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Ages and ages ago, I was chatting via email with author Julia Jarman. We talked about this and that, then she mentioned that she had been invited to Beijing, to visit an International School, but she wasn't very keen to go. She thought it might be a little scary in China on her own, so she was thinking of turning them down. Purely as a joke, I quipped that she should ask the school if they wanted an illustrator too, then we could go together. Which is how it began.
Over a year later, Julia and I have visits booked at 4 different Beijing schools - 7 day's work - and we will be there for just over two weeks. Quite an adventure. I imagine that it will be very hard work, a bit like World Book Day week with knobs on, but I do like new and interesting experiences, plus we will get a few days at the end to explore. Of course, I'm hoping I'll have enough energy left over to sketch a bit too.
I have been to China before, but a very long time ago. In 1988, I back-packed around the north of China for 6 weeks, with a friend. It is probably the single most challenging, but also exciting thing I have ever done. That's when these sketches were done.
Apart from sights like The Forbidden City, I can't imagine that there will be much that is recognisable about Beijing now. Things were still very traditional at that time and there were certainly no gleaming, glass structures. It will certainly be fascinating to see the changes for myself.
We are due to fly out mid September, which I fully expect to be here before I know it. Yeehah!
I was gone. Now I am back. And while I was gone I read OLD books; two by G. K. Chesterton and two by L. M. Montgomery - because I visited Prince Edward Island on my travels.
Chesterton's books were full of the politics of the Empire and, since they were pre-WWII, some of the reasoning seemed very Old Boy network. Still, they were intriguing looks into a mindset that is probably better done away with.
Montgomery's books were full of light and cheerfulness - as is her wont. The first, Pat of Sugar Bush, ended as if there would be more to the story. And I hope there is, somewhere. The other, A Tangled Web, was written for adults and read like a daytime soap opera. Six or more couples, friends and lovers, struggle to find out what went wrong - or how to connect - or whatever. The last line in the book is a glaringly racist remark and soured things for me. But I recognize the time period and context and just wish people were more thoughtful. I enjoyed the book except for that.
Obviously, I enjoyed L. M. Montgomery's books more than Chesterton's. I don't even remember the names of Chesterton's books, oh wait, The Man Who Knew Too Much, was one title. That book was upsetting because the hero of the short stories finds himself letting felons go unpunished for the good of the Empire - in every single instance. Also, some anti-semitic rhetoric in one story made me cringe.
Oh well, I came home to Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt. I will read it and let you know what I think.
When I found out that I was going to be flown to Denver to shoot the on-line Designing Children's Book Characters workshop for Craftsy, I wrote a quick 'showing-off' post on my Facebook page (like you do). All my friends left lovely feedback, wishing me well, which was of course lovely. But I got another bit of feedback too, one that was rather unexpected... 
I got a message from the person who runs the Botanical Illustration course in Denver. She asked if, while I was there, I would be interested in doing a real-life workshop for her students. My 1st thought was: that's odd - I am not a botanical illustrator. My 2nd thought was: wow, you never know who is looking in!
I got in touch, of course, and discovered that the course likes to invite visiting demonstrators to present different kinds of illustration workshops. Sometimes these visitors offer a wider take on Botanical Illustration (while I was there, someone from the Royal College of Embroidery was delivery a drawing-in-stitch workshop, producing wonderful rose embroideries). Sometimes though, they like to look at other kinds of illustration. Which is of course where I came in.
So, I finished shooting the Craftsy class on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning I was sitting opposite twelve very keen illustration students, in a teaching space which was situated bang in the middle of Denver's wonderful Botanical Gardens (hence my water-lily sketches).
It was a two-day workshop. On day one, I taught pretty much the same material as I had just been demonstrating for the Craftsy film, which was very handy, as I couldn't have been better up-to-speed if I'd tried. On the morning of day two, I concentrated on idea development: how you generate ideas and allow them to evolve, so they have time to get even better. We also looked a look at communication: ways to make the ideas in your illustrations come across clearly to the reader, as well as how you add humour and impact.
In the afternoon, I tried something a bit new: I quickly sketched out an image of
Giddy Goat onto a couple of bits of paper, then got all the students to gather round, while I did a demonstration. I showed them two very different ways of colouring the same illustration: one using coloured pencils to get interesting colour blends and to shade 3-dimensionally (much as I do with my pastels); the other using watercolour, but with a soft, coloured pencil outline.
The students spent the rest of the afternoon experimenting with colouring up one of the illustrations they had developed that morning.
It went really well. I was so pleased. All the students were really nice and several of them gave me a big hug at the end, saying how much fun the weekend had been and how useful they had found it. I felt very loved.
Mervi, who ran the course, gave me a lovely thank you present of this beautifully illustrated book the students and staff had published of their sketchbook work (thank you Mervi!):
Possibly most exciting of all... she invited me to go back and do it all again sometime!
Well, goodness me - what a fun, whirlwind week I had in the US! I got back last Tuesday evening and have been catching my breath (and catching up on emails) ever since.
Where to begin? Well, the 3 days I spent at the studios were so interesting. Craftsy are a lovely company to work with and really looked after me, including a chauffeur to pick me up from the airport, which was an excellent start.
