• It’s been a few years since Rose Impey wrote the Animal Crackers book and I first illustrated them in black and white. Since then I’ve redrawn and coloured them in and now they are on a new set of covers.

    So yesterday Rose and I did a double act in front of 275 children at the Cheltenham Festival talking about Animal Crackers and our more recent solo publications. I had a Visualiser to play with. This was a camera on a rostrum. As I drew the audience could follow on the big screen. I normally use a flip chart which allows me to shade in with pencil. This was a bit like a live youtube drawing school session.

    We had a great fun and it was good to catch up.

    The cheltenham Festival is a great mishmash of things. I was thrilled to see June Whitfield in the green room, but was to embarrassed to say hello. You never know if famous people want to be left alone or not. I’m sure there is some sort of protocol, but I don’t know the rules. Does anyone know or does one just instinctively know these things?

  • Weston-Super-Mare Pier Under Construction
    Weston-Super-Mare Pier Under Construction
    On Wednesday I went to Weston Super Mare to present certificates to children who had been doing the Quest Seekers Summer Reading Challenge and give a bit of a story too. North Somerset had been very keen on Dragons during the quest, and the Winter Gardens venue was decked out with Dragons. This made me change my prepared story to Monster Boy – Dragon Danger, which, I think, went down well.

    Marine Parade Weston-super-mare
    Marine Parade Weston-super-mare
    I used to go to weston as a child and chipped my front tooth on the bumper cars on the pier. The Marine Parade is looking very sorry for itself at the moment. The Fire on the pier really was the last straw for a town that has been going downhill for a while. But- It really feels like something is happening now. The Front is being rebuilt, as is the pier, which is due to be a thing of wonder once it is finished. The largest indoor entertainment venue in Europe and the top pier in the world.
    Whoops! I forgot the front legs. I knew something was missing.
    Whoops! I forgot the front legs. I knew something was missing.

    Good luck Weston and thanks for a great evening, effortlessly organised by North Somerset Libraries.

  • I had a lovely day, yesterday at Pillowell School, not far from me in the Forest of Dean, but well hidden down a tiny lane. You’s never know it was there if there wasn’t a sign.

    At last, we seem to be coming out of the tyranny of Literacy and Pillowell have remembered that the story is important, not just the text, and that stories often have illustrations too!

    A lot of the children had been on my drawing school website and had brought in their offerings. It was great to see that they had followed my instructions online, but had then gone and added their own ideas and personality too. My cute little kitten lesson had turned into a cute little vampire kitten in one case!

    I love doing drawing with children. They all draw the same picture, but each is entirely different. It’s down to how they see things, hand-eye coordination, how much they do on their own – many different things – but they can all draw – even the ones who say they cant can, with a little bit of coaxing.

    And it was a lovely sunny day too! Thanks too, for a great day.