James Foley

My new book ‘Brobot’ is out now

It’s finally here! My new book Brobot is now available in bookshops.

Brobot is about a young inventor called Sally Tinker. She gets sick of her baby brother Joe, so she builds a new one, called Brobot.

Here’s some more info on the characters …

And here, for your viewing pleasure, is the Brobot book trailer! I had heaps of fun playing with a program called Adobe Character Animator to bring Sally to life.

Buy ‘Brobot’ now

Order local
Find your local bookshop
Order online
Fremantle Press (Australia)
Booktopia (Australia)
Readings (Australia)
Angus & Robertson (Australia)

Events for September, October & November

It’s my busy time of the year. Between August and October I’m visiting lots of schools and libraries for private events, but I’m also running some public talks and workshops – including a public launch for my new book Brobot on October 7th as part of the Awesome Festival.

See below for all the details.

Sept 3 – children’s book illustration workshop (for adults)

A 3 hour workshop for the City of South Perth’s 2016 Evolve development program.

WHEN: Saturday September 3, 10am-1pm.
WHERE: Halo Espresso, 82 Angelo St, South Perth.
COST: $30 + booking fee.
BOOKINGS: essential. Click here for bookings.

Continue reading “Events for September, October & November”

Win a copy of my new book, Brobot

It’s almost here!

My new book is called Brobot. It’s a graphic novel for younger readers and it’s coming out with Fremantle Press on September 1st.

Sally Tinker makes machines … and Joe Tinker breaks them. As the world’s foremost inventor under the age of twelve, Sally knows she can build a better brother than Joe. But is her invention – Brobot – really all that a brother should be?

Brobot-3d-final-400px

Want a cheeky sneak-peek? Click here to read the first 16 pages for free.

Want to use the book in the classroom? Teacher notes are available now.

Want to order a copy? Ask at your local bookshop. If you don’t have one near you, Booktopia is taking pre-orders.

Win a copy of Brobot for you and your school

Fremantle Press is offering five lucky schools the chance to win two special Brobot gift packs: one for the classroom and one for the person who designs the best robot. Each gift pack features a poster and bookmark plus a signed copy of Brobot the book!

Want to enter? Visit the Fremantle Press website for entry information.

Entries close October 15th, 2016. Good luck!

Teacher resources for My Dead Bunny

Children’s Book Week is coming up fast: this year it’s August 22nd – 26th.

My latest book My Dead Bunny is shortlisted in the 2016 Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards, in the Picture Book of the Year category.

A lot of older students will balk at the mention of picture books because those are just for babies.

But this book is different.

While it is technically a picture book, it’s definitely not a bedtime story for little ones – it’s for older readers, 8-ish and up (teenagers and adults especially seem to love this one.)

Older kids take one look at this book and know it’s not for babies, so they don’t feel like they’re being talked down to. It’s a great book for looking at rhyming texts, visual narrative/visual literacy and generic conventions. Plus it has zombies in it. Kids love zombies.

In preparation for Children’s Book Week, Walker Books and I have put together some free teacher notes for My Dead Bunny.The notes include heaps of discussion points and activity ideas, with links to relevant behind-the-scenes posts from my blog. It should all make studying the book in class super easy.

Download ‘My Dead Bunny’ Teacher Notes (pdf)

Behind-the-Scenes blog posts

My blog has heaps of posts about the making of the book; each post is tagged with ‘My Dead Bunny’.

View Behind-the-Scenes blog posts

Craft Activity – make your own zombie rabbit softie

Shannon at OhCreativeDay.com has put together this brilliant tutorial on how to create your own zombie rabbit softie.

Blackline Masters

Here’s some fun activities for early finishers – two word searches and two colouring-in sheets. Feel free to download these for use in your classroom.

– My Dead Bunny word search –
Download word search (pdf)
Download solution (pdf)

– Zombie vocab word search –
Download word search (pdf)
Download solution (pdf)

– Mindlessness colouring sheet #1 –
Download now (pdf)

– Mindlessness colouring sheet #2 –
Download now (pdf)

If you choose to use the book in class, I’d love to hear about how you use it! Please leave a comment below, or send me photos of displays/student work via james(AT)jamesfoley.com.au [replace the (AT) with an @].

