Costa Rica Or Bust!

As you read this post, I am somewhere in the depths of Costa Rica. Yeehah!! (at least I hope I am, and not stuck in an airport somewhere...) So that is why I have not been around to respond to your comments - sorry. I sneakily set up several blogs in advance before I left!

I would travel almost all the time if I could. I just love it. And filling a sketchbook at the same time really adds an extra sense of purpose, as well as providing an irreplaceable personal aide-memoir to pore over later.

This is a sketch of a man I met while in Namibia, a retired head teacher, who was spending his retirement (and his very healthy pension) travelling the world, not all at once, but at a very civilised pace, one country at a time, seeing how close he could get to the full set. Wonderful.

John and I have been lucky enough to have a couple of brilliant walking holidays over recent years. This is a sketch done in Tuscany in 2005, where we hiked from village to village over the course of 10 days:

We did a similar thing in Andalucia last year, walking down from the mountains until we got to the coast at Tarifa, the southernmost town in Europe. But - shock, horror - I seem to have lost that sketchbook!!!! I'm sure it's around somewhere, but not where it should be.

I'm hoping to have some interesting sketches of Costa Rica to show you when I get back. We will be visiting an active volcano, sleeping in cabins in the rainforest, bird watching, hiking, snorkelling... Jealous yet? I'm taking my new watercolour set with me, although how I'll get on remains to be seen.

See you soon, but not too soon!!

More Finger-Crossing Please!

I've had a very exciting email from Egmont Children's Books...

I am thrilled to be able to tell you that A Lark in The Ark has been shortlisted for this year's Red House Children's Book Award!

For those who don't know the story, the animals in the ark play hide-and-seek, but hide in Noah's bedroom, which is out of bounds! You have to lift all sorts of flaps to find them, but the thing that makes it so brilliant, is that you discover them dressed up in Noah and Mrs Noah's clothes! Not only that, but everything rhymes: bears in flares, goats in coats, llamas in pyjamas...

So for example, this is what you see before you open the flaps:

And this is what you discover underneath:

Well done Peter for coming up with such a funny idea - I'm astounded at how many rhyming combos you came up with!!

The Red House is a bit special, as all the voting is all done by children and the award is run entirely by volunteers from all over the country, belonging to the Federation of Children's Books. I really admire the Federation: mounting the award each year is a humongous task, involving massive commitment from people who give their time simply because they are passionate about children's reading.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on June 6th, but in the meantime, if you want to vote, click here.

I have been shortlisted a couple of times before, so I know how lovely the day is. All the shortlisted authors and illustrators are invited, along with some of the very children who have done the voting: groups travel from all over the country to meet their favourite authors, and we all sit down to a meal together.

I really enjoyed illustrating Peter's wonderfully silly text, so I'm chuffed to bits to hear that children obvious love it too.

Children's Author and Illustrator School Visits: 10 Hot Tips

My TOP 10 TIPS, if you are new to school visits:

1 Get all the details for the visit sorted well in advance, and ask to see a draft timetable. Do this weeks, not days before the visit, as teachers can be hard to get hold of last minute.

2 Don't feel obliged to do what someone asks of you. If you don't think it will work, suggest something better (with confidence - by email if that's easier to pull off!). Also, if you don't feel comfortable with any particular age group (eg nursery or teenagers), just say so.

3 There's nothing you can do to entertain a 5yr old and a 14yr old at the same time: if you're working with family groups in a library, ask them to restrict the age spread to either under or over 8yrs.

4 Don't let a school give you too many kids at once: 1 class at a time is plenty when you're just starting out, and I rarely agree to more than 2 together, unless it's a lecture or a small, rural school.

5 Don't make workshops too complicated - I often pitched it too high until I got used to ability levels.

6 Focus on the children's enjoyment and inspiration levels during workshops, rather than worrying too much about the quality of the end products.

7 With KS1 children, break your event up into 10-15 minute activities, to hold their attention. As a newcomer, a 45 minutes session is probably long enough, for the same reason.

8 It is not really your job to manage behaviour - teachers or librarians should stay with you throughout and they will deal with this side of things for you.

9 Lunch is usually provided: in school this is a free school dinner (but remember: when you arrive, ask them to book you one - some school cooks get tetchy otherwise!)

And last but most importantly....

10 Don't under-charge: a day in the UK should pay between £300 and £350 with your travel expenses on top. This is the going rate and what you are worth. I charge more if I have to stay overnight (plus accommodation expenses). NOTE: a half day is not 1/2 this amount, but 3/4, because of your travel and prep time.

So, there you have it. I hope it's useful. Please don't let all the dos and don'ts put you off - a day spent in school might be hard work, but it is generally also amazing fun.

