When I was younger I remember being obsessed a book called ‘How to draw horses’. I spent HOURS trying to copy the pictures in it. Who knew that horses were made up of a series of jelly bean shapes and circles? I still find it difficult to draw horses (it’s the legs) but when I find myself getting muddled I try to refer back to the instructions I learnt from that book.
This book is also part of our Icelandic sojourn Reading Round Europe. Althought the author/photographer isn’t Icelandic himself, the book is all about an event which takes place Iceland. Before going any further I should point out that this book ought to come with a warning: Your child will beg you to holiday in Iceland after reading this book! (And you yourself may well be tempted to say yes). Photo: The.Rohit Nights of the Pufflings recounts an annual event on the island of Heimaey, just off the SW coast of Iceland, when for a couple of weeks in late summer the air is thick with pufflings, young puffins, taking their first flight, from the nests of their birth out to sea. Puffin anatomy is such that they are astonishingly skillful underwater, but not so graceful when airborn and often the pufflings don’t quite make it to the water on their first flight. And unable to take off from flat land things could look bleak for these grounded Pufflings. Photo: Stig Nygaard But help is at hand. The children on Heimaey come out at night at this time of year (nighttime is when the pufflings attempt their seabound flight) and gather up all the struggling pufflings in cardboard boxes and take them to the beach the following morning to send their guests on their way. For two weeks all the children of Heimaey sleep late in the day so they can stay out at night. They rescue thousands of pufflings. There are pufflings, pufflings everywhere, and helping hands too – even though the pufflings instinctively nip at helping fingers. This real life story is accompanied by a slew of beautiful photos of the events being described: it would seem there are few things more photogenic than puffins and Icelandic scenery. To add further local flavour, the text is peppered with Icelandic phrases, accompanied by pronunciation guides and translations, and further context is provided in the endpages with background information on both Puffins and the island of Heimaey. This book has proved incredibly popular with my girls. For a start the pufflings are adorable, and then there is this amazing true story where kids are the heroes of the day, not only getting to actually pick up the pufflings, but to rescue them and help them. It’s a story tha
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By: Zoe,
on 2/13/2011
Blog: Playing by the book
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Today I’m taking part again in Nonfiction Monday, a weekly carnival in the kidlitosphere celebrating the best of nonfiction books for children. My contribution is a review of Nights of the Pufflings by Bruce McMillan. 
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By: Hannah Shaw,
on 9/16/2011
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Hannah Shaw,
on 9/16/2011
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Recently I was asked by Puffin Post to do a double page spread of instructions on how to draw a puffin. They sent me some examples by quite famous illustrators like Ed Vere... I panicked, I’d never drawn a puffin before! This is where Google images was, I shamefully admit, a life-saver. In defence, it was unlikely I would have been able to see a live puffin anywhere in a 100 mile radius (Bristol Zoo perhaps?). It is even more unlikely I would have been able to get close enough to draw one. I used Google images a bit like the ‘How to draw horses’ book except I had to interpret what I saw from some very romantic photographs of puffins at sunset or puffin landing majestically with fish. I found that breaking down a puffin into essentially a potato shape and then adding all the extra bits like wings and beak worked quite well.
I worry that the children who had a go at following my ‘How to draw a Puffin’ instructions will think that what they have drawn is an anatomically correct puffin. They definitely haven’t, they only have to do a google image search to see what a real one looks like! However, what they will have, is a unique Hannah Shaw style 'one off' (with two eyes on the side of its head) because as much as I enjoyed doing this, I don’t think it’s likely I’ll be drawing puffins again for a while!
3 Comments on My new favourite word – Pufflings, last added: 2/14/2011
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Now that is interesting because you said potato and I looked at your first shape and thought "peanut in a shell"! I do most definitely like your puffins though, especially in a deckchair at the seaside!
Please continue drawing your puffin characters. Love the fishy ice too. I saw puffins on the Farne Islands. Maybe your How to draw page will inspire some children to research to discover a life long love of birds.
I love the two-eyes bit!
Isn't it interesting how google has become the "get your references together" for lots of artists these days.But I, too, still have a shelf full of how to paint, how to draw, how to do pastels, how to etc etc books from my younger days and I still love them. But google is definitely the quick way to check something out and adapt for use.
Love your website btw.
This is fantastic! I wish you'd been the illustrator for my book about a puffin (Muffin). Not that the illustrator I had isn't good, but your puffins are much more fun. I will now spend the morning drawing puffins instead of writing.
I agree - your puffins are lovely!
This is a gorgeous post. Love those puffins with two eyes on one side. Love all your artwork, Hannah!
I also remember the ‘How to draw horses’ book!
An illustrator in an ad agency I worked for, years ago, had a huge stack of Sunday Times mags under his desk to use for pictorial ref. How much easier to go to Google!
I'd quite like to p-p-pick up one of your p-p-puffins and give it a hug :-)
Jane Gray
Thanks for all your kind comments everyone! I may have to do another post on 'how to draw humans' quite possibly the most difficult creature to masterfully interpret with a pencil...and the bit I ALWAYS get stuck on? The hands!