Telford Book Award for Illustration

I was back in Shropshire yesterday, doing events at Telford and Wellington libraries. They run a great project called Find Your Talent, for anyone from babies up to young people of 19, and this year's focus is children's book illustration. Aha...


I was invited to run a couple of workshops, to inspire local children to get involved in this year's Telford Book Award for Illustration and contribute drawings towards an amazing exhibition of children's work that is planned. They even choose local children to help curate the show - good eh?

We all had a fun time. I did my usual talk about how I go about illustrating a story and how picture books are created, then I taught the kids how to draw a big, scary dragon running after lots of poor panicky creatures!

At lunchtime, the lovely librarians took me to a local cafe for a jacket potato, and introduced me to a really nice art student, called Mark, who volunteers in the library as work experience. Although only in his 2nd year, Mark has already had some interest from publishers in a story he has written and illustrated, so well done and good luck Mark!


I was lucky enough to get a seat opposite a family on the train home, so I attempted to draw a brother and sister. Children are SO hard, because they don't sit still for a second!