Dino School

This is an image from a book I've just finished illustrating for Simon and Schuster in New York. The book is called 'Dino School' and as the name suggests, it's about a school for dinosaurs. This particular story is about a T-Rex called Teddy, who can only roar extremely loudly. Think Brian Blessed in dungarees with scales and teeth.

10 things I learnt at the 10th SCBWI Conference

I attended the SCBWI annual conference last weekend at Winchester. It was the first time I've been to one of these. It was made extra special this year as it's the 10th anniversary of SCBWI British Isles and the organizers decided to have a Group Book Launch for everyone who has had a book published this year. 'Dinosaurs of Doom' was released last month, so I qualified. Someone suggested that delegates should each write 10 things they learnt at the conference. Here are mine for what they're worth...

1) Group Book Launches are far more exciting than doing them on your own.
2) Group Book Launches are far less stressful than doing them on your own.
3) Group Book Launches have the potential to garner far more publicity than doing... hang on. I think I'm beginning to detect a trend here.
4) Group Book Launches are especially enjoyable when David Fickling is giving the address. He was funny, wise, and radiated boundless energy and optimism for the future.
5) Next time, remember to take a camera to a conference, then I can add pictures in a post like this. (You can see some great photos of the event at Candy Gourlay's site:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=332276&id=635152677)
6) Don't fret pedantically about research. Just make things up. Duh. (Pause for a quick slap of the forehead.)
7) It's never too late to embark on the inner quest for the Holy Grail that is your Unique Selling Point.
8) Maybe it's the mix of unpublished as well as published authors and illustrators that adds to the collective energy, but I've never been a member of a more enthusiastic, innovative and supportive group than SCBWI Brits.
9) It's easy to forget how much creative nourishment writers and illustrators gain from meeting up with each other from time to time.
10) I have SO MUCH to learn about Facebook and all the other digital ways to network.

Dinosaur pop-ups

I've just received this from Corina Fletcher, the brilliant paper engineer who designed all the pop-up mechanisms for the Dinosaurs of Doom book that I finished a few weeks ago. She's printed out my files and dummied up the whole book to make sure that everything works as it should. And the good news is that it does, so no last minute tweaks needed!
To show you the levels of complexity we had to go to, the image below is the illustration I did for just one of the four back panels of the final 360 degree pop-up. A good deal of it is obscured by other features as well, but I had to put in this amount of detail because there are so many cut outs in the panels at the front. Part of the reason this was a long old job!