I Have a New Website!

Regular readers will know that, over the last couple of years, I have got really into fine-art textiles and have been experimenting with different materials and methods, getting rather excited by the opportunity to explore a whole new area. 

I thought it was about time that I got organised, and created the means to display what I've been doing, all in one place. Up until now, I've been relying on a Facebook page...

...which is good for sharing regular up-dates, so I will be keeping that on (so do follow me if you are interested in watching new work as it unfolds), but or course, a proper website looks a lot more professional.

I got someone local to do it for me this time, which was great for sitting down together, talking things through. He's done a great job and took on board everything I said about it looking clean and uncluttered, and being easy to find your way around. 

So do take a look and let me know what you think. Plus you can use the social media buttons (at the bottom of each of the site's pages) to share, which would be great, because I really want to try and let people know what I'm doing. 

Suddenly it feels like I'm a textile-designer for real! 

Instagram Take-Over Day

Next Wednesday, I am going to be taking over the Instagram page of Hobbycraft. I was invited to do it via someone at Derwent Pencils, who sometimes sponsor me by sending me lovely parcels of free art materials. 

I was a bit confused about what it was all about at first, but it turns out that what they want me to do is to select some of my drawings, which will then be posted to the Hobbycraft Instagram page over the course of the day. I will also be around to answer any questions posted.

I made a little film in the studio too, to introduce myself, give a quick tour round my workspace, and show some examples of what I do. Here's a sneak preview:

If anyone doesn't already follow me on Instagram, you might want to know that my personal account is here. I regularly post drawings, paintings, photographs (usually of lovely, grungy, rusty textures) and my textiles pieces too. Take a look.

Anyway, maybe I'll 'see' some of you on Wednesday. Hope you enjoy the film.

A New (Sort-of) Website for my Textiles

Hello! I am so sorry that I have been a wee bit 'off-air' of late. There has been so much going on that I have been a bit preoccupied. 

One thing which has been happening, is that I have been applying for funding for projects to do with my textiles work. Doing this is a bit boring - there's lots of sitting at a computer filling in forms - but it does help focus your mind on what you are doing and want to do. Anyway, I immediately realised that I needed a website which showcased the work, and my existing websites, for the children's books and the research-sketching, just confuse matters, when it comes to promoting my textiles.

But, I simply don't have the time to create another full-blown website right now, so I thought the easiest way to get it together quickly and without having to fork out cash, was to create myself a new Facebook page. For the very first time, there is now a body of my textiles work available for people to look at, all together. 

I have uploaded all the lovely new photos I had taken (thanks Matthew), as well as several zoomed-in details from the work, like these, to help you see the stitching more clearly. There's a bit of background info with each piece too, so you can get more of an idea what I was going for. 

Do take a look and let me know what you think. Pretty much everything I have created is there, since that very first experimental interpretation of a sketch on a train, back in 2016. 

That piece really started something for me!

A Croc-and-Bull Story!

Last week I did manage a little bit of stitch work, but also spent what felt like days catching up on boring stuff after my residency - oh, those emails!! I managed to escape the computer on two days though, and had heaps more fun, doing illustration workshops and very silly storytellings in a couple of schools (hello to all at Nettleworth and Cavendish primaries!). This is me explaining about drawing emotions - the little girl in white is acting out a 'shocked and horrified' face, to feel what happens to her eyebrows. I asked them to imagine a huge bear had walked in and was eating the children nearest the door:

For this visit to Cavendish School, I was actually a prize - the school had won me by having more children complete the Summer Reading Challenge than any other school in Greater Manchester. Well done kids - great job! I'm not surprised they won, having met the children: they were all so focused. The older ones asked such perceptive questions and everyone was so obviously into books and creativity. So that's a big congratulations due to the teachers too, I reckon.

This is me with about 100 Foundation children, having just read An Itch to Scratch, we sang an itchy song and did lots of scratching, like Big Gorilla in the story, hence the silly pose! 

While I was there, the lovely folks from Manchester Library Service, who looked after me all day, gave me a little present: some of the brand new publicity leaflets for Manchester's children's library cards, starring Class One, as they appear on the first page of my latest book Class One Farmyard Fun, just before they get into all that bother with the bull...

