Looked After Children: Illustrator Event

At first, I wasn't sure about doing last Sunday's gig, squeezed as it was between two very busy weeks of touring schools up and down the country. My long-suffering Hubby is always telling me off for taking on too much. I'm not very good at turning things down.

I'm so pleased though that I threw caution to the wind! I took a train across to Stockport's Dialstone Library, where I was fed a yummy buffet lunch, before spending the afternoon with a group of local 'looked-after' children and their carers. I chatted to them about my books, read them Mr Strongmouse and the Baby and showed them the fairground artwork:

The librarians gave everyone juice and biccies, and some children had their faces painted, then a few joined me for some drawing. It was a lovely afternoon, really well organised by the wonderful Stockport Library Service (no, they really are). They even gave every child a goody bag, including a £10 book token - how generous is that?

Borders were supposed to be supplying my books for the event, but something went wrong somewhere along the line, so I took my trusty suitcase full, and I'm happy to say that it was a lot lighter on the way home (ya, boo, sucks, Borders!).


I drew this man and these two Oriental women on the way home. The train was packed and I felt a bit guilty turfing someone out of my reserved seat, but hey - how else could I draw?

The sketch at the top of this post was a real challenge by the way - I spent the whole journey, all the way to Stockport, drawing it. Those Tesco's bags were something else!! One would have been a test enough, but two together... Yikes!

You can see more train sketches here.