's Chris above, in his studio space at the mill.
I absolutely love Chris's drawings, so it was wonderful to visit Dean Clough on Wednesday and see his room wallpapered in spidery, biro roughs.
The day came about because Chris invited author Caryl Hart and myself to give a short talk about our work to students on an art and illustration course, run by painter John Ross (he in the befittingly arty beret!):
After lunch, Chris took Caryl and myself on a tour of Dean Clough's galleries, introducing us to other Artists-in-Residence, who very kindly showed us their studio spaces and work in progress.
I was particularly taken with the gorgeous colours and textures in Doug Binder's paintings (his space was filled with that lovely oil-paint smell that reminded me of my Grandad's painting shed):
It has been a very busy, but smashing week: Monday in Nottingham, Tuesday in London (more later), Wednesday in Halifax and, as you read this, I will be at Ireby Music Festival in the Lake District. This time I will be in the audience for once! I packed a sketchbook though...
Blog: An Illustrator's Life For Me! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Julia Jarman, sketching on the train, storytelling, school, talk, workshop, World Book Day, sketchbook, Add a tag
Over 13 million £1 book tokens have been distributed to school children across the UK, because today is World Book Day, and the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK. Hurray!
Which is why I've been invited into so many schools this week...
Monday: I kicked off with a day at Roundthorne Primary in Oldham. I took the train across the Pennines and did these sketches on the way. It started off really misty but burned off into a lovely, sunny day, which makes it a fantastically beautiful run, though I spent most of it with my nose in my sketchbook, as you can see.
Tuesday: closer to home, at a dinky little village school: Barlow Primary. A lovely, varied day and lots of fun. The finale was a drawing demo for all the juniors, giving away the drawings as prizes for children to take home. Thank you so much to Mrs Wolstenholme and Mrs Broad for giving me a lift to school and bringing me home.
Today / Friday / Saturday: off again, at 6.30am, back across the Pennines to Tameside, to visit Yew Tree Primary. By the time you read this, I will be giving it my all, with a PowerPoint lecture to all the older children.
All being well, I should finally return home about 6.30 on Saturday night. I'll fill you in on the gossip about all that later (if I have any energy left!). Don't think I'll be out on the town that evening, do you?
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I'm in my first year of visual communications and when we went to the botanic gardens to sketch and take pictures. I was definitely inspired by your sketches :) Come to Ireland and give a talk to us! haha
Very interesting:)
It's a bit complicated getting it fired Susan, as I have to rent kiln space, so I am waiting until I get something I definitely want to keep.
This was great, Lynne.
Can't wait to see the movie!
(and after you go to Ireland, come to Australia!)
hi Ma'am,
I met you in Manchester, Salford university. And i really love your sketches. When are you coming back to Manchester