Kangaroo Gets 15 Mins of Fame!

I have just heard that Kangaroo's Cancan Cafe is going to be featured on CBBC sometime soon! The author, Julia Jarman, just emailed me with the good news. Exciting stuff.

Actually, between you and me, I'm feeling slightly unloved, because Julia has had a contract for the broadcast arrive from the publisher this morning, while I have heard nothing at all.

This happened once before, about a year ago, with The Show at Rickety Barn, which has now been read quite a few times on CBeebies for Bedtime Story. But it wasn't until Tim, a friend of mine, emailed me one day to say, 'I've just seen your book on TV!' that I found out anything about it. Well done Tim! Unfortunately, I never got to see it, as I don't have children, but since that first time it must have been repeated, as a few other friends with young kids have been in touch from time to time.

Jemma Beeke, the author of The Show at Rickety Barn, got her contract and fee (admittedly not exactly enough to go on holiday with, but still...), whereas I am still trying to sort it out!

So 'thank you' to Julia, for letting me know, so I don't get left out again. And I hope this time I get to see my moment on TV!

Children's Book Illustration and Children's Workshops

This morning, the three pieces of my artwork from Dragon's Dinner arrived with the postman - a massive, flat package, almost as big as me. You may remember that I have been waiting for these to come back from my publisher, to use as colour reference for the remaining cover and endpaper artwork .

In the package, I also got the DVD containing the digital scans of everything so far, which somehow makes it all feel real. Above is one of my favourites: the first page of the book, with the dragon waking up in his cave, deciding he feels peckish.

I have spent most of the day working on the cover, and it's more or less finished. I like to listen to stories or podcasts while I work. It helps to keep me feeling upbeat and relaxed.

One sudden crisis though - I seem to have run out of fixative! Luckily, I have a lovely, local art supply shop, called Artscene who will deliver in an emergency. I always buy my pastels and paper there, as I much prefer to support someone local. It's a brilliant place: one of those Aladdin's Cave shops, very tiny, but with stuff piled upon stuff, right up to the ceiling. It's a pretty tight squeeze getting in and out, and I always have to rearrange a few things before I can access the cabinet to choose my pastels.

The CD from Stockport Art Gallery arrived this morning too, with some more photos from my illustration workshop. I thought this was a nice shot - if I can, I do enough flipchart animal drawings for each child to take one home. Easy with small groups, and fine with large school groups, where it's obviously impossible. Tricky though, when you have around a dozen, as you can't give them to more than half the group, and not all. That's when I generally miss my train home!

I like this one too, he looks so engrossed...


And finally today, our caption competition. I have no idea at all what I was doing when this photo was taken. I do have a tendency to wave my arms around and pull embarrassing faces, so weird and unflattering photos from events are a regular feature. Any ideas for funny captions should be posted below!

Cubeweb - Ezine and Writing Competition!

I have just been sent something that might be good fun if you are under 18 and enjoy writing.

Cube is a magazine for young people that you can get for FREE in Sheffield. But you don't have to live in Sheffield to look at it on-line as Cubeweb! Have a look at the website: http://www.cubeweb.org.uk/ A friend of mine has helped set it up, working with local young people, and it sounds really brilliant - you can see films and writing done by other young people, submit your own writing or ideas, and even chat to other people your own age on the Cubeweb forum.

And if you are between 13 and 18, this is a great time to have a look if you do enjoy writing, because they have a competition on called WriteAway. You can enter a story, a poem or even a letter or made-up diary entry, but it has to be about one of four characters you can find on the WriteAway website at www.cubeweb.org.uk/writeaway. Hurry up and look though, because the deadline is September 12th - that's just 3 weeks, which sounds a lot, but it will shoot by!

Tracing Up the Cover of Dragon's Dinner

Today I have been back in the studio, making a start on the remaining bits of artwork needed to finish off Dragon's Dinner. You may remember, I posted most of the artwork to the publisher nearly 2 weeks ago.

I thought I had only the cover left, but the Designer told me last week that we now have the money to have coloured endpapers - a rare treat - so that means I need to do some artwork for them too. The endpapers, for anyone who doesn't know, are the pages stuck down to the cover at either end, anchoring it to the inside pages. I had originally thought that I would do a sketch of the animals in the story being chased across the bottom of the pages by the dragon (into the book on the front endpaper, and then out of the book on the final one) which would be printed in line only, like above. We have decided that I will do much the same thing, but in the pastels, like the rest of the book.

