Class One are DONE!!

See Julia: I can rhyme too... And yes, the brilliant news is that I have FINISHED my book!!

I'm so sorry that I have been so absent this last couple of weeks. There just hasn't been a spare moment to write a post, because things are just so busy at this end right now. I have been juggling my book artwork alongside my residency in Manchester and organising the final exhibition, as well as lots of other bits and bobs like school visits and answering questions from the students of my Craftsy class, not to mention trying to organise the creation of a new website for my sketching work (more of that VERY soon...). Phew

It is good to be busy, of course it is, but it's also a tad stressful sometimes, having too many things buzzing around in my head, competing for my attention. Plus stuff does fall off the end occasionally, like you, my Gentle Reader. Sorry about that.

Anyway, One of the things I have been so busy with, is finishing my pastel artwork for Class One Farmyard Fun. All done. Even the cover. I can't quite believe it, since I've been working on this stage of the book for months: I started pastelling at the end of February! I normally take about 8 weeks to colour-up, but poor old Class One has only been getting my attention for a couple of days each week, instead of being full time.

The image at the top is the final spread, the finale of Julia Jarman's wonderfully silly story, where the children eventually lure the bull safely back into his field, using a pair of red, frilly knickers, a truck and a clothes prop. No more biffing people into the air! Once that piece was done, all that was left was the cover.

Publishers sometimes ask you to do the cover artwork right at the start, so the sales team have it for publicity, but that is a terrible idea from the illustrator's point of view. You get to know your characters as you work on the book. I usually have to go back and tinker with my first pieces, once I am into my stride. You want the cover to be the strongest piece, so it makes sense to do it last not first. So, thanks Hodder, for letting me save it until now.

It won't have a pink background, by the way: that's just the colour of my paper. We will drop in a colour digitally, once everything has been scanned. Not sure what colour yet: I'll work on that with the designer when we get there.

I only finished the cover artwork a couple of hours ago. I don't normally work weekends, but I was so close, I really wanted to finish it off. It's already nicely mounted, as you can see. John, my faithful manservant, helped me by doing all the mounting and labelling-up. Each piece is tacked to a sheet of card, with a paper overlay, to protect the chalk surface. 

On Monday morning, John will parcel everything up for me and take it to the post office down the road. It is always rather scary, entrusting such a lot of work to a bunch of invisible postal workers; it's even more so with this book, because of it taking me so long.