The library card itself it attached to the inside of the leaflet, featuring my sneaky, dancing crocodile from Kangaroo's Cancan Café. Do you remember, a couple of years ago now, my characters started to appear on the new-look library cards?

It makes them look so much more enticing to kids than a boring old plain card, like the poor grown-ups get. I can't wait to show author Julia Jarman, my friend and partner in all the books featured. I know she'll love having our new book on the front!

New Business Cards

The textiles work which I am concentrating on during my latest residency, at Orchard Square, is such a new venture for me and so different to my other work, I realised that I needed a different business card.

I picked details from various recent pieces, to give a flavour of the colour, layering and mark-making that excites me at the moment:

Because Moo cards let you use so many different images, I got new urban sketching cards done at the same time, as well as a few showcasing my landscape painting, but they all have to have the same info on the back. It was a bit tricky to know how to describe myself. Although it feels a bit wishy-washy and non-specific, the only title which worked for all my various 'hats', was 'Freelance Artist'.

It does the job anyway. Hope you like them.

Preparing for My Residency

I am getting really excited now: my new residency, Urban Sketching into Textiles, where I'll be spending a month in a studio space in Orchard Square, is coming up really soon - I move in on September 2nd! 

The idea is for people to pop in and see me as I work (so please do, if you are local), but one drawback to the studio is that it is tucked away upstairs. It's a great spot, as it's nice and peaceful, but people could easily miss the fact that I'm there. So, with that in mind, Making Ways, who are running the residency, have funded an A board to put at the bottom of the stairs, to encourage people to come up, which will look something like this, but BIG: 

The image I've used is actually the very first textile piece I did, which I still love. I thought it was the closet to the subject matter I'll be concentrating on during my residency, since I'm basing my new textiles work on sketches I do around the shopping centre. 

I feel really honoured to have been chosen for this. Only 4 artists were selected and we are taking turns in the studio, a month each. Use the hashtag #artistupstairs to follow us all, from now until the end of November. For those who wonder what it's all about, here the background info:

Urban Sketching into Textiles is part of MakingWays, a new programme supported by Sheffield Culture Consortium through Arts Council England to showcase, celebrate and develop the exceptional contemporary visual art produced in the city.

I'm on Manchester's Library Cards!

Manchester Libraries have redesigned their library cards and they thought that the children's cards ought to be illustrated. 

They used illustrations from my baby books as part of their publicity when the newly refurbished library was launched last year (do you remember the poster?). So they came back to me this time and asked if I would let them use my work on the library cards. It seemed such a lovely idea, of course I said yes.

They sent me some samples of the actual cards. Great aren't they? To launch them, they organised a days of children's events with me. We had a lot of fun. I thought it only fitting to read the three books featured on the cards, so I read Kangaroo's Cancan Cafe for the first time in a long time (complete with feather bower and high-kick dancing!), as well as Bears on the Stairs and Class Three all at Sea. 

I did two storytellings in the morning, then a workshop with older children and their parents in the afternoon. We had a great turn-out and it went really well.

Spotted in The Sheffield Star...

I had a message last night from a Facebook friend: 'There is a lovely little article in today's Sheffield Star, with a photo of you'. I couldn't think what it could be. Then she sent me a photo of the paper:

I went to visit High Storrs School a couple of weeks ago. It's only 10 minutes from where I live. I was do writing workshops with various Y7 and Y8 children. At lunchtime, they had an award ceremony for a short story competition and I gave out the prizes. 

They asked me to bring something to read out afterwards. I chose the 'packing for the trip' section from Three Men in a Boat, because it always makes me laugh. Also though, it was the very reading that a visitor did for us, when I was in secondary school. He read it out at assembly. Can't remember who he was - that's long since faded away and gone to Memory Heaven - but I do remember giggling.

Manchester Library Meets Baby Goes Baaaaa!