I'm doing the cover artwork first though, as there's a bit of a tight deadline, and that's the more important piece. It needs to be ready in time for the publisher to take a proof of the book to a big trade fair in Frankfurt in October, where publishers from around the world meet and try to negotiate foreign editions of their up-coming books.

This morning I printed out the line drawing of the cover image from my computer (a bit bigger than the final book size, so it's less fiddly to work on in the pastels). The picture here is just the front cover, it actually wraps around the back too, with his wings and tail. Next I cut my pastel paper to the right size, tacked the line drawing behind, and traced up the image on my light box. This is me tracing up an early spread from Dragon's Dinner. I have black-out blinds on all the windows, so when I'm not posing for a photo, it's actually quite dark!

As you can see, I draw on pink paper. This is because the paper has to have a texture to hold on to the pastel properly, which means that you can usually see tiny spots of the paper colour through the chalk, even when it's finished. If you work onto white, this looks terrible, whereas pink is a handy mid-tone and adds a subtle warmth to all the drawings. It's a lovely texture too, that makes the printed illustrations look a bit different. If anyone is interested in having a go at pastels, the paper I use is Canson Tientes, available in most art supply shops, and it comes in loads of different colours.

When the line-drawing was done, I sprayed it with fixative. This is because I will quickly obscure the lines with chalk, as soon as I put the pastel background in (you always do the main background colours first). So what I then do, is carefully rub back the areas where there are to be animals etc, re-exposing my guidelines just enough to see what I am doing. But if I forget to fix the line before I start, that rubs out too!

I have tacked the prepared paper to my drawing board with masking tape in each corner, ready to start colouring with the pastels, and stuck the print-out of the line drawing alongside, as an additional guide. I have asked the publisher to return a couple of key pieces (ones showing similar images), which I will also tack to my board. This is to use as colour reference and to ensure continuity: the characters have to remain exactly the same throughout the book, or I'm in trouble!

But this previously finished artwork has to get back from being scanned first. The publishers usually send it off to the Far East somewhere (it's cheaper). Scanning turns my pastel drawings into digital images. All my original artwork is then returned to the publisher along with a DVD full of the digital versions. These are then ready for the Designer, who puts the illustrations together with the text, to create the layout of the final book.

The Designer told me this afternoon that the finished scans have just arrived on her desk, so my bits should be with me in the morning. While I am waiting, I think I'll trace up the endpapers too, so I'm all ready for lift-off when things arrive!

More Cat Trouble...

Before I got down to work this morning, I threw Maddy out of the studio. She's got the run of the rest of the house, but now I am about to start on some artwork I don't want any repeats of the 'flying Smudge' experience (see Cats and Pastels Don't Mix!). Unfortunately, she found alternative trouble to get into...

Ups & Downs in D.H. Lawrence Land

A rather mixed day...

About six months back, I was invited to run some workshops at the Durban House Heritage Centre in Nottingham, as part of their D.H. Lawrence Festival. These were for adults, which makes a pleasant change, so I have been looking forward to it. The day came this Saturday, so Friday night saw me gathering together various bits of artwork and roughs into a portfolio, with a range of posters for creating a display. I also packed up my little suitcase with books to talk around, books to display and books to sign.


I had decided to do a similar workshop to the Stockport one (see Stockport Art Gallery), creating illustrations of predators, and then using them as the inspiration for stories. This time though, I was going to base it on Rocky and the Lamb, a book I did with Greg Gormley, which features this rather hairy monster, and on the Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur! drawings (see Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur!).

I booked a nice early train, so there was plenty of time to set myself up and have a cup of tea before kick-off. It was a good-size room, with the two big tables I'd asked for next to the flip chart at the front, a semi-circle of chairs facing me expectantly, and tables behind them, ready for the drawing and writing activities. I stood my picture books up along the front tables, and stuck my posters along the front edge, so they hung down nearly to the floor, like a colourful table cloth. While I was setting out paper & pencils on the guest's tables, I asked the organiser what sort of numbers we had booked in. She went away to find out, while I drew my usual 'welcome' drawing on the flip chart: this time a rhino swinging in a tree (dressed as Tarzan and based on the cover illustration from When You're Not Looking).