I arrived on Monday night and I had Tuesday off, to get over the jet-lag and altitude, although actually neither gave me much trouble (I think my excitement over-ruled them), so I enjoyed wandering about, exploring Denver city-centre (above) and I had a lovely visit to the art museum, which was fabulous both inside and out:
They had an exhibition on 'flower painting through the ages' and, when I spotted a bunch of easels and piles of oil-pastels in their activities room, I couldn't resist sitting down for an hour and giving it a go:
On Wednesday morning I was picked up by the lovely (and very pregnant) Danica, my make-up artist, and driven to the Craftsy studio complex, where I had my very own dressing-room:
I took a change of clothes for half-way through each day of filming, so four outfits in all, to create visual variety on screen. We had fun trying to find ways to hide the mike under my cardigans and collars. People who were doing classes about dressmaking took about 10 outfits, so I got off very lightly.
I liked the personalised star on my dressing-room door (nice touch):
That first day was a rehearsal day. We ran through a couple of lessons, to get me warmed up and used to working with the teleprompter, but it was mostly a technical rehearsal. We spent the day setting up the cameras and the clever, computerised stuff, talking through the best way to achieve things and familiarising me with the process.
We were a team of four and we all got on like a house on fire, right from the beginning. There was Clif my producer, who was as familiar with the material as me and who also acted as director and general 'person-with-an-overview'. This is Clif and pretty much the view I had while we were filming:
Then there was Tim, the man behind the sound recording and the various cameras. There were three rolling all the time I was delivering my lessons. Firstly, there was camera A which was looking straight at me, then camera B which always pointed directly down at the paper in front of me. Lastly, looking over my shoulder, was camera C. Here is Tim getting camera B into position on Wednesday morning:
Finally, there was Nick (who sadly, I forgot to get a photo of). He spent the whole time behind 3 computer screens at the back of the studio. His principle job was to create a rough-cut of the footage as we went along, editing together the output from the three cameras, on-the-hoof.
On Thursday and Friday, I was picked up at 7.30am (!), made to look gorgeous by Danica, before starting filming at around 9.00. We had such a laugh. All my team were great - they were very easy-going and good fun to banter with, but at the same time clearly knew exactly what they were doing. The attention to detail was very impressive.
We worked until 6.30 most nights, with me sitting at the desk, either explaining various elements of a lesson to camera, or doing my demo drawings of the many different characters I'm teaching people to create. I had practised the material quite a few times, so mostly I didn't need to actually 'read' it off the auto-cue, just use it as a prompt to keep me on track, but we still had to do a fair bit of stopping and starting, where I fluffed words or forgot what was coming next, because I was looking down at the drawing I was doing and so not at the prompt. That's where having 3 camera angles is really useful: you can always find an easy place to cut in again.
There are now about 5 weeks left before the class will be ready. Nick's rough-edit needs to be fine-tuned, plus lots of images from my books need to be spliced in, where I use them to illustrate various teaching points as we go through the lessons. Like with Nana Croc for instance, when I am talking about ways to add humour when you are designing outfits for your animal characters:
There are all sorts of additional graphics to add too, as well as setting up the interface for the students - one of the great things about Craftsy classes is that you can ask me questions and can show me your work.
Just before the workshop goes live, I will be running a competition, to give away a free subscription to the class, so watch this space. I will also be giving out special launch-week discounts.
I can't wait to see what the technical guys do between now and then. SO exciting!
Hello! It has been sooo very long since I have blogged on this blog. I am still reading and writing, but things have taken a bit of a different turn for me. It's so interesting to look back on this blog and see this progression of growing up...
Here's what's changed! :)
1. I have two little girls. I LOVE them. They are hilarious, cheeky, stubborn and the very sweetest.
2. I have 4 cats, and no other pets at the moment.
3. We've just sold our very first house and now are moving to the country! We're off to Wagga Wagga NSW and we are very excited.
4. I am going to write, again. I am hoping that this lifestyle change will enable me to have more time to write. Which is hard to manage as -
5. I am now a photographer. I specialise in babies and families. I enjoy it so very much. I've spent the past 3 years throwing myself into learning to be my best behind the camera, and also spending lots of time focusing on my family.
6. I am STILL obsessed with Autumn and everything fall related. In fact, I reference it in my business name. You can find my work
HERE.
7. I am happy. Life is good. It's been an up and down few years with post-natal depression and anxiety battles, but things are good. Friendships are good. The kids are great. We're doing well :)
8. We still travel back to America about once a year, and it's delightful to introduce our kids to new places and views.
So that's a bit of an update of what I've been up to! I would love to get reading and reviewing a bit more so I'll have some things to blog about! I did start blogging about education activities and kid-related stuff, which changed when the photography business got so busy.
Hopefully see you soon!
April
As well as the fire-breathing dragons, I witnessed another rather unusual spectacle while I was in Sitges. They have a strange competition. I had been told about it, but was so lucky to be there to see it for myself.
It was a Sunday afternoon. Crowds began to gather in the centre of the old town. Then the teams arrived from three local areas. As far as I could gather, despite the acrobatics, they were just ordinary people.
The idea was to create 'human towers' and compete to see which team could get the highest. The base was created by a massive rugby-scrum of people all pushing in to stabilise the core. Then people climbed up over them to balance on each other's shoulders. A small child was always the last to go up, light enough to perch at the top.
This was the first tower. They paraded through the crowds in the square, the scrum shuffling along beneath:
But this first tower was just a warm-up. After that, the competition started in earnest and the teams took it in turns to do a much higher tower, first with two people on each layer, then four...
The higher they were, the bigger the bases needed to be to support them. They began forming a second scrum on the shoulders of the first! As they got really high, competing teams would help, adding extra people to each other's scrums, so the towers would be surrounded by a massive crowd of people, all leaning forward on each other's shoulders.
People at the centre of the second scrum, reached up their arms and supported the bottoms of the people on the next layer up:
The 'monkeys' were the little children. You can see one above, standing on the top scrum, about to climb up. On the big towers, two or three children would climb up at once. In order to fulfil the rules, the monkeys had to not only get to the top, but then circle round the pinnacle, clambering over the top tier of people, before climbing down again.