I was in the newly re-opened (and gorgeous) Manchester Central Library recently, doing a storytelling event for local schools. I was too busy to look round properly, but what I saw was impressive. They have managed to pull off a modern, hi-tech look, without losing the warmth and friendliness that you need in order to want to curl up with a book. I liked the way the old and the new are dovetailed too. They are very fortunate to have some fabulous old bits to work with:

The performance space was really quiet and just roomy enough without being cavernous for little people. I had a lovely session with sixty 4 - 5 year olds, then ate a rather yummy lunch with the senior librarian in the library's gleamy new cafe. 

On the way out, I spotted this:

I had quite forgotten that Manchester were using some of my Baby Goes Baaaaa! illustrations for their publicity. This is a detail from the 'D' page of the book: Baby goes Da-da! - I think it works really well.

Business Cards for the Urban Sketchers Symposium

Another parcel arrived this week - my new business cards!

I designed some fun bookmarks to hand out at school, library and festival events, when I am wearing my 'children's illustrator' hat, and these still work really well (though I'm in the process of updating the design to include some of my more recent titles). 

But the bookmarks seem a bit weird if I am in my 'sketcher' mode, so I decided to get another, very different set done. I couldn't really justify spending a fortune since, for the most part, my sketching is for fun and does not bring in an income, so I went with the Moo mini-cards. 

They are really cute, cheap as chips, there's no set template, full colour both sides and you can have as many different images on them as you like. Fantastic. Of course, I then couldn't resist spending ages trawling through sketchbooks, trying to get lots of different ones... 

The only drawback is the unusual, skinny format, which was probably a good thing, as it meant most of my sketches were too square, so I had to call a halt at 20. They all have the same design on the back though: 

I am really pleased with them and they will be perfect for handing out at the Urban Sketchers Symposium next week. Can't wait!

World Book Day - School & Library Visits

Spring is a bit of a crazy time here. It's all to do with World Book Day. You might think that's only one day, but the events associated with it spread out over a whole month. 

Any good primary school should be aware of World Book Day. Most celebrate it by having a day of dressing up as book characters, or doing special projects. Many schools and libraries also invite an author or illustrator to visit for a day, which is where I come in...

Like the other authors and illustrators who do visits, I can only be in one place at a time (though I do my best to be in at least three places at once, most days!), so World Book Day itself gets booked up months in advance. Which is why schools and libraries have to be flexible about the dates and the events spread out on both sides of March 1st.

This year I thought bookings might be thinner, because of all the cut-backs, but in the end it seems I'm busier than ever, so I'm really grateful to have John here in the studio this time round, holding the fort and dealing with emails while I'm out and about strutting my stuff. 

The season started for me in earnest on Tuesday Feb 21st, with a day at Oldham Library in connection with the Picture This! exhibition, where I met 70 smashing Y3 children from Coppice Infants School in the morning and then did a lecture for local adults in the afternoon. 

Between then and Thursday March 22nd I am booked solid, travelling all over the country, with only 3 working days in the studio to catch my breath (I'm even working one weekend).

Which is why blog posts might well be a little thin on the ground for the next three weeks. I'll ask John to scan in some of the train sketches I do on my travels, like these ones, from my first couple of days on the trail, then I can pop them onto the blog when I get a breather at weekends. 

Apart from that, I guess I'll see you at the other end! 

Selling a Picture Book to the Bookshops

People are usually surprised when I tell them that it generally takes around 18 months for a picture book to go from being some pastel drawings on my desk to a finished book that they can find on the shelf of their local bookshop. This is because of all the work that goes on behind the scenes, most of which is done by the sales team. 

There are an extraordinary number of children's books published each year, so there's only room on the shelves for the average bookseller to carry a fraction of what's available at any one time. Which is where the salesmen come in. 

To ensure that Baby Can Bounce! is one of the lucky titles selected by Waterstones, W.H.Smiths, Blackwells etc, they must sell the idea of my book to them, long before people in the real world know it exists. 

As soon as the proofed version of my book is available, they will use that for their sales pitch but, before that, they use sheets like the one above, which try to convey as accurately as possible, how totally gorgeous, and absolutely essential to their stock, my book is! 

