Waiting to go in the kiln

Some clay models I made of hare, tortoise and elephant, waiting to go in the kiln. The owl was inspired by ceramist Rosemary Wren. These have helped with some recent illustrations I've been doing, to be published next year.

Huddersfield visit

So impressed with the public art trail in Huddersfield town centre and the colourful market that I got my sketchbook out. The statue of Harold Winston had so much movement in it.

Also found these amazing narrative paintings in Central Library (painted by Reg Napier and his students), based on stories of typical English folk tales often told in one village at the expense of another. In the Slaithwaite Moonrakers, the villagers are pretending to rake out the moon to divert attention from liquor-smuggling. In The Scapegoat Hill Band, the band are returning home late one night after celebrating and have taken their shoes off so as to not wake up the sleeping villagers. However, they continue to play their instruments full blast! In The Marsden Cuckoo, the villagers are trying to capture a cuckoo in order to hold on to spring and summer.

The Slaithwaite Moonrakers 1940 Reg Napier

The Scapegoat Hill Band 1940 Reg Napier

The Marsden Cuckoo 1938 Reg Napier

Boy and Barrel

Rising sun on former Sun Inn, Cross Church Street

Harold Wilson statue by sculptor Ian Walters 1999 outside Station

Some of my favourite picturebooks 2013/4

I had a good browse in the bookshop a couple of weeks ago and here's a pick of my recently-released favorites.

 There's a Shark in the Bath by Sarah McIntyre (2014 Scholastic)

Dulcie finds sharks in the bath, but her parents don't believe her. She plays with them to distract them from eating her. When Dad comes to check what she's up to in the bathroom, she sends them back to sea. When she sits down to eat breakfast, she hears a rustle in her cereal bowl. There's a small elephant with a speech bubble "are you going to eat me?"

Great fun plot, plenty of humour and colourful comic-style illustrations.

Big Bad Owl by Steve Smallman & Richard Watson (illus) (Little Tiger Book 2014)

Scowl (wonderful name!), the grumpy owl (sits on the labelled grumpy branch with black cloud scribbled above). The other animals try to cheer him up but he's rude to them. Scowl annoyed to find Little Bird is sitting on his grumpy branch. Little Bird tells him to flap off, because Scowl has broken his happy hat. Scowl has been out-grumped for the first time in his life! He's sorry he's broken the hat and admits he likes being grump, too.

A lively fun story.

And from 2013:-

You're a Rude Pig, Bertie by Claudia Boldt (Jonathan Cape 2013)

Bertie insults everyone except Ruby, and he throws a party to impress her. Nobody comes, because his invites are so insulting, but it resolves ok in the end. 

A fun story with lovely b & w lines, pastel colours and offset print effect in places.

The Crocodile who didn't like water by Gemma Merino (MacMillan Children's Books 2013)

Winner of Macmillan competition 2011

The crocodile was afraid of water ... and couldn't fit in with other crocodiles. Then it breathed fire! It wasn't a crocodile after all, it was a dragon.

Gorgeous fuzzy line work like drawing on carbon-copy paper/mono-prints, and print-effect colour, too. Very simple cute croc/dragon and delightfully simple story.

Time for Bed Fred by Yasmen Ismeen (Bloomsbury Bks 2013)

Exuberant inky illustrations, dog remains in monotone, great use of grey.

The Slightly Annoying Elephant  by David Walliams & Tony Ross (Harper Collins 2013)

David Walliam's first picture book

An elephant arrives to stay, saying he's been adopted..and then all his friends come, too. A cautionary tale about the need to read the small print when you adopt an animal at a zoo. Wonderful stuff!

Aunt Amelia by Rebecca Cobb (2013 Macmillan Children's Books)

When Mum & Dad go away for the night, Aunt Amelia (a crocodile) arrives to look after a very cross little boy & girl. But they soon change their minds about Aunt Amelia when she she puts her own alternative spin on the list of sensible instructions Mum and Dad have left behind.

Simple text with lots of hidden details in pictures (birds nesting in Amelia's extravagant hat)

Rebecca Cobb says she uses a lightbox to trace through her rough pencil sketches using a sharp stick dipped in ink - the line feels close to drawing with a pencil. She colours in using watercolour, inks & coloured pencils "because these all make different marks and I can choose whether something needs to be coloured in a way that is sot, scratchy, neat or messy" (Booktrust interview 2013).

Mr Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown (2013 Little Brown Books for Young Readers)

Mr. Tiger is bored with being proper and he decides to go wild...