I was rather disappointed to hear that there was just one person booked in for the morning session, and four for the afternoon, but didn't despair: there are almost always quite a few who turn up on spec. Still, clearly this was not going to be standing room only; the organiser helped me remove a lot of the chairs and a couple of tables. Five minutes before the off, she left me to it and I sat down at the front to finish my tea. Generally they wait and do and introduction, but I'm quite happy to be left to my own devices.

Twenty minutes later, I left the still empty room and took myself off to reception. 'Shall we give them a ring?' suggested the lady on the front desk sympathetically, the almost virginal booking form in hand. It all seemed a bit desperate, but, 'Yes,' I said 'that's a good idea.' But my one and only client was not at home. 'Perhaps she's on her way?' said the receptionist, unconvincingly hopeful. 'I'll hang on another five minutes,' I said and went back to my room. Outside, the sun was shining. I thought of my garden, the one I'd had almost no opportunity to sit in recently.

It was quite a wait until my afternoon session at 2.00. I contemplated wandering about. Fortunately, Durban House was right next to a tiny park. It had two benches, and a children's play area. I chose a bench, ate my sandwiches and read a book.

When I got back just before 2.00, there were three women waiting for me. I tried not to look too obviously grateful. When an elderly couple joined us, it felt almost like a crowd, but then they broke the news that he was there to take some photos, and his wife was just tagging along for the ride. Never mind, we were back in business.

It was in the end, a really creative afternoon. I talked for about half an hour, then each of the three women drew very different, but equally powerful illustrations. We had a pouncing tiger (tackled front-on: very tricky), a terrifying, but beautifully drawn owl, and a curious half-man, half-cat creature, remeniscent of the Greek Myths. We didn't get as far as writing the stories, but we spent quite a while talking through various possibilities arising from the drawings, and matching them to the structure of a picture book.

And Alan Clayden and his wife stayed for quite a while too. He took masses of photos and promised to send me a CD. I gave him a big drawing of Rocky the wolf as a souvenir.

All's well that ends well.

Stockport event pictures

I have just been emailed a sneak preview of some of the pictures that were taken during my recent children's event at the gallery in Stockport. I've popped one from the story-writing session directly into that day's blog (see Stockport Art Gallery). Here are the others, from the illustration workshop. I think the kangaroo has just realised he may have a problem!

I'm expecting a CD in the post soon, so I'll publish some more in a bit.

Cats and Pastels Don't Mix!

We are looking after another cat at the moment, Maddy, while friends are on holiday, and I'm enjoying having the company around the house. Normally it's just me during the day, with a short 'hello' from the postman if my luck is in.

Fortunately Maddy is altogether more diginified than poor Clyde (see Chopping and Changing), and is used to little holidays with us, so there is no inappropriate peeing. As you can see, she is rather sweet (Maddy is the little furry one, the other character is John, my long-suffering husband), although she does enjoy sitting on my graphics tablet, which is not entirely helpful.

We have to be careful not to let her out, but I nearly lost her onto the roof earlier! My attic studio has big, velux windows on both sides of the roof, which allow in lots of light, but it can get a bit hot up here on a sunny day, so I often have them open, to get a nice through draught. I turned round from the computer, to find Maddy perched on my tall, draughsman's drawing chair, stretching up ready to jump into mid-air...

Which reminds me of another bit of 'cat flight' some years back, with the wonderfully grumpy Smudge. This is an illustration I did for John, back when we had her, of him trying to put Smudge to bed in the kitchen, a nightly battle of wills.

Anyway, one day I had nearly finished a large piece of pastel artwork, and it was tacked to my drawing desk. You may have noticed from my earlier photo that I have my desk at an angle - this prevents the visual distortion you get working on large drawings on a flat surface, but mostly it helps the chalk dust to fall away, off the bottom of the drawings.

Poor Smudge was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, so didn't forsee the shortcomings of trying to sit on an angled surface, and launched herself at the desk from across the room. If we had been in a film, it would have happened in slow motion. I turned from the doorway to see her in mid flight and, powerless to prevent the inevitable, screamed and ran at her, arms flailing...