You can register with the Wordpool's Contact an Author for a very reasonable annual fee, and go on their listings, which will help people to find you. There are also many more agencies, such as Class Act who will help you to arrange visits. You can also contact your local library or School Library Service, or approach local schools direct.

A couple of boring things:

Some schools and councils may still ask you for a CRB check. This is not actually a legal requirement any more, but the word is taking a while to spread.

If you are invited via a local council, you may also need public liability insurance. Join NAWE and your £5 Million indemnity is thrown in for free - by far the cheapest way to do it. 

I hope this is helpful and gives a few more people the confidence to get out there and strutt their stuff. Do have a go. And please, if you have relevant experience, please feel free to add any tips of your own, or update mine, via the comments section below.

If you are interested in booking me to come to your school, library or festival, check out my availability then drop me an email. Here is some feedback from recent visits to reassure you! I love doing visits, so will always come if I can. 

Another Source of Income? Author or Illustrator Visits to Schools:

We will soon be coming back into the main season for school & library visits. In the UK at least, the period around World Book Day, in the first week of March, is the peak of the year. With difficult times on the horizon, visits can become a useful second source of income for authors, illustrators and other Arts practitioners.

A newly published author recently asked me for advice on how to do a visit, which reminded me how nervous and unsure I was at the outset. So I have decided to post a few tips here for all to read.

What should you do?

The answer to that is: whatever you personally feel comfortable doing. We all do it differently. Don't be bullied into a session that doesn't sit right, or feel you have to do something in front of an entire school. My choices are determined by the age I'm working with. For 7 yrs and up, it could be a talk about my work with Q & A, an illustration workshop or a writing workshop. Obviously I pitch this differently, depending on the specific age of my audience, but the content is essentially the same. A talk might be a classroom chat with artwork and books, or a PowerPoint lecture to the whole school.

If the children are under 8, it's usually a story telling, which I make more lively with a song, a puppet or even a bit of dancing. For little ones, it's good to break the session up, with fun, interactive bits between reading. You can add colour by making or buying cheap props relevant to your story, like the dressing up bits above, that go with The Show at Rickety Barn.

As an illustrator, I always try to do some drawing on a flip chart too, which always goes down well (though there will only be a whiteboard unless you specify) and have recently started showing my sketchbook too - kids are especially fascinated if I've drawn someone on the train that very morning. I usually get the children to draw at some stage, and some authors do this too, to add variety and lighten things up.

For my next post, I will put together a list of my Top Ten Tips to help you with your author/illustrator visits. So, see you soon!

My Studio

A few people have said they would be interested to see more clearly what my studio looks like. I don't have a wide-angle lens, so I did this joiner for you:

When we moved into the house a little over 2 years ago, this was two poky, attic rooms.

We got a builder to knock out the central wall, then polished up the floorboards and put in a couple more velux windows to maximise the light. It was such a rare treat to be able design the space as I wanted.

I always have trouble with flat areas for mounting my work, so I designed a big, kitchen-style island in the centre. It works a treat but unfortunately it does tend to attract stuff...

My other problem has always been storage, for artwork, but also for large paper and card. There was a lot of wasted space in the eaves, so a joiner built me plans-chest drawers into the eaves behind my desk. Somehow I've still managed to fill them all, as well as my original A1 plans chest!

I am under no illusions about how lucky I am. If it's any consolation, I started my illustration career aged 22, living in a 10" square bed-sitting room, with my fellow illustrator boyfriend, upstairs in his parent's house. For nearly a year, we slept on a mattress on the floor, which we rested up against the wall during the day, so that the same room could serve as a studio for us both!

Even when we eventually got our own space, it's incredible to think that we had no computer, our only phone was a public call box in the street, and we received our faxed illustration briefs from publishers via the local newsagents!!

Anyone else got any horror studio stories past or present??

Flat Cap

I thought I'd quickly show you a sketch I did of an old man I did on the bus.

I was sitting across the aisle from me, on my way home from the University this week. I couldn't resist that flat cap, although in the end I only had a few minutes before he got off!

I painted him when I got home - I'm really getting into the watercolours.

You can see lots more drawings of people, portraits I've sketched on trains, (always clandestinely!) as well as all sorts of other sketchbook work here.

Final Uni Session

This week saw my last morning of the life-drawing teaching for the University. I'm rather sad, as I have enjoyed it enormously.

The students have all worked hard and I have felt as though I've really been able to help them to 'see' better, and so improve their drawing skills a little.

One big trick with life drawing, is to learn when to draw the 'negative space' instead of the actual body. A perfect example of this is the sketch at the top: so much easier to judge the triangles created by the legs, than the legs themselves.

