down the rabbit hole in Essex Libraries!

For me next week will bring three out of four eagerly awaited library workshops. I am venturing across the border from Cambridgeshire to Essex to make Cheshire Cats with the children of Witham, Basildon and Maldon!

Essex Libraries are being supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England to hold a number of workshops around the county celebrating 150 years of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I am extremely lucky to be one of the artists chosen to give workshops on the theme “Down the Rabbit Hole” – my muse will be a disappearing collaged Cheshire Cat!

It would make an illustrator happy if and your children would like to come and make Cheshire Cats with me next week at Witham, Basildon or Maldon, or on the 14th November at Saffron Walden! All the dates and contact numbers are below – I look forward to seeing you there.

October 22, 2015 0

witches at Ramsey Ram Jam

Witches were abroad at Ramsey Ram Jam this Saturday! By and large they were about 50cm high, made of paper, card and various sparkly things and looked a bit like Bella Donna…

The children who took part in my workshops made some truly magical work and I think they were extra inspired by the previous day’s visit from Ruth Symes who is the fantastic author responsible for penning the Bella Donna series.

Ramsey Ram Jam is a super event with all sorts of workshops and talks from authors and illustrators who this year as well as myself included: Matt Brown, Nicola Killen, Lizzie Finlay, Steve Antony and Helen Moss. Thanks to all the children and parents who came along and the library staff and volunteers who make Ramsey Ram Jam a wonderful event for us all to be a part of. Below are some of the stunning results from witch class:

October 19, 2015 0

…bookworms?

I noticed these little guys on my bookshelf so I took a surreptitious snap. I think they were just having a chat, or perhaps a book group?

October 8, 2015 2

a month of monsters

It’s October and that means it’s almost Halloween and THAT means I’m allowed to draw monsters as much I like – brilliant! Here’s the first one.

October 2, 2015 0

mushroom season

It’s cold in the air and damp on the ground and in the forests and the fields the mushrooms are beginning to appear. I’m looking forward to finding my first chanterelles and penny buns, but meantime I thought I’d celebrate the season of the mushroom with a few fungus-inspired patterns – these ones are anything but edible…

September 22, 2015 0

Maisie travels the world

I’m delighted to find myself in possession of some of the co-edition copies of the first three Maisie Hitchins stories. It seems that intrepid Maisie has now travelled to France, Poland, Indonesia and America! I love to see the differences between the books, the Amercian edition for example uses a little scroll for the series title “The Mysteries of Maisie Hitchins” and underneath its dust jacket the book is a perfect reproduction of the notebook that Maisie carries everywhere with her – what a lovely detail. Thanks so much to Emily at Stripes Publishing for rounding these up for me!

The Case of the Stolen Sixpence in American and Indonesian editions.

The Case of the Phantom Cat in American and French editions.

The Case of the Vanishing Emerald in Polish and French editions. — The Case of the Vanishing Emerald in Polish and Indonesian editions.

American hardback copy of The Case of the Phantom Cat

Phantom Cat interior - American edition — Phantom Cat interior – American edition

September 14, 2015 2

back to school

For me and studio pal Nicola Killen much of this summer has been spent preparing for Art Club and figuring out the exercises we wanted the children to do. This meant a lot of playing with materials and mark-making, I felt like I’d gone back to my student days where experimentation was the norm. It was great! Here are some of the results of using tissue and coloured pencil for collage week and monoprint for printing week.

September 4, 2015 2

Art Club – 3D

On Tuesday Nicola Killen and I held our fourth and final Art Club and the theme this time was doll’s house rooms from shoe boxes. We had a wonderful array of bits and bobs for the children get creative with and at the end of the session we put all their rooms together to make a mansion of a doll’s house! Huge thanks to all those who helped us gather the supplies for this session – both Nicola’s and my parents, Perry and Ian as well as Jones the Bootmakers for supplying all the boxes. Special thanks go to my Dad who lovingly sawed up and sanded all the blocks of wood that were used to make the tiny furniture. We would also like to thank the wonderful Anne, Pippa, David and Richard from Cambridgeshire libraries for making Art Club happen!

August 27, 2015 0

experiments in screen printing…

I’ve always wanted to have a go at screen printing but somehow never got around to it – that is until I was given a screen printing kit for my birthday! I found the whole process quite tricky and highly messy but loads of fun. I’m not sure I did an awfully good job from a technical point of view but I still like the result. My friend Emily’s cat Maya served as the muse for this print – thanks Maya!

August 24, 2015 0

Art Club – collage

For me and fellow children’s book illustrator Nicola Killen, this month is all about Art Club. We are collaborating with Rock Road Library to hold a series of art workshops for children and yesterday was one of my favourites – collage day! The children worked with multi-coloured, glittery and hand-painted papers to create some beautiful and imaginative images. Inspiration came from toys, flowers and other random objects as well as an imaginary book cover for the final piece. Many thanks go to the wonderful Anne Worthington who has been a great help to us with Art Club. Have a look below to see some of the children’s fantastic collages!

August 12, 2015 0