All the animals, including elephants, rhinos, cows, and monkeys, dress in Victorian clothes, walk upright on two legs and look very prim and proper. Mr Tiger rebels, roars, takes off his clothes and goes into the nearby wilderness. But he gets lonely... 

The striking 1950s retro-style pictures really caught my eye, in muted limited-palette colours, except for the oranges to Mr Tiger. Bold shapes with interesting patterns and rich textures. The compositions are interesting, too, especially the page where the tiger starts to slip down off the page as he goes on all fours. The illustrations are made using india ink, watercolour, gouache and pencil and digitally collaged.. The style reminds me of illustrations by the Canadian illustrator, Jon Klassen, in I Want My Hat Back. 

Peter Brown describes his process on his blog. "... I made tons of little watercolor and ink shapes (as well as a few pencil drawings and handmade textures), and scanned them into Photoshop where I colored and layered and combined them into the finished illustrations. It took a while to figure out my new technique, but I’m pretty happy with the finished result." 

A fun story and great illustrations. 

Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles (2012)

This book has enhanced my understanding of picturebooks so much, I thought I would share it with you on my blog. It is a stunning visual treat as well as a clear and concise analysis of picturebooks, written by Martin Salisbury, a Professor of Illustration and Morag Styles, a Professor of Children’s literature. The seven chapters cover the history, practice, theory  and publishing of picturebooks, intermixed with in-depth case studies. It's also reader-friendly and has an international outlook.

The chapter investigating the picturebook maker's art is particularly eye-opening. It highlights the importance of learning to see (visual literacy) and thinking through drawing, leading to the development of a personal language. Several case studies explore this process further, showing how sketching and drawing (sometimes digital) have led to personal narratives and picturebooks. Beatrice Alemagna's  Un Lion A Paris (Autrement Jeunesse, 2006) probably forms the longest professional case study in the book. Her images also grace the front and back covers.  Although her work is popular in Europe and East Asia, it is only just beginning to break through into the English market. The authors speculate whether this is because "Britain's longer tradition of illustration for children, with its roots in representational painting, has lead to narrower perceptions of graphic 'suitability' in picturebooks". Food for thought.

How do children interact with picturebooks? How does the child make sense of the 'readerly gap' created by the space and tension between what the words say and what the pictures show? The authors present some interesting results of a research project by Evelyn Avizpe and Morag Styles, which looked at the detailed reactions of children to a range of picturebooks. They found that although children love to be amused, they also like to be challenged, and picturebooks are vital in the early development of visual literacy.

The interplay of words and images is what makes a picturebook work. The images can fill in the gaps, reflect and expand on what is written and ideally leave room for the reader's own interpretations. Words and pictures can tell different stories and contradict each other in some way, such as in the celebrated example of Rosie's Walk (Pat Hutchins) where the unflustered hen is being pursued by an accident-prone fox not mentioned in the text.  Vladimir Radunsky and Chris Raschuka's Hip Hop Dog (Harper Collins NY 2010) interweaves the rhythms of the rap with the images so the images become the rap. Marts Altes's No! (published 2011) exploits the gap in understanding between a dog and it's owner in a fun way.

What is suitable for young children? Should they be protected from all things unpleasant and dangerous, including dark traditional fairytales? Chapter five looks at the way some taboo subjects, such as domestic violence, sex, war and death, have been approached in picturebooks. Norway actually subsidises some indigenous picturebooks to enable publication. Angry Man and Mum's Hair (by Svein Nyhus and Gro Dahle 2003 and 2007, Cappelen) from Norway, look at domestic violence and depression, and were produced in response to requests by therapists for conversation-piece picturebooks.  In Britain, we have The Sad Book (Micheal Rosen and Quentin Blake, Walker Books 2004) and David Mckee's The Conquerors (Anderson Press 2004) and Tusk Tusk (Anderson Press 1978). What is particularly interesting is that many smaller nations, such as Norway, value the indigenous picturebook as part of their particular cultural and artistic heritage, and provide subsidies for such books. No mention of Britain here, though.

The printing processes available at the time have traditionally dictated the artist's medium, but now any medium can be used. So why the revival in the use of printmaking processes for illustrators? Placing a technical process between the artist and the paper can produce happy accidents and lead to less self-conscious mark-making. Chapter six investigates the traditional methods of printing the way different picturebook makers use and adapt these methods today.