**Buy ‘My Dead Bunny’ now**

Booktopia (Australia)
Readings (Australia)
Angus & Robertson (Australia)
Book Depository (UK)

How I use texture in illustrations (plus 4 free texture sites)

Today I’m going to show you how I used photographic textures in the illustrations of My Dead Bunny.

Photographic textures are great for whenever you need a realistic-looking texture, or when it’s going to be too hard ot time-consuming to draw a texture by hand.

I’ve used photographic textures in all my books so far, but only sparingly. The creepy, cinematic style of Dead Bunny called for the use of lots and lots of textures, and it was heaps of fun to let loose.

Example 1: title page

Here’s a little excerpt from the title page illustration. It uses the three three texture samples you see below it.

Continue reading “How I use texture in illustrations (plus 4 free texture sites)”

Events for June and July

This June and July you’ll find me reading from my upcoming book in Fremantle, running sessions at a kids’ lit festival in Balingup, and giving a free dragon-drawing workshop in Perth.

Come by and say hi!

June 6 – Books Out Loud!

Come and hear Fremantle Press authors Deb Fitzpatrick, Norman Jorgensen, Paula Hayes, Meg McKinlay and myself doing free live readings on WA Day. I’ll do a few sketches too.

There’ll be a bunch of other activities on during the day: a skateboarding clinic, art classes, a climbing wall, mask making and kite flying. Should be awesome!

VENUE: Fremantle Esplanade
WHEN: Monday June 6th; Books Out Loud is on from 12noon-1pm
(other WA Day activities go from 10am-4pm)
FOR: all ages
COST: free!
BOOKINGS: not required; just turn up. More info here.

July 9/10 – Telling Tales Children’s Literature Festival

Balingup

Join me and a bunch of other children’s authors & illustrators in Balingup for a weekend of talks and workshops for kids. Come for a day or for the weekend. This is one of my favourite festivals to visit because the whole community gets involved – plus Balingup has stunning scenery and great cafés!

VENUE: Balingup (3hrs drive south of Perth)
WHEN: Saturday July 9th – Sunday July 1oth
FOR: 4-14yos
COST: $6 per day per child. Children can attend up to four session per day. No charge for accompanying parents or toddlers seated on parents lap.
BOOKINGS & MORE INFO: visit the Telling Tales website.

July 15 – Making mythical monsters:
watercolour dragons workshop

20160715-dragon-workshop
In the July holidays join me for a free workshop where you get to create, draw and paint amazing watercolor dragons.
Numbers are limited.

VENUE: City of Perth Library, 573 Hay st (NB: this is NOT the State Library)
WHEN: Friday July 15th, 10:30am-12 noon
FOR: strictly 7-10 year olds only
COST: free
BOOKINGS: email Suzanne at childrens.library@cityofperth.wa.gov.au

Colour schemes for My Dead Bunny

mdb-colour-test-3-vignette

My Dead Bunny is my latest book. It’s a tongue-in-cheek picture book about a zombie pet rabbit. My illustrations took a lot of inspiration from movies.

I’ve already written about how one scene was almost an homage to The Shining, how the family home was inspired by a farmhouse from The Walking Dead and how a lot of the images use camera angles and clichés from film.

Today I’m writing about why the illustrations use a black and white (plus green) colour scheme.

Continue reading “Colour schemes for My Dead Bunny”

Movie clichés and camera angles

dead-bunny-raised-hand-vignette My Dead Bunny is my latest book. It’s a tongue-in-cheek picture book about a zombie pet rabbit. My illustrations took a lot of inspiration from movies.

I’ve already written about how one scene was almost an homage to The Shining, and how the family home was inspired by a farmhouse from The Walking Dead.

Today I’m writing about how some illustrations were inspired by clichés and camera angles used in film.

Continue reading “Movie clichés and camera angles”

Which spooky house influenced My Dead Bunny?

dead-bunny-final-pg16-vignette My Dead Bunny is my latest book. It’s a tongue-in-cheek picture book about a zombie pet rabbit. My illustrations took a lot of inspiration from scary movies.

The book features a spooky house. If it looks familiar, that’s because it is – most American films about ghosts and ghouls take place in a house that looks pretty much like this. But which house is it inspired by?

Continue reading “Which spooky house influenced My Dead Bunny?”