Bowes Museum

I am so excited, I have a meeting at The Bowes Museum this week, the museum that inspired The Big Adventure of the Smalls.

We are hoping to set a date for an exhibition of the artwork from the book. This is so exciting because I grew up near this museum, I visited a lot as a child, and after years of living away, it will be like closing a circle... if that makes sense. The museum is in Barnard Castle, not far from my parents house, so we'll be staying with them for a couple of nights. My Dad has an amazing allotment, I'm hoping to do some drawing there during this visit. 

This is a drawing I did there a couple of years ago. We've had a lot of sunny weather, fingers crossed for some more this weekend, although I actually do better drawing when I am cold or uncomfortable in some way. The feeling of hurrying to finish seems to loosen the drawings up. I usually start to draw, full of excitement, desperate to draw, then do a few really bad sketches in quick succession. Then, as I relax, the better drawings come. Then, there is usually a time where I decide I've had enough and want to go home. But I don't allow myself to, because this is usually when the best drawing happen. Strange isn't it, the psychology behind drawing? It's as if when I decide I've done enough, and have nothing to loose, I suddenly do the loosest, most expressive work. It's almost as if the first drawing were the ones where I learned about what I was drawing, got it right technically, then at the end, I give up thinking too much and just draw.

St Brides Talks

I will be taking part in a day of talks at St Brides Library, near St Pauls in London. The conference is called Illustration: Making Pictures. I have decided to travel there and back on the day, as I have lots of work on. So I will have 8 delicious hours of reading and knitting! I am especially looking forward to hearing John Lawrence talk. I'll be talking about the importance of play, particularly drawing from life, in my work.

It promises to be a fun day, you can get tickets here.

This is a drawing from a sketchbook that inspired me to write The Big Adventure of the Smalls.

‘Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.’ Scott Adams
Other speakers include Ben Flynn, John Lawrence, Linzie Hunter, Kai and Sunny, Nic Rawling, Peter Schrank and more to be announced shortly.
Conference illustrator: Mike Nicholson
Demonstrators: Paul Antonio, Helen Ingham, Richard Lawrence, Peter Smith

Artwork Swap

When I first moved to Berwick I joined a knitting group because I thought it might be good way to meet people. And it was, one of the people I met was Sarah Chappell, she's a photographer. She was telling the folks at the knitting group that she'd been taking some photos of an author that day. My ears pricked up because, over the years, my publishers had been asking me for photos of myself to use in articles or on websites etc, and I always gave them pretty poor quality snaps taken in our back garden. I was always reticent to have some proper pictures taken because I'm not that comfortable in front of a camera, and didn't want to pose in a studio. Anyway, I liked Sarah, and decided I'd ask her to take some photos. She did, and they were fab, not too posed, not studio shots, just what I needed. You can see one on my website.

This is a very long way round of telling you what we did next. She asked if I'd like to do an artwork swap, where she would take pics of my 3yr old, and in return, I would draw her littl'un. It sounded like fun, and this was the outcome. I am so happy with my photos, Sarah has really captured her bright blue eyes. I chose this one along with 5 or 6 others.

The drawings I did of Sarah's little girl (these are very similar to the actual ones I gave Sarah, I forgot to take copies) have actually inspired me to write a book. She has a very self contained, happy manner, and a very funny wobbly toddler walk. I haven't started yet, the ideas are developing in my mind at the moment, when the moment is right, I'll put them on paper. Watch this space!

This is a picture of Sarah's little girl doing something I didn't actually see her do, but have seen lots of toddlers do: fighting with all their might over a favourite toy.

Cute faces, dirty fighters!