The book finishes on the children's publishing industry, with information about publishers, agents,  contracts and the editorial process.  Perhaps I should just mention that this book doesn't try to cover the technical issues of storyboarding  and how the page format works in detail. This information can be found in  Illustrating Books (Martin Salisbury 2004 Barrons Educational Series) and Writing With Pictures (Uri Shulevitz 1985 Watson-Guptill Publications NY). 

A really excellent and thought-provoking reference book, beautifully laid-out with illustrations at almost every turn of the page, full of inspiration, practical information and fascinating insights. 

Minicomic workshop with Jim Medway

I was tempted along to this workshop at the Cornerhouse by the words 'clarity' and 'simplicity'. Also a curiosity to fathom-out comics, which I've boxed off as being boy's-only stuff, full of action-packed aliens, spidermen and naughty boys sporting stripey jumpers. 

I had a great time. Jim Medway was engaging fun, and the whole group, of twenty or so, got involved. He whizzed us through the world of comics and brought to my attention a whole load of new names and styles, including Charles Addams (great compositions and characters), Marjane Satrapi and Frans Masereel (amazing woodcuts). 

Jim's own very distinctive comic characters are anthropomorphic teenage cats, full of attitude and swagger. He is currently working on a 48 page character-based comic about 3 lads walking around Manchester, called 'Playing Out'    (to be publ. 2013 by Black Slate Books). (photos taken from slide show, sorry about poor quality)

We did lots of hands-on exercises, including drawing quick cartoon self-portraits and 'who dunnit' game, where we matched the image to the person. We also drew animals in 10 seconds with our eyes shut, and most were surprisingly recognisable. Giving animals different occupations was another exercise. We were each dealt a random animal and random occupation, and we had about a minute to draw this clearly enough for others to guess what they were. Mine was a clown crab.

 Again, we managed to guess what most of the drawings represented. Time limits seem to condense the images to essentials. Jim admitted that stereotypes and cliches help, too! We later had 3 random cards dealt, with a setting added. Mine was 'pirate elephant underwater'. Emotions could be added, too, as a 4th card. What a great way to develop characters!

We progressed to 3-act collaborative cartoon strips, where we each filled in the first box of a comic, then passed it on, then filled in the second box of someone else's comic, then passed it on again, and finished a different person's story by filling in a third box. It reminded me of the Consequences game, where a collaboration leads to something unexpected.. Here's a scan of one of the sequences. 

The final collaborative comic in this workshop involved the entire group and one story. We agreed on a crocodile dinner-lady character from an earlier exercise, called Sunshine, and a contrasting round schoolboy character called Alphonse. The genre was gameshow/documentary. We had a random page number each, and developed the story page-by page, person by person. A bizzare story evolved, with a body-parts gameshow, a missing leg,a hybrid body-parts being, a heart-to-heart and a happy ending. It was printed off in time for us to each take a copy home, too - our very own jam comic!

Indigo tie-dyeing inspiration

I went on an inspirational tie-dyeing workshop last week, run by Beetlefelt textile artist Carol Mowl ( http://www.beetlefelt.co.uk/) in her wonderful studio. After tying-up, pleating, pegging and stitching pieces of fabric in a variety of ways, we dipped them in the dye-bucket for 5 minutes. The colour was green when we took the samples out, but as the dye oxidised, the colour turned indigo. The real fun bit was untying the fabric to see where the dye had taken. Won't some of these patterns look just great in children's book illustrations....

The Genius of Dahl

What a fascinating look at Roald Dahl it was last week. David Walliams had me hooked on his every observation, delivered with twinkly eyes. 

Dahl was an outsider, a Norwegian child living in Cardiff. His father died when he was 3.

He never lost his anarchistic spirit. he hated school and always kicked against the rules.

He had a fascination with extreme characters. His dealings with Mrs Prachett, the horrible sweet shop woman he played the dead mouse prank on, never left him.

Exaggerated characters can make the story less frightening. Quentin Blake also said this about caricatures.

Dahl was always wickedly funny ("...without the humour, it's child abuse...")

His work is believable, although not realistic.

He really relished things like worms and burps. His inner child never left him.

He never described horrors, he just says that they happened. 

"...and then it gets worse." He liked putting his characters in a stew.

In Dahl's world, a granny can be poisoned by a grandson, parents can be eaten by a rhino, and somehow this is acceptable. True genius?

