New Book!

I'm very pleased to announce that two books of mine are being released in May! They're called 'Make It! Rocket' and 'Make It! Robot' and are published by Scholastic. They star Hugo and his mad bonkers inventive family. As you read the story, you can pop out the various pieces and actually build your own rocket and robot. Coooo! I thought I'd give you a sneaky peak of one of the spreads before the books reach the shops. I know -- I spoil you. This is where Hugo interrupts his Mum, Dad and sister Dottie in the middle of some mysterious goings on. (I was quite pleased with the name of the rocket fuel.)

Snip!

I've just finished this illustration to accompany a poem called Snip! for Highlights High Five Magazine in the States. So go on, see if you can spot all ten letter S's. And how many pairs of scissors? Lots of points on offer, and of course normally points mean prizes, but today I'm feeling mean.

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.

Another Highlights High Five Cover

This is another cover for those nice people at Highlights High Five Magazine, in the States.
A Mother Hen and her chicks can only mean that this is an Easter cover!

Highlights High Five Cover

This is a cover that I recently finished for Highlights High Five magazine in the States. Happy, smiley animals for a bright, sunny morning.

BICKIDS Competition

Last month I had the pleasure of being invited to be a judge in the annual competition run by BIC -- the BIC PICTURE -- to find talented young artists amongst Britain's primary school children. My fellow judges were children's TV presenter Kirsten O'Brien, and colour expert Cecile Parenton, who heads the children's division of BIC. The winners have just been announced.

The theme was 'What I want to be when I grow up,' and the ambitions of the nation's children ranged from becoming a mad scientist to a roller coaster designer. If this small sample is representative, there'll be lots of footballers, astronauts, dress designers and chefs around in the future!

It's not as easy as you might imagine, picking winning pictures from a room full of shortlisted entrants, and there were several (good-humored!) arguments along the way. We had some really lovely designs to sort through though, and choosing an overall winner was especially difficult. Well done to all who took part. Congratulations to all the age group winners, and especially to Laura Burton who won the main prize. Laura wants to be a children's book writer, and with her winning picture she's made an impressive start.

I've pictured a few of my favorites here, but this is a link to the BIC Kids website, which gives more information: http://www.bickids.com/index.php?p_sa=actualite&p_actu=1 and to the Flickr site which shows more of the winning entrants: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebicpicture.

No Line!

I've just received the proof copy of a book I wrote and illustrated for OUP earlier in the year -- a re-telling of the Elves and the Shoemaker. It was a bit of a departure for me because I decided to do away with a holding line, which for a long time has been the way I've preferred to work in Photoshop. I rather liked the result. The pictures felt fresher somehow.

I think a dissatisfaction with your own style is something that most illustrators feel at some point or other, and I've certainly jumped about more than most in an attempt to find a perfect formula. This approach made me re-examine the way I added shadow and texture, and I even found myself drawing the roughs in a slightly different way, aware that I could do more than usual with elements such as candle light... if that makes any sense. Anyway, I felt I was using a different part of my brain, which was enjoyable!