![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj18u4yDIrWOuMPhjBg53gytOhjkFqn5A3E_iVZyb90gUOdDq5r-n3_1wOuRhxTBnbQ4NjWakGFsRG5rKP5Hi4w9O-xtRpPQ1TewZSLAMN0Exgci67Wdb9T4nFGnstruUMODh1SM2UoERm7/s400/Manch-dayout.jpg)
On Saturday, I took myself off to Manchester for the day, to meet up with some other illustrator friends and attend a lecture by children's book illustrator John Lawrence, part of the Manchester Literary Festival.
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Many people may recognise John's illustrations from the spin-offs to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. To my shame, I didn't previously know his beautiful work. It was Cassia Thomas who suggested the outing, as John was one of her tutors on her Masters course.
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The poor man was obviously very, very nervous, but it was a joy to be led on a journey through his wood and vinyl-cut illustrations. I had no idea that a modest, A4 size woodblock could cost £500! I think I'd find that stultifying, as I'd be terrified of making mistakes.
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There was a lovely exhibition of children's book illustration alongside the lecture hall too, themed around subject matter. There were a lot of old favourites, plus some new discoveries. The only disappointment was that the illustrators themselves were not named!
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The other main activities of our day-out were eating, gassing, shopping and getting lost, by repeatedly walking in completely the wrong direction.
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As usual, as you can see, I managed to bag a few train-drawings on my way there and back. I was very lucky on the return journey to have not only this elderly lady opposite me, but a monk sitting just down the aisle.
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I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't get his white robes in and the rosary hanging from his belt!
5 comments:
I love your sketches of people on trains - you catch the individuality so well and they aren't prettified. The one of the monk is really monkish.
A monk ! On your train home ! That was a heaven-sent opportunity ( no pun intended ) I would have sketched myself into a frenzy.
Great sketches.
oh oh oh!
Your blog, is rather splendid!
Thank-you for playing show and tell with all your pretty thoughts and pictures!
x x x
Thank you!
By the way, for some reason more recent comments seem to be taking a while to show here on the blog: I'm sure it's a glitch and they'll appear in time...
Oh - and there they are!
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