This sales sheet for Baby Can Bounce! is the one that the Egmont team have been taking out in the lead up to Christmas and will be flashing about again, as soon as the holiday is over. Good luck team!

Publicity for the Exhibition

Cheryl Swann, the designer at the Salford Gallery, has created a lovely poster and invitation for my forthcoming show.

We have called the exhibition Llamas in Pyjamas, as we are making a feature of my book A Lark in the Ark (which is where the llamas come from), by building a play ark on one wall, for younger visitors. I didn't have any suitable illustrations of a llama in pyjamas that Cheryl could use, as it needed to be just on white, so, in Photoshop, I lifted an image of the llama from one of the book's spreads:

As well as the kid's interactive stuff (there will also be an anaconda they can crawl into), the main thrust of the exhibition will be the 30 - 40 framed pieces of my artwork: a cross section of my illustrations from lots of my other books. To demonstrate that, the poster is slightly different, with the llama taking 2nd place:

I have always liked that 'wise old owl' illustration. He's quite a few years old now (apt for a wise old owl, I suppose) and comes from my Chicken House book, An ABC of Nursery Rhymes:

Although the show starts on July 16th, the official opening will be an afternoon, family event on Saturday July 30th, incorporating a storytelling and a book signing. If you would like an invitation, please email me.

Illustrating Children's Books Part 3: a Foot in the Door?

Following last year's words of wisdom (!) about putting together a portfolio and initial contact with publishers, I thought this too might prove useful to new illustrators.

While I've been waiting for the go-ahead on my roughs, I've put together a few tips about what to expect if you are successful in getting an appointment with a publisher.


Dress code:
It's not like a job interview, so you can put away the suit. Dress normally, but just make sure you are neat and tidy (no ketchup stains on the T shirt...) so you look like you made the effort.

What happens?
Well, it normally lasts 10 - 30 minutes, depending on how busy and how interested they are. They will look through your work and ask you a bit about yourself. It's generally very informal, so try to relax and just be yourself. Be enthusiastic and friendly though. And remember to smile...

...sometimes shyness comes across as unfriendly. Most importantly: only say positive things about your work. If you don't have confidence in it, why should they?

Reminders:
You are still one of many illustrators they will be seeing that week, maybe that day. It is vital that you do not just become a blur with all the others. If you can think of a way to be memorable (in a positive way of course!) that's got to be good...

Another key thing is to have sample work to leave behind, something they can put in a file or, if you are very lucky, pin on their wall. They might make colour copies of your work - this is a good sign (and don't worry: they won't steal your stuff!!).

Agents:
People ask me if they should get an agent to do all this for them. My advice would be no, not yet. You can learn so much in the early stages from meeting art directors in person and listening to their feedback. Also, until you are published, it can be just as hard to get decent agent as it is to get a publisher - they too are swamped!

If you found this useful, there is also a fair bit of detail about publishing, from an illustrator's perspective, on my blog posts over the past 18 months. It's all hopefully interesting and relevant stuff, but if you want specific advice, here are my hot tips posts.

Plus, don't forget, there are also the videos on my website, talking about how I got started as an illustrator and showing some of what I do.

Now: go knock 'em dead!

In the Telegraph!

Remember we had that lovely illustrated article in the Sheffield Telegraph, when we did our first SketchCrawl?

Well, David Bocking, the reporter, was genuinely interested in what we were up to (he stayed with us for hours). He noticed that we are off again tomorrow, to mark the 30th International SketchCrawl Day, so he popped round to my studio last Friday, to do an interview.

The paper was also very interested in the forthcoming Urban Sketchers book which, because of the success of our SketchCrawls, will feature a whole section on Sheffield.

The article was in yesterday's paper, but is also on-line.

David is such a nice bloke that we chatted happily all morning. He is also a keen cyclist (he arrived on his bike) and part of a local society called Pedal Ready. This led him to come up with an exciting new idea: a SketchCrawl on bikes!! We are calling it the Tour de Sketch and it's going ahead on Saturday April 2nd. Watch this space...

Thanks David!

