• My Illustrator friend, Kate Sheppard, came round this week to show me the dummy of a picture book she’s been working on. It’s wonderful! But I would say that… is a synthesis of two ideas I played about with a while back. I couldn’t get the ideas to work because they obviously needed to come together to make sense.

    I didn’t or couldn’t make that connection, but Kate did – But How come we both had the same-ish ideas? And why am I not bothered that Kate got it right and I didn’t?

    I was thrilled to see the book and add my thoughts to it because I’ve finally seen the idea come to fruition and can close that chapter in my head.

    If I thought that was the last idea I’d ever have, then that would be a sorry day. I played with the ideas – learned a whole load of stuff and have moved on to other things. Luckily, those ideas found Kate, who has done a fabulous job and has created what I think will become a classic. Any picture book editor who doesn’t make an offer on the spot should… drink four pints of blue, fizzy soda, eat a pound of jelly babies and think again!

  • This is part of my Mother’s Day set of tutorials as on monday I’ll be showing how to draw a posy of Pansies to make a mother’s Day card or birthday card. I know we had Mother’s Day in the UK already, but it’s Mother’s Day in the USA Next week!

  • It’s Mother’s Day in the USA next weekend, so I’ve done some tutorials for all my viewers in the States, showing how to write MOM in different ways. four more to come tomorrow.