Splinky and the Space Cat

I simply have to introduce you to someone who I think is very nearly a genius...

You may remember me talking about Illustration Friday (see Illustration Friday). I only do it occasionally, when I have time, but Michael Smetham does it every week. He writes a great cartoon strip called Splinky the Space Cat, which is so clever, because he always manages to incorporate the Illustration Friday theme.

What makes Splinky and the Space Cat so impressive though, is that the cartoon is a continuous narrative, that relies on the entirely arbitrary Illustration Friday topic to move the story on each time. Despite this, it always makes perfect sense, no matter how tricky the word he has to use.

The story is so inventive and fun. Plus, as you can see, his illustrations are beautifully drawn and his colours are gorgeous!

Do go and read the strip: if his blog's lack of comments and followers are anything to go by, Splinky and the Space Cat remains relatively undiscovered, despite Michael's incredible talents.

Self Portrait at the Hairdressers

Bit of a boring day today, trying to colate all the info for my forthcoming school visits. Sitting at the computer going through emails, sending emails, answering emails...

Fortunately I had to finish work a bit early, to go and have my hair highlights done. My hairdresser always uses these folded papers, which I think make me look like a suit of Japanese armour. Or maybe an armadillo...

I have to sit for 40 mins while the colour takes, so I sketched and then painted myself in the mirror. It's a local place rather than a posh salon, very friendly, and I love the clutter!

Dinosaurs Are Back!

If you're a regular reader, you will recall me talking about a dinosaur project I've been working on, with Tony Mitton. It started life as a single picture book, Dippy Diplodocus but Kingfisher decided to divide the artwork up and turn it into two separate books (see Gnash Gnaw Dinosaur!).

The first title, Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur!, is ready to go now, and coming out in June. Amazingly, I only need to do one extra piece of artwork to make the split possible: the opening spread for the second book, Rumble, Roar, Dinosaur!

The brief came through last week. It is to be a similar sort of illustration to the first page of Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur, introducing the various dinosaurs featured. This is the intro page from book one:

I have just finished the rough for book two. The publisher sent me a print-out of the text I had to incorporate, at actual size. I used this to work out a first draft, by sketching directly onto the sheet (the faint line running down the centre is the book's crease, or 'gutter', where no text or dinosaur's faces must cross).

The reason the draughtsmanship is not less scrappy for a first sketch, is that of course I designed all the dinosaurs previously, when I did the bulk of the work. So all I had to do was find a way to arrange them.

There are swimming, land-based and flying dinosaurs in each book, so it was a challenge creating an environment to show them all together, and hard to make it different from the first book. This is the final, tidied up rough which I emailed to Kingfisher for approval:

I have drawn a more rocky setting for the new illustration and intend to use colour to really make the difference. I will base the rocks on the colours I saw in Australia, so it will be very orange, purple and pink, like this piece I did recently:

If you want to find out more about how I drew this pastel illustration, see Cover Gets Colour, where I give a step-by-step account of the process.

First Visit of the Year

I've started educational visits early this year.


It's unusual to be doing them yet. Normally things finish around mid November until the end of February. This is very good news: last year was very busy, but I suspected once National Year of Reading was over, things would dry up a bit.

My first event of the new year was a Saturday morning storytelling session, for family groups at Clay Cross Library in Derbyshire.

We had a good turn out and they were a really nice bunch of people. I was impressed that several of the mums had a go at the drawing bit too - normally grown-ups get a look of panicky terror if I offer them paper and pencil.

The children all designed these monsters and, as you can see, even Gran got stuck in!


I moved to Chesterfield library in the afternoon, for a talk and workshop.

There was one little boy who I was keen to meet. The week before, Miles's Mum emailed me a dragon story he had written. It was a bit scary, but rather exciting and really good for someone only 7 years old. I met the author in person, with his Dad, at the library event. He gave me a newly revised copy of the story, so I did him a drawing of a dragon to take home! I'll be putting Miles's story on the website shortly.

This is one of the sketches I did on the train that morning.

My First Watercolour Sketches

I got a Cotman travelling watercolour set for Christmas, and have been desperate to try it out. I had a brief fiddle last week, but only tinting a sketch after the event (see Teaching Students), which isn't quite the same.

