A moment of panic

An email from Tessa at Barefoot Books reminded me that I had promised to get work done in time for her to take to France. The dragon painting was still sitting in my studio taunting me and I had done no more work on the dummy book as "Singing to the Sun" needed working on.
So, after finishing another spread for Egmont on 'Singing to the Sun" had another look at the dragon.
Tomorrow he will be all packed up and entrusted to the post office, on his way to Bath and then to France. My paintings are always better traveled than me. Tomorrow is World Book Day. I will be going to Haverfordwest.

Studio

I work in a small room in my house. It is cluttered with books and pictures and I am watched by a stuffed owl in a glass case.
A footpath passes outside the window, but few people walk by. There is a stone wall and a blackthorn hedge opposite and in this I hang bird feeders, where small birds visit and flit through my day, distracting me with their jewel colours.
James works in a small shed at the bottom of his garden.

Back to work

After a weekend of disruption it is time to settle back to work, but other work is getting in the way of Starlight. Talking to James this morning to see how things are going with him, he is waiting to hear from Orchard about work delivered on Friday.
It is always difficult to settle to work after time away from the studio. There is so much to do, so much to think about, so many things that get in the way of just sitting down and working. So many excuses. I am waiting to hear from a publisher about a text. He is waiting to hear how the images sit with the text and whether all that he has done "works".
Meanwhile we talked about that progress of Starlight and realized that

• He hasn't yet had a formal offer from the publisher for the text

• Though I have had an offer I haven't yet signed the contract. Or seen the contract.

There is only one other time that I have gone so far ahead with some work, and that was with The Snow Leopard.
This week I have to do a spread for Singing to the Sun, and on Thursday it is World Book Day, and am in a school all day. Also an exhibition preview on Wednesday evening.
So, will wait for the contract to arrive.

Small Details

Still looking, to see what can be done to make it better. One of the things that made "Can You See a Little Bear?" work with children was the small details, not relevant to the text, but put into every picture. When reading the book in schools to groups of children, I would find that they started off sitting in a circle and by the end of the book they were trying to climb into the pages, searching for characters, counting elephants. So with this book there will also be characters and odd details threading their way through the pages.

Dragon riders

Dragons fly.

Dragons fly through my dreams at the moment, and hares run. Almost finished, but needs to stand around for a while, for me to catch it unawares, when it does not know it is being looked at.

Dragons

Spent the morning yesterday chasing words for another picture book, then it took far longer than I had thought it would to draw out the spread for the dragon. Listening to Terry Pratchett for another job and colouring in, building up layers of paint to make a dragon fly across a page, while images from The Hogfather and Masquerade spin through another part of my brain.
Today the sun is shining and have walked the cats and dogs. My car has been in the garage for a few days. Maybe it was a mistake to tell the mechanic that I was in no hurry, that I didn’t really want it back as it would keep me working. Now I have no milk, or sugar, and things to post and it is a couple of miles to the shops. But it does keep me painting, and I can’t wander off down the beach.

Endpaper, for Ellabella

What James will be doing this week

I emailed James to ask what he was working on this week. When you work at home, on your own, things can sometimes be lonely. You don't have to worry about things like commuting, but it can still be a long and difficult journey to the studio, past the washing up. And there is no one in the office to share the biscuits with! I knew he was getting towards the end of a difficult project.
So this is the news from Letchworth:
"This week I am:

Frantically finishing some of the art for Ella Bella. I have done all the double page spreads, but I’m doing my usual ghastly task of revisiting the almost finished art and discovering lots of tiny details that just need a final tweak. This always takes ages. (I don't know why I do this. I suppose I'm always keen to start on the next picture before absolutely completing the first. Or perhaps I just can't let go of pictures and consider them finished. When is a picture finished??? This is the real challenge to an illustrator - creating a picture that will be reproduced, maybe thousands of
times, that can never be retouched or altered thereafter, that has to be consistent with the others in the book. (Actually being happy with it on it's own terms is unlikely to happen!)

I'm not sure how I feel about Ella Bella Ballerina. The designer, Tim Rose and my editor Liz Johnson at Orchard have been very kind and supportive, encouraging me to be myself, to experiment and takes risks. But I find doing so really hard. I'll deliver the bulk of the book on Friday. I wonder if they'll like it. It is certainly very different and part of me is scared and part of me is excited.

On Tuesday and Thursday I'll be teaching at Cambridge Art School (Anglia Ruskin University). The Tuesday group, which is the Children's Books MA are doing well. We had a writing workshop last week because I want them all to try to write their own material if possible. Wednesday I'm giving a workshop to teachers on Why Art Matters at Bedford Museum, to link to an exhibition of my work there (borrowed from Letchworth museum).
Weds. evening I'm off to Cambridge yet again for the opening of the current graduation show for the Children's Book MA. This will be the same exhibition as the one the graduating year presented in January, but larger. I feel I should be there for them. They are all getting loads of offers from publishers and I'm so proud of them.

I'll have to work evenings to catch up with the final stages of Ella Bella.
Saturday is my treat - Madame Butterfly at Covent Garden. Cheap seats but I'll take my sketchbook in case I need some last minute theatrical inspiration for the book!"

Moondog

Slow progress

It would be lovely to have the luxury to work on just one book at a time. Unfortunately, trying to make a living in publishing means multi-tasking to extraordinary levels. The weekend was spent delivering paintings to a gallery in Milford Haven, and also wandering on a wide, wide beach, all he while turning ideas and compositions around in my head. This week I have to finish a spread for Singing to the Sun for Egmont books, and complete another one for them too. Hopefully also produce another spread and completed dummy book for Starlight, and come up with roughs for two Christmas cards and this years Terry Pratchett Disc World calendar. Meanwhile I have ravens dancing in my imagination and wanting to be painted.
Listening to Moondog whilst working on this book, so have been determined to sneak him into the artwork somewhere. Check back later in the week for progress on painting dragons.

Detail