If you live in Perth in Western Australia, you couldn’t have missed the buzz about The Giants back in February. For three days, giant marionettes walked the streets of the city with over a million people turning up to welcome them. I was excited just to see the Giants, but even more excited for the Little Girl Giant to finally receive the enormous picture book I helped out with.
Continue reading “The Little Girl Giant and her giant picture book”
I first presented at the Perth Writers’ Festival in 2013. I sat on a signing table next to Andy Griffiths. And this year I’m back for more sessions about my latest book, The Last Viking Returns.
Continue reading “Perth Writers’ Festival sessions, and advice from Andy Griffiths”
This year’s Perth International Arts Festival will see a 6 metre-tall girl walking down St George’s Terrace. She’s called ‘the Little Girl Giant’, and as part of her visit she’ll receive an enormous book from the children of the City of Perth. I helped schoolkids produce some art for the book. More details on the Giants and the book below.
Last week I posted the roughs for this scene from The Last Viking Returns. This post will show how I got from my almost-final rough to my final illustration.
Continue reading “Evolution of a scene: the final version of ‘Big Trouble’”
There’s a scene in The Last Viking Returns called ‘Big Trouble’ where Fafnir the dragon is finally revealed in all his terrible glory. The scene went through a lot of changes during development, so I thought I’d share them here.
It’s a lot of pics though so I’ll share them in two parts. This post will show you the roughs, and next week’s post will show how the final illustration was put together.
(And if you haven’t read the book yet, there’s a few SPOILERS below.)
Continue reading “Evolution of a scene: the rough sketches for ‘Big Trouble’”
Late 2013 and all of 2014 was a hectic time for me work-wise, and I didn’t get to post as many pieces as I would have liked. So here’s a post on a great freelance job I had back in 2013-4; I got to make some comics. Here’s how I made them.
Happy New Year! I hope you’re well-fed and rested after the holidays, and are feeling ready to tackle another year.
I’ve just had a two-week holiday at home, my first big break in a while. I read a pile of books, watched a stack of movies and played a heap of video games. It was heaven. I’m back at the desk now, but I wanted to take stock of 2014 before getting stuck into new jobs. It’s mostly for my benefit, but if you’re at all interested in how a full-time children’s illustrator spends his time, here’s a month-by-month summary of my 2014.
Bali … it’s an idyllic paradise filled with rice fields, temples and frangipanis … unless you’re in Kuta, and then it’s a place of digestive upsets and Bintang-singleted bogans.
Don’t go to Kuta. Go to Ubud. It’s a very special place an hour’s drive north of Denpasar, and I got the chance to go there for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in October. I ran a workshop for kids, I did a school session too, and I got to be on a panel with Mem Fox!
Details after the jump.
Continue reading “Meeting Mem: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2014”
I’m running a full-day picture book illustration workshop through UWA Extension.
There are four places left, so if it sounds like your kind of thing, book in and come along. Details below.
Continue reading “Join me for a picture book illustration workshop”
This year, Mount Hawthorn Primary School invited myself and fellow author/illustrator Briony Stewart to collaborate on a 13-week residency project.
Our project was called ‘My Place’. The aim for each year four student (all 87 of them) was to complete a polished story and accompanying illustration based upon their favourite place in Mount Hawthorn. They also made the amazing map you see above!
Hit the link to see more work by the kids.
Continue reading ““My Place”: whimsical stories from Mount Hawthorn Primary students”
