Author Visits to Schools: Out and About Again

On Monday, I visited Romiley Primary School in Stockport. I did a PowerPoint talk to KS2 and then lots of illustration workshops with Y5 and Y6. I had a lovely day, although a 6.30 taxi on a Monday morning was a bit of a shock to the system!

I experimented with doing my train sketching in pen for a change:

As you can read above, I was a bit held up the 7 mile long Totley Tunnel. It was a stop-everywhere train too, so I amused myself by trying to draw one thing out of the window, each time we stopped at a station:

I was really impressed with Romiley Primary: it was a hectic 5-session day, but I never once heard anybody tell anyone off. The teachers and kids seemed to have a great rapport, and the atmosphere was one of happy enthusiasm, peppered with a lovely gentle banter. It was nice too for 3 of the teachers to be fellas for a change (think rocking horse poo).

During an initial talk to everyone, I stressed the importance of starting a sketchbook if you want to be an illustrator when you grow up and, as I moved around school during the day, it was lovely to be accosted in the corridors by children keen to show me little sketch drawings they had done in notebooks, based on my illustrations.

It was also great to discover that both teachers sitting beside me in the staff room at lunch were quite keen artists on the sly, and one even kept holiday sketchbooks - brilliant stuff.

Luckily I am over the worst of my cold now, I'm just praying nobody at Romiley gave me a fresh dose: time will tell...

This last page of sketches were done on the way home: I'm always less productive at the end of the day, and mainly draw to stop myself from falling asleep and missing my stop!

Thanks to everyone at Romiley Primary School for a great day. Keep up the drawing!