The opportunity arose on Wednesday: my day trip to London, which meant two nice long train trips. Even better, my lovely, generous publisher bought me First Class tickets, so I would be guaranteed a table to work at - what a treat!

As well as complimentary newspapers, free coffee and even a bicci, there was indeed a lovely big table laid out with napkins, mugs and glasses, and nice, wide seats, which made painting much more feasible. It soon became a right mess though, as you see above! There's something funny going on with the scale of the mug in front, but you get the idea.


This one with the newspaper was my first attempt, followed by the lady at the top. I was a bit worried at first about destroying the drawings, but I'm really pleased with the way the colour helps, and I had great fun.

When I arrived, I met up with author Julia Jarman, and our publisher took us to lunch at Pizza Express (thank you Hachette!). I didn't think it was appropriate to whip out my sketchbook over lunch (and I was too busy scoffing).

After the trip to Happy Films (see Recording Studio) We made our way back to St Pancras and said our goodbyes. I had a few minutes to wait for my train, so I drew the people waiting by the departures board. I got so into it, I very nearly missed my train!

This was the last sketch of the day. Unfortunately the train was an emergency stand-in so, though we still had our big seats and tables, there were no fancy bits and bobs. They had no buffet food, and even ran out of hot water for coffee before they got to me!

The up side was that, instead of the single glass of wine I should have got, they kept it flowing. And of course, we English are at our best in adversity, so we all started chatting to our neighbours. I showed my sketchbook around and the steward left us the bottle. The very nice man above moved over to my table half way up and the journey flew by, despite the rumbling tummies.

Recording Studio

I had a really interesting trip to London on Wednesday: Julia Jarman and I were invited to the studio of BAFTA award winning Happy Films.

You might remember me telling you that Class Two at the Zoo was to be featured as part of a brand new show on CITV called Bookaboo. It's for kids and parents, and revolves around this cute, rock-star puppy who can’t perform his drum solo unless he’s had a story. Each day a different, high-profile, celebrity guest meets Bookaboo back stage and helps him out by reading to him.

I had no idea what to expect from the day, but it was fascinating. Julia and I met the producer, Lucy Gooman, and animator Andrea Tran (yes, they have animated our story!) and we got to see how the show was coming along.

The celebrity recordings had already been done, so we didn't get to meet anyone really famous (the names are secret, but our celeb is BRILLIANT!). What we saw was the next stage - I had no idea how much went into it.

The show's opening sequence is animation: it was really interesting to see the Bookaboo dog puppet filmed against a green-screen, and then how CGI of the rock concert and audience was dropped seamlessly behind him.

The main part of the show, where our celebrity reads Class Two at the Zoo, is live film. This was great, and we thought that would be it, then we watched how my drawings were animated: the anaconda slithers creepily from the lake, and the children really POP out when they are rescued (and bounce when they hit the floor!).

Then we saw how a specially composed score was added (jolly, upbeat music, perfect for kids running around the zoo, but suddenly dipping, really dark and scary, each time the snake appears).

It is still in progress, but sounds effects of children and animal noises will also be dropped in, to make it really feel like we're in the zoo.

Everyone at Happy Films was lovely and SO enthusiastic. Like Julia and I, they are all really excited about the project. It's the first children programme ITV have commissioned in a long time. I still can't quite believe they chose our story, out of the hundreds submitted to them by publishers.


Bookaboo begins on March 2nd, and there will be a different story every day. The running order has not been finalised, so I don't know yet which day Class Two at the Zoo will feature, but do tune in and watch them all!

And don't forget, Class Two at the Zoo is still in the running for the Coventry Book Award, although every Monday, two books are knocked out, so it's nail-biting stuff!

If you want to vote, click here.

Teaching Students

Remember I mentioned I'd been invited to teach a few life drawing sessions at the local university? I did the first one this week.

I was a little anxious beforehand, which I suppose is natural, as I've not done any lecturing for years, but as soon as I found the room and the students started arriving, I was fine, and I really enjoyed it.

Hit a bit of a snag at the outset, when the life model didn't turn up, but it was fine: I just asked for volunteers, and students took it in turns to pose (keeping their clothes on of course!).