Unfortunately, for the first two weeks, there was some mistake and the life model wasn't booked for me, so I had to bulldoze the students themselves into taking turns posing (see Teaching Students).

Then last week's classes were snowed off, so out of 4 morning sessions, this last was the only one where I got to teach with a bonafide life-model! It didn't matter too much - we coped fine, but it did detract from the drama of it, especially for those students who had never done life-drawing before.

The model was lovely, but incredibly tall and thin - an extra challenge, as her arms, legs and even her torso were a lot longer than you would expect.

I taught for 3 hours straight, with 2 different student groups, end to end: quite tiring, as no time for breaks (though I took my flask, for sneaking sips of tea!).

We did mainly 15 minute poses - short enough to keep things lively, but long enough to allow beginners to get something down. I took a little sketchbook and started each pose by drawing along with the students, just for the first 5 minutes, while they got going.

This worked really well. I got to do loads of really quick drawings: my favourite. It was also useful for helping me to advise the students, as I knew the possible pitfalls of the poses first hand!

These drawings are all from that morning. I played around tinting things with my watercolours when I got home, just experimenting really, for fun, but colour really does seem to help accentuate the body shapes, don't you think?

School Visits: My Head Hurts!

There's a wonderfully healthy amount of school bookings coming in this year: particularly good news when we're all a little worried about how The Credit Crunch will affect book commissions.

There's always loads of interest around World Book Day, but this year I am booked solid for almost every day next month, which means a delicious number of invoices to type up!

The flip side, is the outrageous pile of admin created. It's no problem when visits are spread out, but just keeping track of whether I've had all the information off the schools, sent all their book orders, bought all my train tickets, got accommodation details, mobile numbers for people collecting me etc etc etc... I'm getting so I don't know which way is up!

To make sure I don't turn up at the wrong school one day (I very nearly did that this time last year) I now print myself detailed info sheets for each day's visit, and I've spent all day today trying to bash it all into shape.

So, I'll hope you'll understand if I leave you now, to go in search of some comfort food...

It's That Snake Again!

The Coventry Book Award results are teetering on a knife edge now (see Crossing Fingers Again...). I'm thrilled to find that Class Two at the Zoo has survived every single knock-out round, and against some very stiff competition too!

This week is the BIG FINAL, when it's down to just Class Two at the Zoo versus Eliot Jones, Midnight Superhero by Anne Cottringer & Alex Smith. Eeeeeeek!

So children, if you want to help decide who will be the victor, you have until the end of this week to cast your vote, by visiting the Coventry Book Award Site.

Now, I don't want to influence you, but....

...vote for us or the cute little girlies get it!!!

Drawing Dinosaurs in Pastels

After a few last-minute tweaks, I have at last finished the artwork for my latest picture book, Rumble, Roar, Dinosaur!:

I have been generally re-lightening and brightening things, after the annoying dulling-down from the fixative, but also working further on the rocks. I needed to wait for decent daylight to judge my colours accurately, as the publisher still wants to keep an eye on the 'pink factor' (see A New Cover For Rumble Roar). They asked me to make sure the rocks were erring towards orange, so not too obviously pink and girlie.

Orange is a tricky colour and can be a bit overpowering, so I decided to do the rocks as I would normally, still using quite a bit of pink, but then layer yellow and orange mark-making over the top, to push it more towards orange:

One problem was that, once the rocks were more apricot coloured, the lilac shadows worked less well. I introduced small incidents of deep orange into all the rock shadows, which pulled it all back together.

I now have to mount it up and get it posted off to the publishers this afternoon. Better go - it's surprising how long the mounting and packaging takes!

I do hope they like it...

Nearly Done!

I finished my Hadrosaur yesterday morning. I had to use fixative on him half way through, to make the pastel surface solid enough to take the belly stripes, which dimmed down everything, as usual, so I then had to fiddle around brightening up that bit of water, and re-yellowing the sand. I'll probably have to come back and touch up the orange rock behind him too, but I'll leave that until later, to do with the rest of the rocks, as there will be more fixing to come.

Next up was our crocodile-like friend, called Deinosuchus. This is my rather crowded desk, all set up ready to go, with both previous bits of artwork for reference (one piece is his main spread image, the other for under the open flap):


With this illustration, so many of the dinosaurs are so fiddly and tiny (totally unsuitable subject matter for pastels, to be honest) that I am having to use pastel pencils much more than I'd like. For the Deinonychus, I first coloured him gently in the pencils, to get crisp edges (essential for the spiky scales and his toes). This gives a very wishy-washy finish though, so I went back, colouring over the top with proper pastels. But because the pencil work is beneath, I could stay slightly within the edges and keep the precision.