The unexpected commotion panicked her, but it was too late to alter her trajectory. She hit the desk dead centre, scrambled in vain for purchase, then slid down the middle of my drawing, leaving perfect tram-lines in the chalk before her undignified crash to the floor. She was so freaked out by my screeching, that she barely touched the ground before shooting under the adjescent plans chest, where she cowered in the corner, refusing to come out for the rest of the day.

Fortunately the damage was not as bad as I expected, and it only took about 20 minutes to touch things up. Smudge was banned from the studio though. Maddy doesn't know it yet, but she's about to be kicked out too, as I am starting on some pastel work immediately after the holiday.

This, by the way, is a card I made for John, featuring Smudge (Photoshopped onto a vintage photograph from the Hulton Deutsch catalogue). Inside it reads: Feline Rountines no 3: Cat Hair - John's new protective suit was proving to be just the ticket.

Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur!

Well, another bit of news has just come in, about one of the books that I am currently working on (a dinosaur flap book, by Tony Mitton). I finished the coloured artwork in the early summer. It was going to be called Dippy Diplodocus and the cover was going to look like this:

But everything has changed! The publisher, Kingfisher, has decided to publish it as two books instead of squeezing it all into one, and the new title is going to be Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur! which I think is much more punchy. This is so that the 2nd book can be called Rumble, Roar, Dinosaur! to make a nice pair. I am going to have to do a little bit more artwork, but not much. This is the new cover:

It was great fun to illustrate. Each page features a different dinosaur, bumbling about and doing whatever dinosaurs do to pass the time, but when you lift the flap, they spring into action (which usually means trying to eat something or someone!). The T.Rex page has 2 flaps, each the size of the full page, so it opens out into an enormous picture. Should be perfect for boys, and great for the Boys Into Books campaign.

It was especially interesting to draw, because the dinosaurs had to be very accurate. I was sent lots of reference by Kingfisher, and even given my very own dinosaur specialist to confer with! He checked over all the roughs and helped me to tweek them, so they were just right. The challenge was trying to turn them into fun, picture-book characters, without losing the accuracy.

One very interesting thing happened at the rough stage, with the Deinonychus drawings. When Dinosaur Man saw them, he said: 'Ah, sorry about this, bit of a problem. The reference I sent has just gone out of date: we have dug something else up.' Turns out, they had it all wrong and the Deinonychus now has feathers and a sort of toothy beak! This is how experts thought it looked originally:

And below is what I had to change it to. Typical that it had to be the page where there were a whole gang of them to re-draw (what is the collective noun for dinosaurs, I wonder?). This is just the ones under the flap - there was a whole extra image on the main page! Worth it though, as they are much funnier in their new feathers.

Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur! is due out in June 2009. It's always such a long wait!

Billy Goats Fluff

Phew, a day back in the studio! Unfortunately that means spending quite a while this morning doing boring things like writing invoices and catching up on all my emails (anyone remember what did we do before email?).

A bit of bad news tucked in amongst it all - I'm not going to be illustrating the Billy Goat's Fluff story after all. Because it's the same publisher that I worked with on the Giddy Goat books, they have decided that I shouldn't do another a goat book. I suppose that makes sense. What a shame though, I was looking forward to that one. It will be fascinating to see what the illustrator they choose does with it though. I can see the beginnings of my version in my head already. Trouble is, I've probably got a wait of around 18 months before I get to nosey at the actual finished book.

Stockport Art Gallery

A bit of a hectic middle to the week. I have just spent 3 days solid doing children's events, in Stockport, Leeds and Derby. Good fun, but quite tiring, not least because of the early mornings! More opportunities for train victims though - this is Mr Tuesday morning.

Tuesday was a bit unusual actually. Remember I mentioned that Class Two at the Zoo has been shortlisted for the Stockport School's Book Award? Well, it's actually judged by kids (the shortlisted books are sent into local schools, where the kids read them all and vote for their favourite). The organisers decided to extend the process this year, and asked each child to do an illustration of the book they had voted for. They hung the best as an exhibition in Stockport Art Gallery and, to add value and publicity to the event, I was invited to spend a day in the space working with local children.