Few of the students had much experience, but I definitely think they got better during the sessions. I sneaked a quick 5 mins to do this one, although I had to work standing up, which is my excuse for it being a bit ropey!

On the way home, I did this quick sketch on the bus. It was rather bumpy so I had to keep stopping! I had my first dabble with my new watercolours when I got in, and tried tinting it. It's not everything I would hope for, but it didn't entirely ruin the sketch either, so that'll do for now!

Crossing Fingers Again...

Class Two at the Zoo has reached the final round of the Coventry Book Award!! There was a long list, then a short list and now it's a knock out: each week, the two books that have the least votes will be kicked out! EEEEEK!

Having won my very first award, the Stockport Schools Book Award, at the end of last year, also with Class Two at the Zoo, I am very excited to be up for another so soon. It's wonderful news that children are obviously enjoying the book so much. We have some stiff competition, but I'm crossing fingers...

If your children want to cast their vote, they do it on-line here. The voting ends on February 18th, so don't missed your chance! Wish me luck.

More New Characters

Thought you might like to see some more animal ideas for my newest project. I have this little croc in wellies:

I'm trying to go for silly but cute at the same time. I might try him out with a rain hat. I gave him an umbrella at one stage, but it was too dominating. For a standard picture book, a school bag would be fun, but it won't be right for babies. Thanks for your great suggestions for octopus and skater-dog by the way - very useful!

There's also this mummy and baby owl coming out to play:

I envisage the artwork in bold colour with plain backgrounds, like this one from When You're Not Looking!:

I've emailed all six characters to my publisher now, so I'm keen to hear their feedback. If the Editor likes the way it's looking so far, I'm hoping these sketches might be sufficient visuals for an acquisitions meeting, having done When You're Not Looking! together previously. We'll see.

2nd Life Drawing Session

I had another go at the life drawing on Thursday evening. It's pretty exhausting, giving it the necessary concentration at that time of night, but I still get a buzz from the urgency of having to squeeze every second from the time, trying to get it all down.

This first one was a ten minute drawing at A3, same model as last week. I think it's the best I did, because it's the loosest, which is odd, given it was the first of the evening. It's done in a graphite stick - a lovely medium if you haven't tried it, because it just glides across the paper, and gives you both fine and very fat marks.

Above is a 15 minute pose. I drew it in one of the fat Stabilo watercolour pencils. When I got it home, I thought it was a bit dull, so I added the water. It was still a bit monochrome, so when I got it on the computer, I meddled with the colour balance to add more interest.

This last is the full hour pose. More successful than last week's, partly because I was more comfortable, on a chair. The texture coming through is because I was experimenting with using a sheet of cardboard as a drawing board: lighter to hold on your lap.

I used the Stabilo pencils again, but also tried out a water brush: a brilliant invention! You fill the brush with water, like a fountain pen, then squeeze.

Drawing with an Audience

A while ago I visited Vietnam, where this photo was taken. I did a lot of sketching because there was so much to draw, and rarely got away without an audience of at least one or two, sometimes quite a crowd!

I have got used to people watching me while I'm sketching, though I know some people find the idea rather daunting. For some reason, I find it easier when I'm abroad than in England.

The photo is in the Mekong Delta. It was a hot, sunny morning so I went for a pre-breakfast walk. The community was crisscrossed by countless narrow river channels and you weaved your way around by crossing lots of little bridges. People were very friendly. I can't find the actual sketch I am doing above, but this is another done in the same place:

I know I don't normally post non-current stuff on this blog, but I've done it to let you know about my new post on the Picture Gallery: Sketching in Public, where you can see more photos of Vietnam and hear about my experiences of drawing with people looking over my shoulder.

Character Sketches

It seems like ages since I had a clean slate and was able to work on my new ideas. Now the accounts are done and gone off to the accountant (phew!), I am looking again at sketches for the baby book I'm planning. I have already written the text, but need to visualise a few pages.

I showed you some cute koalas and a baby tiger before Christmas (see Sketching New Ideas) but I have been working on a new character today: an octopus balancing jellies (I get to draw such great things...).

I started off with the quick sketch on the left.