Sometimes when you use pencils for details, like those Hadrosaur stripes and the croc scale lines, it looks far too crisp. The best way to correct this, is to gently 'finger' the area, not quite smudging, but just nudging it with your finger tips, or even your palm, to 'fur' it just enough to make the tight detail settle into the illustration.

I sprayed fixative on croc, then added a few last minute touches: highlights from the water, speckles on the jaw, little teeth and some reeds in the shallows:

Then finally it was time for the Anklosaurus and the little Composognathuses. I got both bits of artwork out together as, being intertwined, I thought I'd work on them together. The piece bottom left is the artwork the publisher has used for the new cover (see A New Cover For Rumble Roar).


Both pretty fiddly again, so more pencil work first, particularly on the Composognathuses, followed again by more dense pastel.


I had to fix the section, in order to get highlights on the horns and the stripy pattern on the Composognathuses, which again had to be done in pencil to match my original design:


By the time I'd done that, the light was fading again. I did a bit of post-fixative touching up, but decided to leave it until Monday and give it a general brightening before mounting it up.

See you then I hope!

Getting On a Little More...

It was a bit of a short day yesterday, because of the low light, but I managed to get a fair bit done. I started by putting in the tree, to establish the darkest tones, which really snaps everything into focus I think.

I got some children's, non-fiction, dinosaur books for undergrowth reference, and found these lovely cone thingies for the tree foot. I've put a lot of blue in their leaves to zing against the warm rocks.

Next I defined the rock shadows a little more, then started on the background dinosaurs: you have to work down from the top as much as possible, to prevent smudging everything with your arm - infuriating, but I've done it many a time. By the way, for my best smudging anecdote of all time, see Cats and Pastels Don't Mix (yes, I can see you're ahead of me...)

I did the stegosauruses first. I'm pleased with how the pink works against the blue and yellowy green. The colours of all the dinos were pre-set, because I did all the other spreads in the summer.

Once they were in, I zapped up the water and reflections a bit. Then I popped in the Elasmosaurus's head:


At which point, it started to get dark. I got my original Hadrosaur artwork out and tacked it to the board for reference, ready for tomorrow.


I was unable to resist continuing a little longer, filling in the basic Hadrosaur colours by the light of my daylight spots but, though they're better than nothing, it's still impossible to properly gauge colour, so I left it.

A New Cover for Rumble Roar

Yesterday, while I was carrying on with the artwork for Rumble, Roar, Dinosaur!, Kingfisher emailed across the new cover design for the book, for my approval.

We were originally going to feature the cute stegosaurus above, as he's such a lovely shape and a well known dinosaur, but the sales team were worried about him being pink and so looking too girlie. Yes, it may seem trivial, but these things are taken very seriously, and boys are a funny bunch, so easily put off!

Because all the inside artwork was finished some time ago, it was too late to change his colour, so instead, we have the Ankylosaurus:

Wonderfully knobbly, isn't he? This isn't the absolute final version, just a 'visual' created at Kingfisher, by the Designer, re-using my original artwork. I think it will make a lovely pair with the first volume:

Struggling With Light

I am finding things a bit tricky this week. I'm trying to do a piece of pastel artwork, but the snow keeps covering my veluxes and blocking out all my natural light, so I can't judge colours. I've tried standing on a step-stool, hanging out into the weather, trying to brush it off with various implements, but within minutes it's back.

I'm doing the last remaining spread for Rumble, Roar, Dinosaur! (see Dinosaurs Are Back!)

Yesterday, I traced up the rough onto my pink paper (see Tracing Up Dragon's Dinner), then tacked it onto my drawing board, below the line-drawing rough (for reference: the pencil line quickly disappears under the chalk).

I also got out the intro page from the first book, Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur! The idea is for the two to work as a pair, but for them to also be sufficiently different from one another.

Interestingly, if you compare the artwork I did for the first book's spread (above) with the final version (below), you will see a few missing dinos...


This was because I did the artwork before Kingfisher decided to divide the book into two volumes (see Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur!). We used Photoshop to remove the dinosaurs that were moving to book 2, and do a bit of touching up!

I laid in some of the background colour before the light went (it's vital to work from back to front with pastels). The trick with it is not to lose heart when it looks so awful at these early stages!

I'm trying to make the two spreads different, by changing the colour palette, featuring rich, orange rocks. I may have to tweak the background as I go along, once I can judge it against the main characters, but I can't achieve the broad, smooth sweeps of background colour, once the dinos are in.

I'll post today's progress tomorrow, if the snow ever stops enough for me to see what I'm doing!