Each team did three towers, getting taller and wider each time. I was just wondering what would happen if one collapsed, when one began to crumble before my eyes!
It was very shocking to see and one older man in particular was very upset afterwards (I wondered if it was him who had first given way) but, amazing, nobody seem to get harmed.
Talking to a local in the crowd, I learnt that they give a signal if collapse is a possibility, to allow them to do it in a controlled manner, bending their knees and crumpling inwards, rather than falling sideways. The scrum braces to take the impact and nobody hits the ground.
At the end of the competition, there was a clear winner. There was a tense hush during the building of their final tower. The other two groups both got involved on the ground level and the team were very excited when they were done, so their tower was obviously pushing the boundaries.
The event finished with the three teams making lots of smaller towers again, all at once:
Then there was a fantastic celebratory dance. The children rode on the adult's shoulders as they danced around the square while everyone sang and chanted and waved. Wonderful.
I never got around to telling you about my fun and games I had while I was staying in Sitges, for my Barcelona school tour. I was really lucky, as my stay just happened to coincide with a big festival - one of the main annual events for Sitges, the Sante Tecla.
I've been to a few festival parades in my time, but I've never encountered anything quite like the Sitges one before so, though I've been back ages now, I still want to tell you about it and show you what I drew.
I packed my sketch-bits and walked the 20 minutes into the old town on that particular evening, to check it out. As I arrived, odd things were beginning to appear in the streets, like the lovely blue dragon above. People seemed to be heading in one general direction, so I followed the giant below, trying to draw it on the move, as we made our way through the streets. Very tricky, trying not to trip up!
I got the chance to add colour when we got to the starting-point of the parade as there was a bit of a wait, while everybody got into position. Loads of local people saw me drawing and came up to chat. Then suddenly we were off!
The parade was hugely long, with all sorts of different elements, including different troupes of dancers in colourful, traditional costumes, drumming groups from various towns...
...acrobatic characters, musicians, people in huge papier-mache heads, religious elements, cute little children with hoops covered in paper ribbons, and much, much more. They wound very slowly through the old streets, stopping every so often for 2 or 3 minutes so the dancers could do a turn. I captured what I could, mostly at the stopping points.
Most people lined the streets, but I figured it would be easier to draw if I walked along with the parade, weaving in and out. I spotted another dragon, so thought I'd sketch him (below). I was totally unprepared for what would happen next.
I didn't realise that fire was a big theme of the festival. There were a couple of dozen demons in the parade, brandishing big sticks with fireworks attached at the ends. A head demon went round lighting them all and the street was suddenly filled with fizzing and banging:
The firework sticks whizzed round like catherine-wheels and watchers, including me, had to run out of the way as we were showered with the sparks. Then the head demon lit more fireworks inside the dragon's mouth and tail. What had gone before was nothing...
All hell broke loose, pretty literally. The fire-sticks spun and whizzed and exploded. The dragon truly breathed fire! Everyone around was shot with the sparks. Running and screaming was all part of the fun it seemed.
When the fireworks died away, I thought that was it and went back in close to carry on drawing, but no - the chief demon went round again - they had enough fireworks to reload again and again. The narrow streets filled with smoke! Here is the blue dragon I spotted in the street before it all began:
To escape the smoke and get a calmer drawing opportunity, I ran further forwards in the parade and found these guys: the Moixiganga Men. They would march normally will their long candles then, as soon as the parade did its little pause, they would climb up and do this balancing act, holding the pose as they walked on for a couple of minutes. The only way to draw it was to walk in front of them backwards, with my sketchbook held up, frantically scribbling, once again hoping not to trip.
I built it up over 3 or 4 goes and, once they saw me, one of their number walked behind me to make sure I was not going to fall. I did the painting while walking along too, which really fascinated them. I drew what it looked like behind as well. In the sketch above, you can just make out the head of the man that's stretch out in the rear view below - between the top man's legs
At one point, I thought things had finished, as the parade suddenly broke up and all participants all got a drink from whichever bar was at hand, but it turned out the parade had just stopped for a beer break! Ten minutes later, things reformed and we were off again! Here I am with the some of the Moixiganga Men, my sketch half-finished still:
I had another shot of strange and interesting sketching at the weekend, as there was another odd but spectacular custom, but I'll tell you about that next time, as I have rambled on way too long as it is.
Okay, I admit that's bigging it up a wee bit. It was international, in that I was visiting International Schools and it was in Spain not the UK, so that's international, right? And it was all about promoting and signing squillions (again, almost true) of my books...
Anyway, it seems like ages ago, as I've been so busy since I got back, but in fact I only flew back about 12 days ago. I didn't want to come home and you can see why:
It was all arranged by the lovely Gary, from Bookbox International. He set me up with nine different schools across Barcelona and Valencia. Every day, he would pick me up at my hotel and drive me and a car-load of picture books to a school, where I would do storytellings, talks or workshops, then finish up with book signing.
Mostly it was little ones, the target audience for the books (so best from the signing point of view), but occasionally I worked with older ones. Here's a pic Gary took of me giving a lecture:
It was very like working in English schools, although the level of English spoken varied, so I had to speak slowly (yes, I know, not really my forte). My 'act' is very visual though, lots of acting the story out as well as drawing, so that helped. The children were generally less good as sitting quietly too, so there were some classes where I really earned my fee!!