When I was tidying him up, I got the idea to give him a birthday hat to go with the jellies. I also decided it was probably important for there to be 8 jellies, one for each leg. This is how he's looking now:

I might make his legs a little fatter so he's cuter for littlies. What do you think?

I've also added a little friend to the skateboarding dog I showed you before, which makes it much funnier.

'Contained'

I've not done any children's illustration drawing since before the Christmas break, so thought I'd warm up by doing the Illustration Friday topic, which this week is 'Contained'. If you haven't yet heard of Illustration Friday, see

Illustration Friday.

I decided to go with the idea of things contained within other things' bellies, which is best explained by my sketch:

I didn't really want to commit the amount of time needed to colour it in pastels, so resorted to digital colouring once again, in Corel painter. I used the brushes that emulate oil pastels and pastels. When I'd finished, I didn't think the black line was quite strong enough, so I duplicated and overlaid it again in Photoshop, so that the sketch was double strength, which works much better.

I still don't like the end result quite as much as a pastel drawing, but I'm definitely getting better at it. The last children's-style illustration I coloured in this way was also for Illustration Friday, for the topic 'Balloon':

I still like the idea and the underlying drawing, but the colours and marks here are quite crude by comparison I think. What do you reckon?

From Cutlers to Architects to Naked Ladies

As I said last time, I've not done any life drawing for years, but started with a new group last night.

It took a while to find the place. We had free use of the back room in an architect's offices, which were housed in a converted old cutlers workshop, down a dark, largely derelict street, hidden round the back of the city centre. I rang the bell and a friendly voice buzzed me in. Phew!

We were right at the top, up steep stone stairs, heavily sculpted by many feet over many years. When everyone had arrived, we were about ten. We were all crammed into a small room, already struggling to accommodate a large table, a three-seater sofa, about six chairs and a bookcase, but somehow everyone found a spot.

We did an hour of ten minute poses first. The model was very good and kept really still. It was great fun, though hard work, especially with short poses, as you can't waste a second.

I worked in an A3 sketchbook on my lap. I was worried I might be embarrassingly rusty, as the rest of the group have been going regularly, but I think all the travel sketchbook work has helped to keep my eye in, as it went ok.

I got a bit frustrated with myself now and then, especially with the legs of these sitting poses, but when I got home and looked at the drawings later, I was pleasantly surprised that they were much better than I'd thought at the time.

We had a tea break half way through and I got to chat to people, then it was back again for a single 1 hour pose. People got out pastels, watercolours, all sorts. I used slightly larger paper and experimented with some fat watercolour pencils I'd found at the back of a cupboard. I put a little pot of water on the floor, and every so often, dipped my finger in, to 'paint' with the colour on the paper.

I liked the technique: the imprecision of fingers stops things getting too prissy. I was struggling a bit though, as I sat cross-legged on the floor for the whole hour, holding a heavy drawing board in front of me.

Isn't it interesting, how the longer poses are often not as good, less fresh and spontaneous? Even the draughtsmanship here is less true - possibly because with short ones, like with my train portraits, there's no time to think about what goes where, so you just rely on instinct.

Life Drawing Classes

Ever since art college, I have always loved life drawing. I find the absolute, full-on concentration that's needed exhilarating. From time to time over the years, I've gone through phases of going along to sessions. In the mid 90s I went once a week for 2 years straight, and it's amazing how good you get when you're doing it regularly.

I've not had a go for ages now though, so it was rather interesting to be offered the chance to teach some sessions for Graphics degree students at the local Hallam University.

My friend and fellow illustrator Frazer Hudson is a lecturer there, and he has invited me to stand in for a few sessions. I taught Illustration some years ago, at the Sheffield College, but I've never taught life drawing, so it should be fun.

These images are from my last batch, over 10 years ago now. They are drawn in oil stick on sugar-paper, and are around A2 size.

By pure coincidence, I bumped into an old friend and architectural artist Tim Rose before Christmas, who has invited me to join him and a few others for some life drawing on Thursday evenings, starting tonight. Isn't life strange?

So, it looks like the Powers That Be are giving me a helping hand with that New Year's resolution! I'll let you know how I get on.