Christmas Window Revisited

While I was in the city centre at the weekend, doing my manic Christmas shopping, I finally got around to taking some photos of my Christmas window on Cambridge St, now it's properly finished, with the children's monster drawings in.


They are a selection of the 'best of' from the entries to my illustration competition. Unfortunately, I could only really use the A4 ones, but they look great all together, strung out across the entire 16ft width of the window.


It was pretty much impossible to capture, as I found before, because of the window's size, all the reflections of the high street behind me, and the translucent vinyls of the big characters on the glass, but here are a couple of details, to give you the idea. It looks far more coherent 'in the flesh', honest!

Becoming a Children's Book Illustrator Part 2: Getting Your Work Seen

I'm getting more and more emails from people trying to get started in book illustration so, to save writing individual replies, here's some more general advice, this time about getting yourself noticed.

It's following up on my post about creating a children's illustration folio, sharing what I can about the next step, and what worked for me at least.

Firstly: spend some time browsing the children's section of bookshops. Familiarise yourself with what different publishers do. Bookshops are better than libraries for this, as it's all still selling, so never out-of-date.

Who publishes picture books? Who leans towards traditonal, beautiful, funny or off-the-wall? Who publishers chapter books? Which illustration techniques are used for which age groups? Note the websites of publishers whose books look a bit like what you do, then check their newest releases on-line to see what they're after right now.

Get a copy of The Children's Writers and Artist's Yearbook (or something similar - there are a few different ones). This has listings of all the publishers with their contact details, as well as more advice and guidance.

Make colour prints of maybe three of your best pieces, marked with your contact details or, if you have the necessaries, design an A4 flyer, like the one here. Post these with a short covering letter to the publishers you have researched.

Unfortunately, publishers get unbelievable quantities of unsolicited material, so you have to work very hard to catch their eye. Here are a few hot tips that worked for me:

1 - Make sure you contact a named Art Director or Commissioning Editor (never send a 'to whom it may concern': it will probably go in the bin).

2 - Ensure any samples you send are produced to high quality - first impressions DO count.

3 - Be funny or different or cute (I designed this letterhead for my covering letter, with the tied-up cat printed top-right and the fish swimming along the page bottom, with the header 'See me soon, or the pussycat gets it!' )

4 - Be persistent, but not boring: send a printed sample of new work (not just the same old stuff) once a month.

5 - Get on-line: set up a simple website, or a Flickr portfolio, to refer publishers to (but resist the urge to pad it out with your less-good work).

6 - Be proactive: phone the art director a week after they get your samples, to ask if they will see you.

7 - The scatter-gun approach: do all of the above for lots of different (but relevant) publishers.

8 - Don't give up too easily: take on board any feedback you're lucky enough to get, but don't be put off by lack of success - even if you're good, it might take a while for someone to bite.

Initial Contact:

If in doubt about which individual to contact, don't be afraid to phone the publisher's switchboard to get the relevant Art Director's name. In your covering letter, tell them you would like an appointment to show them the rest of your folio. This is important, even if you're not local: I have always found that face-to-face contact is the thing that works. For me, samples sent out and website links are all about getting publishers to ultimately let me visit them at their offices, to present my work in person.

Don't be too disappointed if the Art Director doesn't remember your samples when you phone - they get hundreds. Ask again if you can make an appointment to visit them with the rest of your work. Be ready with a simple website or Flickr page, so they can quickly check your work on-screen.

OK, now the bad news. Children's illustration is a very tough market to break into: there's so much competition and the standards are very high. My experience is that slogging round publishers and bombarding them with reminders about your work is the only way in.

However, if your illustrations are of a high enough standard, are interesting, clever and relevant (perhaps even a little bit different, without being too off-the-scale), you should eventually get your foot in the door, if you stick at it doggedly enough.


If you are successful in getting an appointment with an Art Director, you might want to read this post, to give you some idea of what to do and what to expect. Or why not read about how I got my first book?

There are lots of hot tips for new illustrators and demonstrations which you might find useful in the series of short films on my YouTube channel. Take a look - hope you enjoy them! Here's an example: a demonstration, talking you through how I create my pastel artwork: