Mad Hatter's Tea Party

On Saturday we did something rather special... 

It was the 34th Worldwide SketchCrawl Day but, here in the UK, it was way too cold to work out on location, so we tried a new idea. At 10am, the Sheffield SketchCrawl team all brought their best crockery and silverware, plus a food contribution to our house. 

Pam raided the local antique centre, so we had very posh candelabras, some extraordinarily themed tea-pots and a very unusual, Russian tea-urn that looked not unlike a prototype diving bell: 

We had so much wonderful stuff, we were able to set up three tables around the house, all heaving with food and packed to capacity with suitably crazy props.

And since it was a Mad Hatter's tea party, we all wore hats (some of us had several hats to choose from and so changed throughout the day).

Once we were set up, we all sat round the tables and drew. I decided to stick to my Inktense watercolour pencils, which are great for very quick but very colourful work. 

There was so much going on, I didn't get around to doing a headcount, but there must have been 20 - 25 people in all. We were all concentrating so hard, it was surprisingly quiet most of the time.

Except every 15 - 20 minutes, when John stood in the hall and rang a bell, shouting 'All change! All change!' and (despite some sighs of despair) everyone moved round one seat, and began a new sketch. 

Every so often he, and our invaluable helper Wendy, served mugs of tea to everyone - quite a feat, since one table was upstairs in the converted spare bedroom and the third was set up in my studio, way up in the attic:

Rumours filtered down to those in the dining room that some of the sketchers at the upstairs tables had given into temptation and began nibbling, so we stopped for elevenses and all tucked into the goodies.

At lunchtime we were spoilt for choice. People wandered up and down between the rooms investigating all the different food on offer. Several sketchers had baked specially. The Davies family had made biscuits stamped with letters, laid out on a plate spelling SKETCHCRAWL, as illustrated here by the wonderful Andrea Joseph: 

Andrea had created jars of potted-eyeballs and allotment-antipasti, all beautifully packaged, with hand-drawn labels in her own inimitable style:

After lunch we swapped rooms, so we had different things to draw, but John was just as vigilant with his bell, so there was no time to get complacent!

You might remember me mentioning our very talented young member, Tom, who has come to almost every event since we started in 2009. Well it was great to welcome his younger brother Harry with us this time too: 

Joshua, aged only 9, was also taking part for the first time, and worked steadily all day, producing some lovely drawings: 

We drew until about 3.30, when people started to wilt. So we had more tea and squeezed in yet more cake (gorgeous brownies Tom and Harry...).

Then we took all our sketchbooks into the living room, spread them out on the carpet and - very excited to see what each other had done - dug in with relish! Here's just a sample:

Postscript: just been sent a photo of the biscuits, which were brought all the way from Hull - there's dedication!

If you want to see more of the work done, take a look at our Facebook group SketchCrawl North.

Drawing Cats

I have spent much of this week revising a story I was working on late last year. Remember, I took the train to London to pitch it in person to publishers? Well, I had a very positive response from one editor, who made a couple of suggestions for additions, before she takes it to their acquisitions meeting, which is where she must pitch it in turn, to the rest of her team.

The story features a little gang of doggy friends, who play together in an alley. The action also brings in a neighbouring gang of rats. The editor felt it would really help the fun if the local cats also got involved. This seemed like a great idea, so I've been designing some characters. They are, of course, supremely unimpressed by the dogs:

Ideally, I'd have liked to have done this before now, but things were very busy in the run-up to Christmas, getting Baby Can Bounce finished. Then of course, John and I were lucky enough to have a our lovely long break in India... So, before I knew it, it was the middle of January! 

All the new drawings and the re-plotting was done on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday was spent scanning the new additions into Photoshop, along with the original sheets of sketches, notes and the handwritten text which I took to London in November. These were fine with me there to present them, but I needed to slightly reorder things and tidy them all up a little, to make it easier for my editor to show the sheets to other people without me present. 

It now comes out at 6 sheets of A3. I haven't illustrated everything - I don't think that's necessary at this stage - but there is a sketch for all the important events and characters.

Let's hope she still likes it!

Robin Hood's Bay in the Frost

Yes, I know it's very decadent, having only 2 minutes ago got back from our big adventure in Kerala, but John was desperate to get off to the seaside for the weekend and I thought, well... why not?

I'm so glad I did, as the weather turned out to be perfect: crisp and frosty but clear and mostly sunny. We went for a walk along the cliffs and the beach for 3 days running. 

Despite it being mid January and the ground being frozen solid, there was almost no wind, so it was warm enough for me to sit and sketch. These were all done using the Inktense pencils from Derwent. I'm still learning how to get the best from them, but I feel I've really started to turn the corner now and mastering a new medium makes the sketching so much more interesting.

Robin Hood's Bay is a bit special to us: it's the first place John and I ever went away together, it's the place we got engaged and where we spent the first night of our honeymoon. We were there for our wedding anniversary last summer, when we discovered Friday folk night in the upstairs room at Ye Dolphin, so we went back this time and had another lovely evening.

Steve and John were the mainstay and kept us entertained until almost midnight. They were a great double-act, singing mostly funny songs, to the accompaniment of a banjo, violin and mouth-organ.  Thanks guys - fabulous stuff.

I love to draw to music and of course love to draw people, so spent the whole evening sketching away and nobody seemed to mind at all. It was like a one-man SketchJam!

This is Jeff below, who runs the show, as well as singing a few songs himself. He remembered me drawing at the club before, because after that previous visit, I let him use a little painting I did of the outside of the pub, to illustrate the cover of the folk club's newsletter. 

This lady didn't sing, but must be a regular, as I remembered her from the summer too:

We had only started off with the idea of a B&B on that Friday night, but the weather was so wonderful we stayed Saturday night too. But then we discovered that our B&B ran a '3 nights for the price of 2' deal during off-season, so it seemed wicked not to take advantage of it...

Invitation: Children's Illustration Exhibition

Last week, I received an envelope full of invites to the opening day of the new show Picture This! in Gallery Oldham.

The show is already open to visitors, but the official opening day is not until Sat Jan 28th, when there will be all sorts going on, incuding a talk and a children's storytelling by Yours Truly.

I am chuffed that, though the show includes work by some very big names (Shirley Hughes, Anthony Browne, Jez Alborough...) it's one of my illustrations from Giddy Goat that has been chosen for the invitation. What with that and my Giddy Goat / Itch to Scratch giant jigsaw, it feels like it gives me a fairly high profile in the show, which is fab.
Anyway, consider yourselves all very much invited. The day kicks off at 11am. Here are the various brilliant events you can attend as well as seeing the exhibition itself:
11.00 my talk (for adults and older children)
11.00 - 12.30 illustrator Katie Viggers - free monoprinting workshop
12.00 Sculptor Martin Shaw talking about his work
1.00 my storytelling (suitable for 4 - 8 yrs)
2.00 Photographer Charlie Meecham talking about his work
2.00 - 3.30 illustrator Katie Viggers - free monoprinting workshop
3.00 Social Historian Sean Baggeley - a tour of 1876 Oldham, using the Oldham Panorama photograph.

Sheffield Hallam University: Last Day

Yesterday was the final day of my latest batch of teaching at the university. That's it for the time being and I can't say I'm not pleased - 2 half days out of each week is quite a distraction, on top of my other out-of-studio events.

On Wednesday morning each of my illustration students took turns to present their finished project work to me - they had just 5 mins each (I set a stopwatch!). Then on Thursday morning I had to grade them all and write feedback. 

It's interesting being on the other side of the fence: I can still (just about) remember what it felt like to be the one doing the presenting and worrying about what grades I would get. 


How strange to think of everything that has happened since then, none of which I could have predicted (especially since my degree was in Printed Textiles and not Illustration!).

In case anyone's interested, all the above sketches were done using the Inktense water-soluble pencils that Derwent kindly donated. They were all finished on the spot, whilst waiting for, or riding on the bus. I've found the Inktense pencils are great for real quickies, especially if you select just 3 or maybe 4 colours to work with.

An Afternoon Drawing in the Market

I just love drawing markets and what better place than India? It's such a great excuse to get in amongst local people, doing their everyday jobs, and as soon as you draw, they welcome you into their lives just a little, and that makes it so much more rewarding and memorable.

These sketches were done on my very last afternoon in Kerala, in a small town called Angamaly, near Cochin. I started with the veg stall: stuffed with sacks and crates of veg in all shapes, sizes and colours, many of which I'd never seen before. 

This is Ajilal, who was the man taking the orders and the money for the veg. His fellow workers nominated him to be drawn and then ribbed him shamelessly throughout. When I was done, John and I were fed as many finger-bananas (literally finger-size) as we could eat, while someone nipped my sketchbook to the photocopy shop.

I was then dragged into the garden of a man who happened to live next door. He showed me his caged bunnies, guinea pigs and budgies and offered them for me to draw. It felt bizarre, and was not quite what I'd had in mind, but I gave it a go while his wife, Rosie, stood and watched. He bought me a bottle of mango juice to cool me off, which was very welcome by then.

This man was deep-frying food round the corner, in a massive wok. It was a fiercely hot and horribly humid day and the extra heat was making me run with sweat, though I was standing several feet away - how he kept smiling I'll never know.

Time was getting on and the afternoon's fish catches arrived, so I moved to the next street, where fishermen crouched on the pavement with small tarps at their feet, where their fish was laid out. I started with the man below and began to draw quite an audience. 

The fisherman was disappointed I didn't get his head in (though pleased enough to take a photo on his mobile phone). So the man sitting opposite him insisted I did him next and that I made sure his face was showing. 

By then I had quite a crowd (John counted 25), and we were entirely blocking the narrow road. Soon the other fish men were all lining up to be done and I had to plead fatigue to get out of drawing everyone. They took pity on me and one of the men bought us both a cup of sweet tea off the chai man (with an urn on a bike).

A wonderfully memorable, final afternoon, full of laughter and sudden, brief friendships. 

Bewilderingly Back to Earth

So far it's been a week of trogging through all the emails that have built up while we've been away, opening the post, checking the diary and generally getting my head back into gear. It's the sign of a good holiday when you get back and work feels like something you vaguely remember you were up to once, but you can't recall anything properly.

I've started scanning a handful of my sketches, so I'll pop them on tomorrow morning, but here are some quick monkey sketches in the meantime. They were a little bit scary, but also very cute, though a right nuisance to locals, as they would steal anything sweet. 

It's back to work with a bang tomorrow though, as I'm back teaching at the university for 2 half days, so that should sort me out and get me in gear!

Kerala in India - Quite a Christmas!

On Saturday we got back from three fantastic weeks, touring Kerala in southern India. I filled 4 sketchbooks, so there is plenty to show you but, of course, we got back to 500 emails as well as the big pile of envelopes on the mat, so it's going to be a while before I can put an e-sketchbook together. 

In the meantime, here is a couple of sketches I did in Punnathoor Kotta Kovilagom - a place where 64 elephants are kept and trained for work in Hindu temples. Keralan elephants have a unique pink face with black freckles, so I had to get my paints out, which of course turned me into just another attraction, as far as the Indian visitors were concerned.

The Keralan people are the friendliest and most welcoming I have ever come across in my travels. Absolutely everyone we met was delightful (and also honest, despite some obvious poverty). Stunningly beautiful scenery too. Plus there's the gorgeous food... (I have put on weight and all my trousers are too tight!).

More to come!

Life Drawing in the Fridge

Yes, that's what it felt like last time I braved the KIAC life drawing, down at Kelham Island, just before we broke up for the holidays. 

I knew it would be cold, since it was well chilly before the weather turned nasty. So I put on yet more layers, a scarf, my fingerless gloves, a woolly hat and even - horror of horrors - shocking pink leg-warmers under my jeans (left over from an 80s fancy dress night, honest).

We all felt so sorry for the poor model. Several extra heaters had been brought in, to make sure he was kept nice and toasty but, unfortunately, every time they were all plugged in together, it blew a fuse! He was a true professional though and took off his clobber anyway. He insisted on sticking it out to the end of the session, even though he looked frozen.

He struck some fab poses too, using a big stick to support himself, so he could spread his arms wide, or twist into interesting shapes for 10 minutes at a time.

By the way, remember I mentioned before about the massive scissors hanging in the space? Well, here they are. In the background, you can just spot my friend and fellow SketchCrawler Les, trying to block some of the broken windows with paper, to stop the wind howling through:

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!