One school had pets, so I did some sketching in the lunch break. The Y1 kids in the playground loved it (most the quotes are theirs):
It was a very long day though. For most of the time I was staying in Sitges, about half an hour from Barcelona, which as you can see is totally gorgeous and eminently sketchable:
...but that meant we were driving into Barcelona each morning, through appalling rush-hour traffic, so we had to leave every day at 7am (ugg) - too early even for breakfast! Then, because the Spanish have a siesta in the middle of the day, school often didn't finish until 4.30 - 5.00. By the time I done my signing, then we had driven home, it was usually around 6.30pm.I didn't mind, I enjoyed myself and I always have oodles of energy when I am somewhere new. I had a lovely room in Sitges. This was the view from my MASSIVE balcony:
Each night when I got back from the school I would quickly shower then would walk into the old town at the other end of the bay, with my sketchbook of course, and have a couple of beers at a bar:
Sometimes people would spot me drawing and I would get chatting for a bit, which is nice when you're on your own, then I would quickly walk back to the hotel for a Spanish-style late dinner at about 10pm, then quickly to bed (usually feeling like a beached whale, full of all that dinner!)
We moved onto Valencia after the weekend, which was slightly disappointing by comparison, as we were staying and working in the suburbs, so I never got to see the pretty bit at all. Never mind, I still had fun days with Gary at the schools, then he took me out to dinner each night. We struggled sometimes for restaurants in our area and one night, in somewhere very 'local', I ordered what I thought was tapas calamari (because it only cost 4 Euros) and I got this:
I did manage to eat most of it and it was delicious!
I will tell you more about my adventures at the weekend in Sitges later, as all sorts of stuff happened and I am running out of space and time here. In the meantime, here the sketch I did as I was leaving:
See you next time!
Hello! Yes, I am back from my adventures (sigh). There is no way I can put into words the amount of fun, fellowship and inspiration that was packed into the 10 days I was in Brazil.
The atmosphere at Urban Sketchers symposiums is always electric with excitement and creativity, but this year was definitely something extra special. Maybe it was that the Brazilians were such lovely, friendly, fun-loving hosts (we partied hard - it was GREAT!).
Maybe it was because Paraty was the perfect location: small enough that we took it over, so that sketchers were peppered through every street, literally from dawn until dusk most days.
Maybe it was also partly because this was my 4th time and, each year I go, I revisit more friendships from previous years and feel more at home as an instructor and correspondent. Also, I got to sandwich the symposium itself between extra 'bonding' days with smaller groups of my fellow-sketchers. A dozen of us went out on a boat trip together the day before it all kicked off - when I opened this sketch onto my scanner, a scattering of sand spilled out:
I filled 5 sketchbooks, so there's no way I am going to be able to show them all here, even spread over a few posts, but I will be gradually adding them to an Usk album on my Flickr page as I scan them. I've done a few already. You can see lots of photos on my Facebook page too.
The workshops all went really well although, on the two sessions I did on Thursday, we encountered some rather surreal and unexpected circumstances, which I will tell you about next time. This is a photo from the final workshop on Saturday:
It's been really hard trying to settle down to normality again. I think today is the first day when I have not felt that at least 20% of my brain was still in Brazil with my chums. I didn't expect to miss everyone so much!
Anyway, as you can imagine, there's lots to catch up on back home, so I'd better get on. I will come back and tell you more in a couple of days.
This is a picture book I wrote and illustrated based on a mythological
little Balinese fairy living in Bali and a girl, named Wardani who found her.
I started this book while living in the Island of Bali, Indonesia.
Whenever I am in Bali, I try to stay in the same town called Ubud
This is the view from the porch in front of my bungalow:
I got the inspiration from one of the sketches of a particular Balinese lantern in
front of my porch which looks like this:
I imagined the little fairy living in this lantern that looks like a small Balinese temple.
The setting for my story started with this image:
Below is the porch where I sometimes wake up just before dawn ( yes--that early!)
and I start to sketch the Balinese lantern below in the dark :
I love to wake up very early and sketch or write in my journal until
I hear the cock crows.
In Bali, you will always hear them crow when the sun rises.
They are actually music to my ears.
Here you can see one of my sketches while drinking coffee.
Another illustration of my fairy character living in the lantern house:
More on my Little Girl in Bali story next time--to be continued....
Things have been quite busy lately, so John and I really enjoyed the chance of a lovely weekend away recently.
I have brothers who are twins and it was their 50th birthday. We are all always busy and so don't get to spend time as often as we should, so we rented a house on the isle of Anglesey for a long weekend.
We were very lucky with the weather. It was FREEZING but, despite being Wales, it was dry and the sun came out for us, at least for a little while, each day.
It was all very laid back: getting wrapped up like Eskimos then mooching around various bays and beaches, looking at the sea birds, collecting shells, taking photos, then warming up in cafes or pubs.
As you can see, I took my sketchbook. I love drawing the big outdoors and those huge skies reflected in the pools of sea left between the sand-banks was perfect. I was lucky that the view from the house was fantastic, so I could paint and draw from the comfort of the kitchen:
But I did also take a mini-sketchbook out onto the walks and drew on the beach:
It was a bit tricky standing up in the middle of nowhere, holding onto my various pencils and my book and my waterbrush, trying to balance an open pencil case in my coat pocket... I kept dropping things and getting in a right muddle!
Worth it though. Although I can sometimes get grumpy when I am drawing-in-adversity, I still really enjoy the immediacy of it. If you're freezing to death and your friends are fast disappearing into the distance, you can't mess about and so generally do your best, most intuitive work.
Amanda says, “Thank you for having me on your blog today. I really appreciate it.
I guess when it comes to promoting myself, I am the woman in the corner of a room with a glass of fizz holding a bookmark, hoping someone will notice.