I was so pleased to be asked by the Library Mice blog to pick my Fabulous Five.
They said I could choose my Fab 5 from any subject I wanted: 5 Fab books from my childhood, 5 Fab books about dogs... whatever 5 I fancied talking about.
I decided to gather together some of my favourite picture books and go from there. I quickly realised that nearly all of my favourite books are mad, bad or sad, hence my title, 'Fab 5 Mad, Bad and Sad Books that Make my Heart Sing'. (Also, they are nearly all author illustrated too, that is a subject in it's own right, I might talk about that another time on my blog.) Anyway, this is what I decided to talk about:

We all want to protect our children from difficult things, so maybe we shouldn't read mad, bad or sad books to our children. But even little children have difficult feelings, perhaps more so than us, because they don't have the mechanisms to calm themselves yet. I read all of these books with my three year old, and they lead to some fantastic philosophical conversations. There is something very exciting and rewarding for a child about exploring difficult and scary feelings in the safety of a picture book.

You can read the full article here.

Shortlisted for the Dundee Picture Book Award

The Night Iceberg has been shortlisted for the Dundee Picture Book Awards 2012. Fleabag won a few years ago, and the award holds some special memories for me.

Frieda was only a few months old, so I took her with me. We flew from London and stayed in a hotel in Dundee, which felt like a big adventure with such a little baby. Frieda cried behind the scenes, and had to came on stage with me, which was lovely, she got a big 'ah' from the audience. Then, to top it off, I won! I'm going alone this time, but am very excited. Straight after the ceremony I am flying down to the Hay-on-Wye festival, so it will be a lot of travelling but I don't mind because  I'll be taking my knitting. It's very rare that I have a lot of time to knit, so I relish these long journeys to book festivals.

Picture This!

These are some pictures of my work at 'Picture This!', an exhibition of children's book illustration. It was at Gallery Oldham, near Manchester.
It was lovely to see Fleabag welcoming everyone in.

I was delighted to find my work displayed beside Kazuno Kohara, one of my favourite new illustrators. 

Other exhibitors included Anthony Browne, Shirley Hughes and Katie Viggers. I love Katie's anteater.

Sunshine on Gerry's Whale Print

This is what happened a few days ago.

The beautiful whale print is Gerry's. 

Borrowing Doulas and Ellie

Douglas and Ellie are dogs, but don't tell them it could be a shock, I don't think they know. They belong to my friend Vanessa Cabban. Here's a link to her fantastic blog, an inspiration to knitters and illustrators alike. Anyway, Douglas and Ellie are real characters. I like to think of Douglas as the thinker, and Ellie as the doer. Douglas has a very serious face with a long turned down nose, Ellie is fluffy and sprightly and always ready for attention.

Vanessa lent them to me so that I could draw them. They spent lots of time sitting and lying in a pool of sunshine at the bottom of my stairs. 

Gerry's Work at Bologna Exhibition

Gerry's work was selected for The Bologna International Bookfair Illustration Exhibition 2012. He was one of 72 selected from 2700 illustrators worldwide.

We were so excited, he immediately booked his flights and hotel. We have been to The Bologna Bookfair before and it is the most awe inspiring place. Publishers from all over the world meet to sell each other co-editions. There is also an illustrators forum/ conference area, and an exhibition space. It's a wonderful place to see cutting edge illustration, and work from all over the world.

This is Gerry's work. This isn't a great photo actually, you can see these prints better on his website. They are all screenprints done at Edinburgh Printmakers. He was very pleased with how it looked and has already been contacted by a few publishers about working for them. The exhibition tours Japan next, it will be shown at The Itabashi Art Museum in Tokoyo in June.

The work above is by Violeta Lopiz. The work below is by Katrin Stangl. We are hoping to all go as a family next year, or the year after, then do some sight seeing after. We'd would love to do some drawing in Florence and Rome.

Where My Ideas Come From

Most of my ideas start with a drawing from life in a sketchbook. These drawing were of a dog at Battersea Dogs Home and were the inspiration for 'Fleabag'.

Some ideas start with a desire to do a book about something, then going out with my sketchbook and drawing things that might be useful. Like with 'How To Hide A Lion', I wanted to do a Lion book, so went drawing at Edinburgh zoo. The lions were always out of sight, or too far away to draw, so the title, 'How To Hide a Lion' was quite apt.