I started with an illustration workshop based on Class Two at the Zoo. We did big, scary creatures chasing after things. I gave tips on how to draw 'chasing', like leaning the characters forwards, getting the arms and legs in the right positions, and using tails to show speed. Then I showed how easily you can get a scary, 'I want to eat you' face, by turning a round head into a moon shape, then adding teeth, tongue and some eyes on top (with angry eyebrows). They did some smashing drawings and we took lots of photos, so hopefully I might be able to include some for you to see soon. 'Gold Star' to the mum who reluctantly had a go and then did a quite extraordinary, almost A1 sized gorilla!

I did a story-writing workshop next, which made a nice change (and a big 'thank you' to all those enthusiastic kids who turned up for both). The children suggested ideas for story components and then we pulled things randomly out of a bag, and wove them in. Not everyone wanted to read out, which was fine, but those we heard were great. Finish them off kids, and I can put them in the website story gallery!



I was thrilled to meet Thomas Honey at my afternoon storytelling session, as he had voted for Class Two at the Zoo, and had done a lovely illustration of the hippos hopping in the mud, which was hanging in the final exhibition (well done Thomas!) We both got a bit excited and his gran took our photo together by his painting.

For the storyetlling session, I read Class Three All At Sea, as that's the sequel to Class Two, and also I wanted to wear the pirate hat I'd made. Plus I get to put on silly voices and make jokes about bogeys and seagull poo (don't ask!). The children did smashing, sea-fairing pictures.

I managed to draw enough flip-chart animal pictures for everyone to take one home (including more than one 'princess' butterfly). I was so worn out on the train home, I didn't even victimise any poor, unsuspecting travellers...

Meeting Gary and Mark

Despite having the sniffles today (one drawback to working with children) and having to spend the afternoon catching up an admin, I had a lovely morning, and it's been something a bit different. Illustrators Gary Jenkinson-Graham and Mark Holiday came to the studio, to show me their early drawings for what will hopefully become a gorgeous picture book in the not too distant future. The meeting is part of a project with a company called Inspiral, who help new or aspiring artists and designers to get their work published, by pairing them up with people in the industry (like me!) for advice and guidance.

Gary and Mark are doing something rather unusual: they are working on a book together, but not in the normal way, with one as illustrator and the other as author. They are working together on the illustrations. 'How on earth do they do that?' I can hear you ask, since it was pretty much what I asked them myself, when we first met a few months back. Well, Gary is a fabulous draughtsman and cartoonist, and Mark does the most exquisitely detailed paintings on the computer, so they are combining their skills. Having discussed what the illustration should contain, Gary designs the characters and creates a detailed drawing, which he then passes to Mark, who chooses the colour palette and turns it into a painting. They have two very interesting stories, one written by Mark and one by Gary, and I am helping them to get their ideas into shape, ready to present to a publisher.

At our first meeting, the stories were still in their heads, so we talked a lot about practical considerations like how long a picture book should be (28 pages) and what age spread it should be aimed at (3/4 - 7/8yrs), as well as how you should present your ideas to a publisher and how the business of publishing books works. They have decided to concentrate on Mark's story first, and this time came with a written text, Gary's sketches of the main characters (including an extraordinary little ship), some sketched ideas and a couple of beautifully coloured illustrations by Mark. I'm really enjoying talking through the work with them, batting ideas back and forth, and helping them to enforce the necessary structure on the project, so the story can fit the picture book format.

Today we discussed how you sometimes have to lose sections of the writing, paring things down so there isn't too much text and enough room is left for the illustrations. We also tried out the really interesting exercise of trying to divide the story between the pages. Not only do you have to spread the text reasonably evenly, but of course page divisions have to come where new images are needed. At the same time, you have to pace the adventure properly, so the action and tension comes in the right places, all the time keeping a balance between smaller illustrations: single pages, or vignettes (even smaller pictures, where you might get several on a page), and lovely, big, double-page spreads. And all of this, while still keeping it to the necessary 28 pages. No easy task!

Fortunately, when you are working on a commissioned book, a lot of this is done by the Editor and the Designer at the publisher, so the author and illustrator are left to do what they do best! But Gary and Mark need to think about all these things, so they can present their story in as professional way as possible and increase its chances of finding a publisher.