So here's my bookmark, and I'm drinking a mug of tea!
My name is Amanda J Ward and I am the author of The Thrilling Adventures of Pann Haggerty; a short story series about an Englishwoman of a 'certain' age who takes a year off to travel around America in an RV in search of new experiences and perhaps love. They are fun and quirky, and the best compliments I have had is that my mother, mother in law and daughter have read them. Which is really amazing.
I have a full length novel out in September called Without Saying A Word.
The good guy gets his girl! After being in love with his older neighbour Laura since they met a year ago, Rhean Tate, Viscount Kirkleigh seizes his chance to make her his, when her past reappears threatening her and her children’s safety. This thirty-four year old male virgin, whisks her into marriage vowing to protect and cherish Laura and her family, with his name and noble family connections.
Will Laura feel overwhelmed by Rhean and run away. Her abusive marriage left her with scars on the inside as well as on the outside, or will she allow her barriers to crumble and be the woman and wife they both deserve.
I live in England with my husband, our three young children and two mad cats called Arthur and Merlin. I write mostly romance, but am dipping my toes in a few uncertain waters such as a regency time-shift which is all planned out. This is the first story in the Fitzroyal novels set around three siblings and their widowed mother.
A couple of years ago I entered New Voices run by M&B. I also entered last year with Her Reverend Majesty, about a vicar who marries a king of a foreign country and has to choose between her vocation or love. Unfortunately, although a lot of people were complimentary, it didn't make the final. So, later on that year I joined NANO where Laura and Rhean's story was being written. I managed to finish it early this year and I had an R&R from one publisher. However, when I was asked by Trestle to submit, I got an immediate response that they could have it. Roll on September when Bonkers in Bostonand Without Saying a Wordcome out.
I'm by no means a regular writer. I don't have a set time of day when I can write. Each day in my home is completely different as to how, when and if I can get anything done. The past few weeks have been manic as the kids have been off school. It's only now in the week before they go back, that I am able to catch up and do reviews etc.
I am a HUGE reader. I have been reading since I can remember, and there were times when I am sure my mother despaired at me for hoarding books under my bed. Before my father died, we used to go to the library together every Saturday, with me trotting after him pulling the shopping trolley. He would fill it up with war books. My grandmother was a reader of romantic fiction. I found some in her spare room one day when I was eight and snooping. Since then I have been hooked. My favourite series is still the Temptationline of Harlequin books, but there are authors I am exceptionally loyal to. I adore historical fiction and royalty books. I have DVDs about them and biographies lining my bookcase. Phillippa Gregory, Anne O'Brien, Marguerite Kaye, Michelle Willingham and Sophie Perinot top my list there.
My influences writing wise come from my friends, and also what I like to read and watch. I am a HUGE Gilmore Girls, Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, Sci Fi and Big Bang Theory fan.
When I write Pann, for some reason, I see it as a sitcom. I think that's the best way to describe the series, and I like working to a deadline for some reason. The worst thing about me is that I procrastinate like mad. It is really dreadful. Finding other things to do rather than sit in front of the screen and get words to appear on it from my head. For some reason I love working in peace and quiet. I guess it's because I talk to myself when I type and the looks I get from my children and husband, and the cats too are very offputting. Yes, there are days when I feel I have no talent for writing and that what I do is absolute rubbish. How do I cope? I walk away from what I'm doing for a time.
Any advice? Don't give up.
Here is an teaser from Pann Haggerty Volume Three Bonkers In Boston.
Hope you enjoy it!.
When Joe came back to the meeting house for her less than half an hour later. He was laden down with bags. Hoping he got the right things for her, upon seeing the sight before him, stopped dead, lifted his face to the sky and whispered
"Oh Jeez not this. Not here. Not now"
For standing on the steps was Pann. She had a union jack cap on her head and and a frilly apron around her. She was handing out slices of cake and plastic cups of tea to anyone that would take it. A broad smile lit up her pixie like face and she was obviously having a fantastic time. Laughing and chatting to tourists and residents alike.
"What do you think you are doing Crazy Lady?" Joe said slowly.
"Well, duh" Pann mocked him. "What does it look like. I'm having a tea party. Where better to have one. Than here!" She announced taking a bow. Cutting a piece of sunken, lopsided cake, Pann put it on a napkin and handed it to Joe.
"I knew you were up to something" Joe muttered taking a bite of the cake. It tasted much better than it looked.
"You can't have a tea party without cake" Pann said stubbornly.
Joe took a deep breath.
"Wrong revolution darlin. That was the French one" He informed her.
"And the tea party?" asked Pann, totally confused by all the history being thrown at her.
"To do with taxing of tea. Crates of it were thrown overboard and into the river"
"What an absolute waste of perfectly good tea" Pann sniffed. She sat down with her own cup and munched on her cake.
Joe couldn't resist taking a photograph of her.
"Say Tea Party" he teased. Pann stuck her tongue out at him. Joe continued taking photographs anyway. She pulled up her jeans at one point exposing red socks.
"Pann what are you wearing?"
"Red socks. You said Boston was the home of the red socks. So I am wearing them because I'm in Boston".
"Pann, you crazy Englishlady. When I said Boston was home to the red socks, I meant the Red Sox. A baseball team" Joe said slowly and carefully so she would understand.
"Baseball" Pann thought for a moment. "Is that like rounders?"
"You have to be kidding me! You've never heard of baseball?" Joe's voice was incredulous.
"Of course I have. You hit a ball with a round stick. Then run around the field and touch bases. That's rounders" The tone of her voice dared him to argue the toss.
"What about football?" Joe decided to open the can all the way.
"Rugby" Pann countered
"Soccer?"
"Football" Pann was evidently enjoying her banter with him.
He sat down on the steps and put his head in his hands.
"Save me from crazy Englishwomen" He pleaded to no-one in particular.
"Sorry pal. You're on your own" Came a retort from a passer by.
Pann sat down beside him and snuggled up. She gave a sigh of happiness.
"That was fun" She giggled girlishly sipping another cup of tea.
Well there you go. A sneak peek at what Pann is like. If you want to read more, you can catch up with Pann on these links.
Thanks for having me and hope to hear from readers soon!"
By:
Lynne Chapman,
on 8/5/2012
Blog:
An Illustrator's Life For Me!
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On the first morning, I did Nina Johansson's workshop. For my other, I chose Jason Das, partly because I like his work, but also because I am very interested in colour and always keen to try doing new things with it.
Jason's workshop looked at the relationship between the colour of the line and its body colour, and the effect of using a coloured line, rather than just black. We each did two drawings of the same place, on either side of the page in our sketchbooks. On one side we used a cold line (I used a blue gel pen) and the other warm (red pencil). Then we painted them both, in much the same way, and brought everybody's books together, to look at what worked best.
I definitely like my blue line best (but that's partly because the gel pen has more oomph), which was why I chose blue line for the next exercise. Jason asked us to do two similar drawings again, but this time with the same coloured line. We then painted them differently: one with naturalistic colour, one with colours as mad as we could manage. I decided to do one big drawing across the two pages but colour it in two halves:
It was quite hard choosing unnaturalistic colours, but for most people, the crazy colours were more interesting.
We were just getting into the next exercise when the sky went black (very strange, since it had been unremittingly scorching until then). Then the rain came - very sudden and very heavy. We fled for the tiny bit of cover there was under the arch in my top sketch.
Then, just as suddenly, it was over. I sat back down on the ground to continue with the next exercise. Though I was on a sitting pad, so thought I'd stay dry, the rain wicked up from the bottom edges of my shorts and I was soaked to my bum when I stood up again.
This time we each did a line drawing in black, but swapped our sketchbooks with a partner, so everyone coloured someone else's sketch. I drew the statue with the palms, while my partner drew me drawing the statue and palms!
It was really fun to colour someone else's work, liberated from any preconceptions or plans made during the line-work about how it should be done. I decided to have another go at the crazy colour idea, which is why I have green hair. The sketch in my book looks nothing like I imagined, which was so interesting.
The other interesting thing was that, though we each got our own line-drawing back at the end, we all agreed that is was the colouring that created 'ownership' of the sketches.
Thanks Jason - it was really good fun. I intend to get some coloured gel pens and to experiment more with contrary colours.
You can see all the other sketches I did during my trip in the Dominican Republic sketchbook on my website.
As you might have gathered, I enjoyed every single second of the symposium and was on a high from the moment I woke each morning, to the moment I fell into bed, often at midnight.
One of the many highlights was our trip to the Mercado: a big enclosed market, surrounded by lots of individual stalls, selling everything from mangos to bongos. Here we are above, sketching on the steps outside.
The indoor market was great for pressies, and we had good fun 'bongoing it up' on the steps outside. These are my friends and fellow sketchers Inma Serrano and Scott Renk, and you might spot someone else, wiggling in the background...
I got back from my travels in Santo Domingo on Wednesday afternoon. Since then, I've spent most my time catching up on emails, but have been bursting to tell you about the symposium.
It was a truly fantastic week. Getting together with all my fellow sketch-obsessives, meeting the other Urban Sketchers correspondents, drawing and drawing and drawing, more or less from dawn to dusk, for 5 days solid.
I've made so many new friends too, from all round the world (hello to all my new sketching buddies!). Sketchers are such a lovely bunch of people: we continually inspired one another and shared all our best tips. We sketched each other, we borrowed each other's art equipment and we greedily looked through each other's sketchbooks at every opportunity.
There were 3 hour workshops twice a day which were really well thought out and very interesting, generally aiming to nudge people out of their comfort-zones, getting them to try new techniqu
I am still waiting for my page layouts to come back from Gullane, so am spending most my time writing at the moment (when I'm not answering emails anyway). I'm working with John on the Koala stories I mentioned last week. Turns out John is great at plot ideas and moving stories on when they stall. I'm best at dialogue and characterisation, we make a good team!
Anyway, there's nothing specific about that I can share right now, so I thought you might like to see a few more pics more my Kerala sketchbooks. These were also in Tellicherry. We were there over the Christmas weekend and there was a blessing happening in one of the houses in the village. It was taking place in the garden, where there was a small temple, and was to bring good fortune to the house and village for the forthcoming year. It was an evening event, so at sunset John, myself and our 2 friends were guided to the house by torchlight, through a series of back alleys. It got increasing black and hard to see our footing on the uneven ground and our guide got lost and had to ask directions twice!
We arrived just as the dancing and drumming was starting. People from all the neighbouring houses were there, sitting around two sides of the garden on plastic chairs. We were immediately shown to seats at the front, which made me feel a little guilty, as unbelievers, but I didn't complain too much, as it also gave me the perfect vantage point to sketch.
My new-improved, doggie-story has now gone off to the publisher (cross fingers...). I probably won't hear anything for a week or so at least. I am still waiting for my other publisher to send me the suggested page layouts for the next book I'm to start work on any day now: between us, we have to tame all the work I did last year and squeeze it into a 32 page picture book!
