Going Crazy in Corby!

At last: I'm back at home today, so have a bit of time to tell you how I've been getting on at my latest batch of visits...

As expected, Corby Big Draw was huge fun. We covered the entire floor of the hall above with card, and families came in and drew all over it. The day was really busy: the children got SO excited and it was great to see so many grown ups too, totally engrossed in drawing.


Every so often, I called kids into a corner and read a story for inspiration, then we worked as groups on huge drawings: this Class Three all at Sea picture is over 6' long.

We did Class Two at the Zoo as well, which was even bigger!

I drew the outline of the anaconda, and the children filled his belly:


As well as chalk pastels and felt tips, we had big fat oil pastels, which were perfect.


It was lovely that all ages worked happily together (the older kids were very patient with the 2yr olds, who scribbled rather too freely over everything, as you can imagine, and left little chalk footprints everywhere!).


Corby's MP, Phil Hope, came to support the event and see what we were up to...

...and the kids made him lay on the floor so they could draw round him! Then they all set to colouring him in.

He was a brilliant sport, but also a tall man, so I had to do a bit of a 'joiner' to get the drawing into the photo! The heart above his head is because he's a Minister for Health.

At the end, we hung some drawings on the walls, or propped them up around the room, and made walkways through the ones on the floor, so it formed an exhibition for people to visit the next day. The best pictures are going to be put on display in public spaces around Corby.

I ran workshops in the exhibition space on the 2nd day, and would like to give an extra special mention to the super Wilks family, who read about the event here on the blog, and came all the way from Wales to see me and take part!!! I was totally chuffed. Hello guys!

This is the Welsh dragon that they drew for the exhibition:


Thanks too to Abigail Tilley, who was incredibly prolific and produced several fabulous drawings like this:


..and to Debony and her mum, who had such a nice time, that they came back when it was all over to bring me a 'thank you' card and a box of chocolates. A really lovely thought - thank you!

And at risk of sounding like I'm at the Oscars, I'd also like to thank Ludie and Micheal for putting me up, feeding me and looking after me so well.


A fantastic couple of days that I'm sure we will all remember for a very long time. I'll post some of the other drawings in the Picture Gallery, as this post is already waaaaaaaay to long!

Illustration: Charity Auction

Do you remember me mentioning the Art for Hearts auction? Well it's all happening next week: just in time for that extra special Christmas present...

Here are just some of the amazing pieces of original artwork you could own, by illustrators such as Frances Cony, Mary Hall, Emma McCann, An Vrombaut, Korky Paul, Garry Thorburn and Valerie Greeley...

All the artwork has been on display in Great Ormond Street Hospital, for the children to see, and the auction will be held on Ebay for 1 week from November 2nd.

I have donated this piece of pastel artwork, which could be yours...

Why not look in? All money is going towards research for children's organ transplants at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Off The Shelf

Just a quickie, as I only have a moment - I've just broken off from packing my bags for my 2 day stay in Corby for The Big Draw (which will be over half way through by the time you read this).

I wanted to say 'hello' to all the children I met on Friday during my Off The Shelf events at home in Sheffield. This is me with the KS1 children at Dungworth Primary School in the morning, doing my 'D'you know what it is yet?' act (it's going to be a kangaroo, by the way).

I did a talk for the KS2 children in the afternoon, then got to see their amazing book cover illustrations in oil pastels - very tricky medium I always think, so well done you guys!

Then I leaped in a taxi and crossed the city to do a workshop with the after-school club at Frechville Library. Some great dragon drawings folks!

Must get on, so bye for now...

Stinky Whizzers

You may remember me talking a while back about getting together with illustrator Phil Alderson (who I taught some 12 years ago, at the Sheffield College) to give him advice on his latest work.

Well, I got a lovely email from him recently: he has got together with some friends and launched a new business, called Stinky Whizzers. The work is so much fun, I had to show you!

Phil has produced a range of these colourful illustrations which you can buy for your child's bedroom wall. He got the idea when he was looking for a present for his niece: "When I looked for a cool piece of artwork, all I found was pink or blue or pastels, so I decided to draw something unique myself.”

“We wanted to create something that appealed to kids with bold colours and also something that you would want to look at again and again.."

I just love all the characters. Meercats with binoculars! I especially like the fishing mule below:

Good luck Phil - they look fabulous. Come on folks: liven up those bedroom walls...

Big Draw Dinosaur!

If you missed the family open day at my exhibition in August, there is a repeat performance coming up next week, on Wednesday October 28th.

It won't be the same as the summer: this time we are celebrating The Big Draw so we're calling the day Big Draw Dinosaur! and concentrating on drawing... yep, you guessed it: dinosaurs!

I will be there all day, reading my dinosaur books, doing my 'Rolf Harris' bit on the flipchart ('D'ya know what it is yet..?') and showing you how to draw your favourite dinos.