I can't wait until our next meeting, when Mark should have the story fitting properly, and Gary should have his 'roughs' (line-drawings of all the illustrations) worked out. Mark will probably have painted one or two of them for me to see, but he won't be colouring it all up - publishers like to make so many changes that it's not worth doing more than a couple of sample pages in colour, just enough to let them see how great it is going to look if only they take it on...

Chopping and Changing

I thought I ought to just mention that you will almost certainly be seeing some alterations to the way this blog looks over the next few weeks. Sorry for all the chopping and changing, I know it's already morphed its appearance once! I need to get my head around how things work, then I need to wait for a bit of a breathing space, so I can concentrate on the design side of things. Got a lot on next week, but perhaps after that...

I apologise if it's all a bit disorientating, but I will get there in the end. In the meantime, here's a silly picture to brighten up this post. It's an illustration that I did a while back, just for fun (or perhaps for catharsis?) when we were looking after a friend's cat for few weeks, while she moved house. Clyde was very loving and a joy to have around in all respects EXCEPT his personal hygene. I think to be fair he was a bit upset by it all, but unfortunately he chose to express his problems in pee. He peed everywhere, in copious quantities. Our friend was mortified and paid for someone to steam clean the house, but it smelled for ages!

My New Children's Picture Book!

Well, I certainly picked the right time to start this blog - everything is happening at once! I have just received the advance copy of my brand new picture book The ABC of Nursery Rhymes, published by Chicken House.

It's always very exciting when the very first copy arrives in the post. This book is a little different to usual though, as the illustrations have been published before, in 2002, in a very different format. The Children's Book of Alphabets brought together the work of four different illustrators, four books in one really. We each illustrated the alphabet in a different way. As you can see, mine used nursery rhymes as a theme. There is a traditional rhyme beginning with each letter of the alphabet in turn. Great fun to do and a bit different for me, as there are more people in it than usual (as opposed to animals).

The editor at Chicken House was really pleased, and she said that she would like to turn my section into a stand-alone picture book. It's been such a long time, I thought she had changed her mind, but here it is!

If you would like to see some of the illustrations from the book, take a look at my website http://www.lynnechapman.co.uk/. For the moment they are only listed under the original anthology title, but the pictures are the same.

Finished!

I finally got my act together this morning, and mounted up the finished artwork for Dragon's Dinner. This is my latest project, illustrating a very funny story written by Susannah Corbett. The artwork is winging its way to Hodder as we speak: a massive package nearly a metre long with FRAGILE - DO NOT BEND scrawled all over it!! Slightly nerve-wracking, because things do go wrong occasionally.

So far I've been lucky, but a good friend had a disaster a while back. If you have young children, you probably know the fabulous author/illustrator Lydia Monks (Aaaah Spider!, I Wish I Was a Dog etc.). She had the artwork for a whole book go mysteriously missing in transit once. She had to do the whole lot again. I can't even begin to imagine doing that - I'd just melt into a sobbing heap. Please Mr Postman, take note!

Actually, I'm fibbing slightly about Dragon's Dinner being completely finished. I still have the cover artwork to do in a couple of weeks. We generally leave that until the end, as it's the most important drawing. By the time I have drawn the whole book, I am well practised at the characters, plus it's easier to get ideas for the cover when you've seen what it all looks like.

This is a picture of me colouring the artwork for Dragon's Dinner. As you can see, I have a very big drawing desk, which means I can tack my line-drawing of the page I'm working on alongside the artwork sheet. This really helps, because the pastels very soon cover up the pencil lines that I've traced onto my pastel paper. I also tack a finished illustration to the board, for colour reference: it's really important that the characters stay the same all the way through the story, and that a blue chair doesn't suddenly become a red chair by accident! Sometimes I also stick reference photos next to my work.

By the way, the smock I'm wearing is rather special. It used to belong to my grandad, a fanatical painter, who liked to copy old masters in oils. I always wear it, partly because chalk pastels are so incredibly messy, but also because it feels like a lovely homage to him. It still has little holes in the front where occasionally he dropped roll-ups into his lap while he painted! Unfortunately after so many years of loyal service, it is beginning to fall apart. The cotton seems to be actually rotting away, so eventually I will have to put it away and get a new one. What a shame.