It's weird having a lull just before you know you are about to be really busy. I have a couple of events later this week, but school visits won't really kick off until next month, so John and I have been going through all the bookings I've got coming up, making sure timetables are all resolved and trains are all booked.
I'm also using this pocket of time to write down another idea that's been knocking around in my head, about a koala, but that's way too new to share for now.
What I can share though, are some more pages from my Kerala sketchbooks: I've at last got time to do more scanning.
4 Comments on The Lull Before the Storm..., last added: 1/27/2012
I just love drawing markets and what better place than India? It's such a great excuse to get in amongst local people, doing their everyday jobs, and as soon as you draw, they welcome you into their lives just a little, and that makes it so much more rewarding and memorable.
These sketches were done on my very last afternoon, in Angamaly, near Cochin. I started with the veg stall: stuffed with sacks and crates of veg in all shapes, sizes and colours, many of which I'd never seen before.
This is Ajilal, who was the man taking the orders and the money for the veg. His fellow workers nominated him to be drawn and then ribbed him shamelessly throughout. When I was done, John and I were fed as many finger-bananas (literally finger-size) as we could eat, while someone nipped my sketchbook to the photocopy shop.
2 Comments on An Afternoon Drawing in the Market, last added: 1/11/2012
So far it's been a week of trogging through all the emails that have built up while we've been away, opening the post, checking the diary and generally getting my head back into gear. It's the sign of a good holiday when you get back and work feels like something you vaguely remember you were up to once, but you can't recall anything properly.
I've started scanning a handful of my sketches, so I'll pop them on tomorrow morning, but here are some quick monkey sketches in the meantime. They were a little bit scary, but also very cute, though a right nuisance to locals, as they would steal anything sweet.
It's back to work with a bang tomorrow though, as I'm back teaching at the university for 2 half days, so that should sort me out and get me in gear!
This summer, I wanted to do something exciting. Something I'd never done before. So I decided, rather on the spur of the moment, to go to Amsterdam (The Netherlands) for a month. Alone. To explore and to write, and to see if I could.
And I'm so glad I did! I rented an apartment a bit outside the city center with a gorgeous rooftop terrace that, once it stopped raining, I sat outside on and wrote longhand. I had forgotten how much actually writing helps me think through things.
I also met up with the awesome
Corinne Duyvis, YA writer and Amsterdam inhabitant. She showed me the city and we even got a chance to do some writing in a coffee shop (the kind that actually serves coffee). The coffee shop had this cute little cubby upstairs where you could sit, but you couldn't stand.
Corinne
When I wasn't writing, I spent time just wandering around, and taking in the city. I don't think I could ever get tired of looking at the canals.
I had an amazing time. I didn't write the Great American Novel, but I did figure a lot of things out, explored ideas, and worked out a solid outline for a story I'm really excited to tell. I want to say thanks so much to my Sisters in Scribe for their patience while I was out of the country and not blogging. How about you? How did you spend your summer vacation?
Also, my short story THE LAST BEST DAY is up this week at
Tangled Fiction!
Well, I'm all packed up and ready to go.
Japan--Philippines--Singapore---Cambodia
Looking forward to be with my Papa again!
A HUGE congratulations to my sweet friend and writing club partner, Rachel ... who just finished the first draft of her novel! Such an incredible milestone! She has turned a fabulous idea into a future bestseller, I'm sure of it!
I first met Rachel in Vienna, Austria, of all places. We were exchange students ... she was from Texas; I was from Washington. I have such fun, fond memories of our adventures there. In her honor ... I'm re-posting "How Vas the Vod-ka?" below, which recaps an exhilarating and equally hilarious hike we took together in the Alps.
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How Vas the Vod-ka?
One of my favorite memories of my exchange student days in Austria involved a trip to Innsbruck, Austria.
Admittedly, I’d label the majority of Austrian towns as ‘gorgeous and amazing’, but - oh my - is Innsbruck ever cool. It’s situated right in the midst of the Austrian Alps, which makes for great hiking, especially when you’ve been blessed with stunningly beautiful weather.
We visited the Alpenzoo first. Situated 727 meters above sea level and nestled into the mountain, it is the highest zoo in the world. And, as its name would indicate, it is home to animals that originate from the alpine region, showing them in their natural habitat. The Alpenzoo, in and of itself, could be considered a hike for many.
After visiting the zoo, our group split into two and my dear friend, Rachel, and I decided to hike up into the Alps. It was my absolute favorite day in Europe … exhilarating and incredibly beautiful.
Halfway up the mountain, we were joined by Marco from Germany (I couldn't resist snapping a picture of him during one of our hiking breaks!).
We had no clue who he was, but he stayed with us for the remainder of the hike. He seemed nice enough, as did all our fellow-hikers that day. I guess back then crazy stalkers weren’t as prevalent on our minds. I’m still quite certain he was a bit enamored with Rachel!
We made it above the tree line and, after a few moments of sitting and taking in the beautiful view and brilliant blue sky, decided to commence the joint-pounding trek down the mountain!
Towards the end of our descent, we passed another hiker who was headed up the mountain. As he passed, he greeted us and asked, “How vas the vodka?”
You know how you respond when you don’t really know what someone has said, but you still want to reply in a friendly and jovial way? You kind of do a hearty laugh and throw your head back like you ‘get’ the joke or the funny comment even though you haven’t a clue as to what they actually said?
That’s what we did. And, I think we added something like, “Gut … sehr gut!”
We giggled as we tried to figure out what had possessed him to ask us about vodka. I mean, we knew these particular hills were alive with music, but not vodka-drinking hikers.
It wasn’t until a few laughter-filled minutes later, that it dawned on us what he had really asked.
“How was the walk up?”