There will be plenty of other interesting things for you to get involved in too: we have an actor creating games for the children, and another artist who will help you decorate your own dinosaur footprints! If you want to, your footprint can become a scale on a massive dinosaur picture on the wall.

You can test out your tracking skills too, by finding and following the trails of dinosaur footprints around the building, to see if you can find who made them...

And if you get bored with all that wonderful stuff, there are also regular storytellings happening throughout the day in the library downstairs.

Doors open at 11am, when I will be starting my first 1hr session (with 2 further sessions starting at 12.45 and 2.00). We finish at 3pm.

The exhibition closes on November 7th, so if you wanted to see it, but haven't got round to it yet, this would be a good opportunity, especially if you have kids to bring along.

We're at the Tameside Central Art Gallery and Library, postcode OL6 7SG. Driving instructions are here, nearest train stations: Ashton-u-Lyne, Guide Bridge or Stalybridge. Any problems, ring the gallery on 0161 342 2650.

See you there?

A Spot of Spying...

This morning, I sat in on the launch of my new friend, Caryl Hart's latest picture book: Don't Dip Your Chips in Your Drink, Kate! in Sheffield's Central Library.

It was a real treat, not just because the book is great fun, or because I got to see Caryl again and meet her lovely family, but because it's rare I get the opportunity to see fellow authors or illustrators strutting their stuff.

It all went brilliantly. Caryl's book is in rhyme, so she invented a rhyming machine especially for the launch. The invited children from Watercliffe Meadow School loved it, and we made up of silly food-based rhymes:

Jake, Jake baked a cake,

Jelly, jelly in your welly,

Bread, bread, crumbs in your bed!

At the end of Caryl's story, a little girl goes to tea with the Queen (another little girl, with even worse table manners!). Orchard Books printed the tea party scene (wonderfully illustrated by Leigh Hodgkinson) as a massive board. The children were given fairy-cakes to colour and stick onto the picture. Even we grown ups had great fun with it.

And then... there were REAL fairy cakes, in all colours of the rainbow, one for everyone! The kids were in heaven as you can imagine and, thank goodness, nobody was sick...

Caryl and I resisted temptation because, after the event, the publisher took us out for a lovely lunch (thanks Nicola!).

Back to work now though: my new batch of visits has started in earnest, with Sheffield's Off The Shelf festival today, then Monday starts Corby's 2 day Big Draw extravaganza I blogged about earlier, followed by a Wednesday at my exhibition (more details in tomorrow's post).

Then on Thursday I am with Looked After Children for Bag-A-Book Day at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, of all places. I can't kick a ball to save my life, so thank goodness I'm just reading stories and drawing as usual!

I'll let you know how it all goes, when I've time to draw breath.

Pipworth Primary

Great name eh? Pipworth was my destination on Tuesday, my first visit since I lost my voice. No early morning trains needed: just a short taxi ride to another part of Sheffield. Luxury!

We kicked off with a PowerPoint talk to all KS2: quite a few, as you can see. I am the tiny pink blob in the distance. My voice was still a bit deep and croaky, but I survived ok. That's not washing on the line by the way - it's a leaping tiger!

Pipworth is a really friendly school. Sweet, enthusiastic kids (lots of waving and hugs in the corridors) and happy teachers, obviously popular with the children, despite Y1 (below) insisting that I draw theirs being gobbled by a crocodile...

And I so love a staffroom that's alive with banter - I've been in one or two deadly ones in my time (and once chose to sit in the playground with the kids instead!).

We filled the rest of the morning writing stories together. This is the beginning of one about a baby snake, who lived in a magic house with a demonic bar of magic chocolate:

In the afternoon I told stories and did lots of drawing. I drew a special picture for Y3's teacher, Mrs Ferguson, whose children, Euan and Lara, both broke an arm on the same day but, incredibly, doing two different activities in two different places! Euan fell off some monkey bars and Lara was playing cricket:

It was a really positive day, so a huge thank you to Mrs Greenwood for inviting me, and to everyone else for making it all such fun.


And thank you too, to all those who stayed to buy books in the library afterwards. Sorry I ran out, but there's a package winging it's way to you for after the holiday...

Spring Cleaning

I keep my pastels in shoe-box lids:

I use lots of different brands, but sort them all into 3 colour ranges: reds, yellows and browns; blues & purples; turquoises & greens.

Two reasons: firstly, I'd never find the colour I wanted otherwise and, second, because the coloured dust causes cross-contamination and you soon get in a right grubby old mess.

It's a far from fool-proof system: months ago, a fat yellow-ochre pastel crumbled into one tray. I was too busy to do more than a cursory tidy up, and soon everything in that tray was dusted yellow and indistinguishable. I've been battling on, cursing as I go, but enough is enough.

So, last week, while I was ill and so had a pocket of time, I emptied the whole tray, and cleaned out the ochre crumble with a wet cloth (yellow mud everywhere - lovely). Then I wiped every single pastel stump individually, even the teeny bits, half the size of your little fingernail, which are great for doing really fiddly bits.