Full of good heart and bad behaviour

Did you hear this fascinating radio programme last Monday, What the Scandinavians know about Children’s Literature, presented by Mariella Frostrup (Radio 4)? She discussed Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren), the Moomin stories (Tove Jansson), The Wild Baby (Babro Lindgren and Eva Eriksson), and also work by Elsa Beskow and Gro Dahle. The Scandinavian approach, with it’s strongly expressive authors and illustrators, has the voice of the child at it’s centre. The books are for the pleasure of the child. 

Anarchic and free Pippi Longstocking came out in 1945, with a promise of a better future. The 9 year old character lives all alone, with no mum or dad, which is quite nice because there is no one to tell her when to go to bed... Lauren Child illustrated a recent version, and she explains how Pippi is a sassy adventuress with independence and endless money, which is a wonderful fantasy for a child (and adult, too).

The Wild Baby has a very tired and worn out mother, but the baby is never punished for his pranks and the mother always comes to hug him and play with him afterwards. 

The author Frank Cottrell-Boyce talked about how unusual The Moomins are, because the parents haven’t been killed off, and the whole family goes off on adventures. While there are no baddies, there is a huge emphasis on quiet, maybe born out of the long winters, dark nights and strong story-telling tradition. 

Scandinavian children’s stories tend to be full of good heart and bad behaviour, dealt with in a non-sermonising way. There are no cute animals wearing clothes. Difficult subjects, like abuse, are explored too, in books and animations such as The Angry Man (Gro Dahle and Sven Nyhus).

Inspiration

I came across this piece of cloth hanging up at the Whitworth Art Gallery recently, which bowled me over. It's a length of stencilled 'adire eleko', mid c19th, made using starch resist and indigo-dyed cotton. It's from Nigeria, possibly a copy of a design first produced in Manchester for the African export market by Hendersons. 

And another piece of inspiration from the Whitworth's Global Threads exhibition by Aboubakar Fofana, called Les Arbres a Bleus (2007, metal, pvc, sand and indigo-dyed cotton).

This explores the tree as a traditional sacred symbol in Mali and the long history of dyeing and patterning cotton with indigo. 

http://cottonglobalthreads.com/case-study/aboubakar-fofana/

Blk Art Group exhibition

On a recent visit to Sheffield, I called into The Graves Gallery to find a fascinating exhibition up from the Blk Group, featuring the work of Donald Rodney, Keith Piper, Claudette Johnson and Marlene Smith. 

This radical group of young black artists came together in the 1980s to make ‘defiant and thought-provoking’ work . Donald Rodney (1961-98) suffered from sickle cell anemia, and used x-rays to make up his images and examine the social/political ills of British society. Below is his image from The Britannia Hospital Series (1988). Keith Piper’s powerful Black Assassin Saints (1984) challenged Britain’s business links with South Africa at the time of apartheid. Claudette Johnson painted strong dignified women in images such as And I have My Own Business (1982). 

The image that stays with me, though, is Do. Please. A Happy Ending 1987, by Marlene Smith. It is based on a family wedding photo and made up of papers, ink, gouache and pencil in black and white, where the women are especially highlighted with more white. It has a very fragile and yet fairytale quality to it that is very haunting.

Well worth a visit.

http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/museums/graves-gallery/exhibitions/current/the-blk-art-group

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=50013

Alice in Wonderland exhibition

Have just been to see a fascinating exhibition at Tate Liverpool on Alice in Wonderland. http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/aliceinwonderland/

Lots of surrealist  stuff by Dali (including his short film collaboration with Walt Disney, called 'Destino'), Max Ernst, Paul Nash and John Armstrong. The British Surrealist Group in 1936 was also dubbed 'The Children of Alice'. A series of screenprints by Peter Blake (1970) had some jazzy touches of colour. There was a great selection of Alice in Wonderland publications, including illustrated versions by Tove Jansson (1960), Ralph Steadman (1972), Andrei Martynov (1993), Lisbeth Zwerger (1999) and Deloss McGraw (2001). My favourite images were 2 large  and slightly unsettling intaglio prints by Kiki Smith, 'Pool of Tears' (2000) and 'Come Away from Her' (2003). These are based on Lewis Carroll/Frank Dobson's own sketches. Plenty of inspiration!

Chris Ofili exhibition

Impressive exhibition at Tate Britain of Manchester-born artist who won Turner prize in 1998.  Uses variety of media, including decorated balls of elephant dung. My favourites were his beautiful liquid small-scale watercolours, Afromuses (1995-2005) with areas of intense colour within the varying shades of brown.