A Day in Derby

Today I have been out of the studio all day, working in Derby. It's the other side of my job: doing storytellings and workshops with children. Sometimes I do talks for teenagers and adults too, but mostly it's primary age kids. It was a really enjoyable day although, to be honest, I almost always have a great time. It's such fun, and the children always get so excited. They do some great drawings too. I think it's got to be one of the best ways of working with kids, because I don't have any National Curriculum stuff to worry about, and no assessments; I can do whatever I think will work best.

I started today with a couple of storytellings in 2 different libraries, then finished off with an illustration workshop at Peartree Library. It was part of the Summer Reading Challenge, which this year has a sporty theme, so I read Mr Strongmouse and the Baby, a book I did with Hiawyn Oram (Mr S. is a fitness fanatic who works out at a gym) and Giddy Goat by Jamie Rix (Giddy conquers a fear of heights and learns how to climb mountains). I did lots of big animal drawings on the flip chart for them to take home, and was able to hand out free bookmarks that the Lancashire Children's Festival had designed for me (they made a lovely job of them and had loads left over after the festival). I tried out a new song idea, to go with Mr Strongmouse: I wrote new words to the tune of the French round, Frere Jacques:

I've got muscles, I've got muscles
Give them a squeeze, give them a squeeze
I can lift a house up, I can lift a house up,
1 2 3, look at me!

It worked rather well, especially with my new maracas for accompaniment. We did lots of actions and the children suggested different things we could lift up.

For the workshop, the children all drew little mice holding up towers of unlikely things balanced on top of one another (ship, elephant, fire-engine, the world...) and we stuck sheets of A3 paper together to make really long pictures. I showed them my Arabic edition of Big Bad Wolf is Good, which is really interesting as you not only read the words in the opposite direction, but you read the entire book in reverse (the cover opens the other way and all the illustrations are mirror images of the UK version!) I also took some of my artwork to show them, and the early sketches for various pages. I like to show them my sketchbook too, to back up my 'hot tip' that all aspiring illustrators should carry one! I had done a sketch of some passengers on the train to Derby. I often do that to pass the time. I try to keep it clandestine, but sometimes people guess. This morning the man opposite me (the largest person on the page) realised, so I showed him the drawing. He told me it was his 60th birthday today. I must say, he didn't look it at all. Happy Birthday to you, man on the train!

Hello World!

Well, this is my very first attempt at a blog.

Today I am supposed to be mounting up the artwork for my latest book, Dragon's Dinner, which I finished on Friday - hurrah! Each drawing (there are 16 in all) has to be trimmed and tacked onto a sheet of white card. I then tape a sheet of paper to the top edge of each mount, which lies over the top of the drawing as protection and prevents the pastel from getting smudged. Once that's done I package it all up with stiff cardboard and post it off to the publisher. After around 6 weeks working on the coloured artwork, it's a lovely feeling - relief, excitement, freedom (although mixed in with worry, hoping it will arrive ok).

However, instead of getting on with my work, I am fiddling around with this. Part of the reason is that I am all excited because I have just been sent a new story to illustrate next. I probably shouldn't say too much at this stage, as nothing is definite, but it is such a fun one I just had to tell you. All I can say for now is that it is a re-telling of the Billy Goats Gruff, but with a few new twists. If you know my work, you will know that I rather like goats at the best of times, and this one has a troll too. Ugly and warty and grumpy - perfect! The goats in this one are all nervous and fluffy, which will be great to draw too. Hence the likely title, Billy Goats Fluff. Very silly.

One other bit of news - my book Class Two at the Zoo has been shortlisted for 2 awards: The Coventry Inspiration Book Award and The Stockport Schools Book Award. I've been shortlisted quite a few times before, but never actually won anything. So, if your kids are under 10 and live in Stockport or Coventry, why not have a go at voting? Of course I'm hoping they'll love Class Two at the Zoo and vote for me!

Cast your vote for Coventry online at: http://www.myvotescoventry.org/, and for Stockport by emailing schoolsbookaward@stockport.gov.uk Thank you! Crossing fingers and toes...

Must get back to it, so this it's goodbye for now.