To this day, Rachel and I still laugh about that story. And, it just goes to show that the hills are alive … with music, yes … but also with fresh air, exhilarating views, and very friendly German-speaking hikers. No vodka required.
Do you remember the charming, boutique bookstore owned by Meg Ryan's character in "You've Got Mail"?
I loved that bookstore. It made me want to own a bookstore. It was charming and welcoming and successful. Well, until Fox Books showed up! :-)
For my birthday, my family took me on a little weekend trip to Hood River, a charming little town nestled in the shadow of Mt. Hood and situated right on the Columbia River. Gorgeous!
The downtown area is bursting with unique shops and hip restaurants ... including our family favorite - G. Williker's Toy Shoppe!
I've never been so taken with a toy shop. Every inch housed something new to look at ... toys we had never seen before at other stores. It was completely enchanting. It made me want to own a toy store.
We decided we needed to schedule a quarterly drive to Hood River, armed with a list of all upcoming birthdays and holidays, to purchase gifts from this hidden gem!
Have you made any fun discoveries lately?!
Friday marks my 40th birthday ... and, I must admit that I'm a bit in shock that - in response to the 'What is your age?' question on surveys, the box I'll need to check is in an entirely different decade than before.
Five years ago, my hubby and I each shared what we wanted to do for our 40th birthday. I decided I wanted to celebrate it in Italy. Fast forward five years ... with school and work and extracurricular schedules and a pesky lack of funding for such a trip, it is clear this particular wish is not going to be realized. Maybe we'll aim for 45.
Anyway, I've been feeling a bit wistful for Italy ... and, so, felt the need to remind myself that the last time I was there, it wasn't all glamorous. I posted the story below a couple years ago, and thought this would be the perfect occasion for a re-post.
Thanks to the creative mind of blogger/author/illustrator, Douglas Florian, this time around we'll rename the post, "Flearence"!
*******
Some might find it surprising that I have such an obsession with Italy considering what happened to me while vacationing in the beautiful country a few years back. Hubby and I learned, after our trip, that the weather we thought to be normal for the late May/early June timeframe was very much non-typical. In fact, they had been experiencing a somewhat unusual heat wave. And heat waves can, apparently, bring on infestations of certain pests, namely fleas.
I should note here that I have an allergic reaction to flea bites. There’s a back story to that … I’ll share it at another time.
Our first stop was in Rome. There, I accumulated five or six flea bites. Thinking it to be a fluke, I grinned and beared the bites as they grew into large blisters. I was slightly miserable, but thoroughly enjoying the historic and culinary experience that is Rome.
Florence was the second stop of this dream vacation. In an effort to be frugal, I had found a wonderful Florence apartment on-line, boasting a gorgeous view of the Duomo. The owner was going to be traveling while we were in town, and had made his flat available for a reasonable price to gullible travelers such as myself.
The flat, with its musty stench and jungle-like plant arrangements did – in fact – have a view of the Duomo. Yes it did. If you went into the bathroom, which measured approximately 3 feet by 5 feet, and stood on your tip-toes to look out the 1 foot by 1 foot window, you could see the peak of the Duomo perfectly. (See that little bug, strategically located on the picture above? That's the bathroom window of our flat, as seen from the top of the Duomo! :-))
The bathroom – view or not – brought me to tears. Upon arriving in sizzling Florence, with my ever-so-itchy blisters, all I wanted to do was wash away the itchiness with a shower. After standing on my tip-toes to view the
15 Comments on Beware the Fleas of Italy, last added: 1/21/2011
OK, I know you're bored with me banging on about my holiday now, but there's a nice story I want to tell, before we move on.
During our first day on Procida, strolling the streets, getting the lie of the land, we peered through the open door of a massive old church. Inside, instead of the usual icons and statues, were slender, wooden easels, bound together in groups, displaying watercolours of the island. We went in for a nosy.
The work was lovely and, in a back corner beyond the paintings, an incongruous huddle of sofas and armchairs snuggled together around a rug. We were welcomed enthusiastically by two men and, in broken English, they explained that the elder, Enzo Campanino, was a painter and lecturer, his companion, a poet.
The exhibition was part of an Artists' Collective they had recently formed on the island, including musicians and writers, as well as painters. We were later joined by a pianist, although unfortunately she spoke no English at all (and my Italian is more or less limited to buon giorno). 
Well, I couldn't resist it: I whipped out my sketchbook (ever the show-off) and showed them the drawings I'd done in the mountains. That was it: we were shown to the comfy chairs and presented with cake and glasses of Lemoncello (the delicious local tipple). I was given a huge guestbook and asked to do a drawing of Enzo.
I did my best (the pressure of proper portraiture is always a bit daunting). In return, Enzo gave me a lovely watercolour sketch as a memento: 
I came away feeling wonderful. The exchange of work and ideas is such a lovely thing to share. Hello and thank you to Enzo and the artists of Procida if you are reading this!
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Anglesey! Last time I was there, it was scorching hot (Ynas Dylas, if my Welsh spelling's right)and some hooligans set fire to the Menai Bridge. Yes, I did sketch a lot then and my artist companion painted. Gorse and bluebells...
Nice to see some landscapes of open sea and cloud filled skies. I can imagine how cold your fingers must have gotten in the freezing weather … unless you can sketch wearing gloves. These hurried scenes are lovely!
Thank you - glad you like them. I mainly work in fingerless gloves at this time of year, but my fingers still freeze!
Hi Lynne, Lovely on Anglesey isn't it... I was there in October visiting a few schools. Hope to catch up with you when you over our way again...
What beautiful scenery, thankyou for sharing.