'The Big Adventures of the Smalls' started with the title. I didn't know what the book would be, but I knew that was the title. Then I went drawing at The Bowes Museum, not thinking it might be useful to the book. The Bowes Museum has a collection of baroque furniture, huge guilt harps, gold musical nymphs... I drew lots of ordinary people in jeans and anoraks, walking past this hugely ornate gold furniture. The drawings made me laugh, and I knew then that I had to do a book about 2 small ordinary children living in a stately home.

So, all of my books, in one way or another, start with a drawing from life.

Library Mice

Have you seen the blog Library Mice? It's great, a really fascinating place for anyone who loves picture books. They have a spot called Fabulous 5. It is where an author or illustrator chooses his or her top 5 favourite fairy tales, top 5 picture books about monsters, top 5 books they read as child... whatever they fancy talking about.

This was one of Lydia Monk's choices. Snow-White by Josephine Poole and Angela Barrett. I love this book too. There is an interesting interview with Angela Barrett on this link.

Anyway, back to the point, Library Mice have asked me to do my Fabulous 5 and I've said yes, so watch this space, I'll let you know when it is posted. Here's a link to a Top Ten I did for Babyccino Kids last year.

Easter Reads in The Guardian

The Guardian reviewed The Big Adventure of the Smalls yesterday (below).

Helen Stephens works within a tradition – their are traces of Edward Ardizonne and Ludwig Bemelmans in her lovely, confident illustration. Small Hall is a house to rival Downton Abbey in ostentation and conveyed with merry flourishes. It is about two children spying on a grown-up party. Their interventions are glorious, fantastical and acrobatic (especially the moment of hiding under a silver salver, held aloft by oblivious butlers). And their wonderful sleepless spree goes unpunished. A nice antidote to the more plodding picture books that scheme to get children to nod off. (4+)

I love the Downton Abbey reference. The Smalls was actually inspired by The Bowes Museum in Teesdale. The museum is built in the style of a French Chataux and stands in the middle of Teesdale farmland. It houses the collection of John and Josephine Bowes. Josephine was a Parisien actress, and John, a local businessman. Their plan was to bring their collection of art from around the world to the local people, but both died before the museum was completed. I used to visit the museum as a child, and when I came to write The Smalls, I thought a slightly fictionalised version of The Bowes Museum was the perfect backdrop. It is not an exact portrayal of course, I used some artistic license, but you can recognise the beautiful staircase, and some vases and artwork I think. The Smalls has been printed in France by a publisher called Gallimard and it received a favourable review in French Elle which you can see earlier on my blog. I wonder if it is being received so well in France because of the slightly French look of Small Hall. If you ever get chance to visit the Bowes Museum, it is well worth a look.

A sneaky peek at this week's work...

I am lucky enough to be illustrating a Michael Morpurgo text at the moment. It is a book for slightly older children than I usually do and I am enjoying the challenge. It is about a donkey who lives in Venice. I start all of my books with some drawing from life, I drew the donkey at a nearby farm, and Venice - in Venice! You can see some of those sketches earlier on my blog. I have fallen madly in love with Venice and would like to go back again soon. I have started to read fiction set in Venice, if anyone has any recommedations, I'd love to know.
These are a couple of roughs I have done this week (the white spaces are where the text will go). They might not make it to the final book, I revise and change constantly at this stage, until I feel completely happy, then I start the artwork. The roughs usually take me a few months, then the artwork comes quite quickly. Anyway, better get back to it...

We were in our local paper this week

Success at the double for artistic couple - News - Berwick Advertiser

La Grande Aventure Des Petits

My lovely neighbour, Guy, did this translation for me. Security blanket and Teddy are the same word in French apparently, so the security blanket is actually Mr Puddles (who is called Mr Ploc in the French edition of the book), Paul's teddy.

"Oh, a security blanket!
Which child, sent to bed, has never got up again to go and spy on their parents and their guests? Enter Paul and Lydia, in search of Mr Ploc, a wandering security banket! For all that their name might be Little, the little ones live in a gigantic manor-house, a dream land for great explorers. Drawing reminiscent of the great Quentin Blake combines with sumptuous layout to make irresistible this mischievous little book which will bring a sparkle to every eye."