Colours came to life again and I unearthed several purples and blues in there, also masquerading as yellow!

I feel pleasantly purged and content now. Look how pretty and clean and yummy they are now. Little pleasures...

Watch CBeebies Tonight!

Great news! A Lark in the Ark will be the Bedtime story on CBeebies tonight.

I don't usually get told in advance: I only found out about previous books of mine being read on CBBC when friends emailed to tell me, after the event. Frustrating.

So a big thank you to my publisher, Egmont, for letting me know the details - this time I can watch it for myself.

It turns out that the gorgeous David Harewood will be the one reading my book for you at 6.50pm, with my illustrations up on screen.

So, round up your various kiddies and tune in if you can!

By the way, by the time you read this, I will be off on my first school visit since the voice disappeared. Will I be giving the kids at Pipworth Primary my strangled frog impression? I'll let you know tomorrow...

Photoshop Frenzy 3: Virtual Pastel Wording

Good news: at last, my voice has returned!! After 4 days of complete silence and a further 2 of sounding like an alien with a voice box, things are finally back to normal (or as normal as it gets).

To celebrate I'd like to offer you a sip of Champers, but instead, you'll have to make do with the final installment on the digital work for Bears on the Stairs...

You can never include any words on picture book artwork, because the book might need translating for foreign editions, so it's always done afterwards on a separate layer. Spot the blank red sign on the boy's bedroom door above.

On this detail from the rough, you can see what it will read when finished:

Usually this wording is dropped in by the designer, when they do the regular text, but I like to mock up the pastel effect, to give the impression that the words have been done on the actual drawing, otherwise they can appear to 'float' above the illustration.

I scanned a sample of my textured pastel paper into the computer to create an identical 'virtual' paper. I can then draw onto this, in 'virtual pastels', using Corel Painter, and get the exact same texture as the original drawing:

As a guide, I paste the wording from my rough (above) onto a section from the artwork scan, then I write over it in my virtual pastel (on a seperate layer so it can be lifted off). This is what the overlay wording looks like on its own:

This can then be printed over the artwork on the English language version only, allowing for any number of translations to be inserted with impunity. Sneaky stuff eh?

Aren't Libraries Lovely?

I get a very handy little newsletter from the National Literacy Trust, with breaking news on all sorts of stuff to do with books and reading, and I thought I'd share this tit-bit about libraries with you:

Did you know that, from now on, we can borrow books from any UK public library, regardless of where we live?

All we need to do is show our normal library card, or even just proof of address, to access any library in the country. Great for your holiday reading (unless you're sunning yourself in the Maldives or somewhere, in which case, you're already far too fortunate to deserve any more good news).

Apparently, ministers are also planning home deliveries, where you wouldn't go into the library at all. It would work like online film renting: you would order your books online, they would be delivered by post, and you'd return them in a prepaid envelope when you were finished.

But I'm not at all sure this last is a good thing. Surely the cost of all that postage could only be managed if many libraries were closed?

Wonderful though book-lending is, libraries are about so much more. They are a community space: often the only free, safe environment available to local people. They provide storytelling for young families; a place for the elderly to read the paper, maybe learn how to access a computer and chat to someone about the books they've read (or just the weather!). They are a centre for disseminating local information; a creative environment for inspiring school groups; a quiet place for studying, or doing homework; and sometimes they are just a positive, friendly place for people to hang out.

If you're in the Library Service, I'd be interested to hear your take on things...

Brrr! Grrr! Dinosaures!

Poemes prehistorics amb humor, sorpreses, informacio i ... TERROR! (?!?)

The postman just bought me another of those lovely, surprise packages. When I opened it up I found... 4 translated co-edition copies of Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur!. I thought they were in Spanish, then I was told that, no, they were Portuguese. But today various people have told me that it is in fact Catalan. Aha!

As always, I'd rather my books be read by children than just sit on shelves, so I'm giving them away. So - anyone out there with children that read Catalan? Better still, do you have a 'good cause' I could donate a copy to, like a school, library or some such? Let me know and a signed copy could be on its way to you next week.

Today I am also wondering how Bears on the Stairs got on at the Frankfurt Book Fair... It's SO important these days that other countries sign up for co-editions of new titles, especially America. Crossing fingers that they liked it!

Using Photoshop to Repair Smudges

One of the draw-backs to pastels is their infinite smudgability. Mostly the artwork survives the scanning pretty well, but there are occasional smudges. Luckily these are easily remedied in Photoshop.


When I get my DVD of artwork scans, The first job is open each illustration in Photoshop, one at a time, and carefully look them over, checking for smudging or flaws.

This detail, from the scan of the Bears on the Stairs spread, where he tries to bribe Little Bear with a chocolate biscuit, shows how the boy's face has been contaminated with the blue of the hall carpet.

Nothing a little digital plastic-surgery couldn't put right - I gave him a skin graft from another illustration using the 'clone' tool.

Another job down! You can see short films with more information about how I illustrate my picture books here.