Here’s the cover of Janet Shaw’s new book, ‘Bit of a Super Hero‘. Janet is a Perth-based author, social worker, medal-winning ex-paralympian and motivational speaker. As well as these achievements, she has faced blindness and cancer. She is a definite hero.
I was very happy to get to work on the cover of Janet’s book, and to share the duties with two illustrator friends. I did the linework, Briony Stewart did the colour, then Shannon Melville did the layout and design.
[Addendum: Janet lost her battle with cancer in December 2012. It was a privilege to meet her; she was such a lovely person, such a strong character. Read her book to find out more about her extraordinary life, or read her wikipedia page.]
I’m very surprised and very chuffed. It’s one of those cliches… ever since I was a kid, I dreamed that one day one of my books would have the shiny CBCA sticker on the cover- and now it’s happened, hooray! It’s a great honour and a great affirmation. Congrats Norm! And thanks to the CBCA 🙂
I’ve just finished the illustrations for a new children’s book that I wrote a while back. It’s called ‘In The Lion’ and will be published by Walker Books in the second half of 2012. It’s a black comedy for kids and that’s all I’ll say for now… I’ll put some more info on the homepage throughout 2012- in the meantime, here’s a little sneak peek.
There’s a scene in Last Viking where Josh arrives at Nan and Pop’s house, says goodbye to his mum and dad, and watches them drive off. Sounds simple enough. It took Norm and I a few goes to get it right.
The text and pictures would have to achieve a number of things- introduce Nan and Pop, introduce the setting, and show Josh’s close relationship with his Mum and Dad. The text and pictures couldn’t show Josh’s parents leaving in a way that implied they were dumping him so they could go away for the weekend together… it had to be sensitive.
The first and second goes didn’t achieve these things :p
Last week I spoke about some of the other illustrators who influenced my approach to The Last Viking. I forgot a couple of important ones… so I’ve put them in this post.
First up is Jan Ormerod. Moonlight was one of my favourite books as a child (still is). The sister book, Sunshine, is amazing too.
'Moonlight' by Jan Ormerod, republished by Frances Lincoln (2005)
For those of you who’ve never seen these books (shame on you), the amazing thing is the lack of words. Everything is told in panels, using only body language and facial expressions. The figure drawing is so accurate and subtle, it makes me feel very jealous to look at it now. Jan also breaks the panel borders regularly, which stops the panels feeling stale or constrictive.
I hadn’t noticed that these books had an influence until I re-read them randomly last week… I then realised that the panel sequences in The Last Viking probably owe a lot to Jan’s work seeping into my brain at a young age. I can’t find any pics of the interior spreads on the web…
Another huge influence on me is The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base.
'The Eleventh Hour' by Graeme Base, Penguin
I was obsessed with it around age 10 or 11. I loved all the puzzles hidden in the images and borders. Unfortunately, I wasn’t patient enough at the time to figure them out… my parents sent for the hint sheet to be mailed out to me (this was back in the day before they started including the hint sheet with the book), and once I got it, I couldn’t resist reading through and checking every little clue. No will power at that age, obviously.
When Norm and I thought about incorporating runes into The Last Viking somehow, it seemed natural to use them as borders, and to have them spell out secret messages.
If you’d like to have a go at decoding some rune messages, check out the new ‘Resources‘ page and download the rune handouts. There’s more messages in the book too… on the front and back covers, for example 🙂
Norm has spoken previously about some of his influences while writing The Last Viking. This week I thought I’d talk about the influences I had while doing the drawings.
I’ve been a huge fan of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes for many years. It was written and illustrated by the incredibly intelligent and talented Bill Watterson. The comic looked at the worries of childhood with humour and sensitivity. I was a teenager when I first start reading the comic, and I often didn’t understand the deeper philosophical side of each story, but the inventive and expressive artwork was more than enough to get me hooked. It’s easy to see the similarities between Calvin and Josh- both are young boys, both are loners, both have animal friends, and both get lost in their imaginations on a regular basis.
Calvin and Hobbes, created by Bill Watterson
Another major influence for me has been the Asterix comics, written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. I loved the historical references, the attention to detail in the costumes and backgrounds, and the ridiculous puns. That’s all come through in The Last Viking (except for the puns… though I feel that Norman’s gentle, daggy sense of humour is very much in the same vein as Goscinny’s, and also mine). And of course, there is an animal companion- a little white dog, called Dogmatix… very much like Wolverine in The Last Viking.
Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix, created by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
Prince Knut and his trusty Wolfhound going a-Viking…
a proper Viking funeral…
and Odin, Thor and the Bezerkers preparing for battle.
My favourite part of this last image is the bottom right-hand corner. I put in a bird poo for a joke. At the time I didn’t realise that when people were going to turn this page, that’s exactly where they would have to put their thumb.
My first go wasn’t too bad- but the night-time panel wasn’t dark enough. It seemed like early morning, and Josh would (should) be asleep by then 🙂 I wasn’t sure about the colours in the day-time panel either. But I liked the blur of colour from the left-hand panel across the gutter.
The light is too bright, almost like a spotlight, or a UFO
When I had tried colours for a few pages, I started to see that sometimes it looked good if just a few things were coloured in, and other parts were left white. So I tried that. And I darkened up the night-time panel.
This week I’ll show the final rough and pencil outlines, and how I got there.
I’d decided the scene would take place in Josh’s bedroom. He’d be in a cubby house with his dog at night, and there’d also be a panel on the right set in the morning.
Here’s the closest I’d got so far:
My next experiment would be trying a more dramatic birds-eye perspective. I did some smaller thumbnails:
a small note on the post-it wonders if Josh might yawn like a lion in the morning: to go with the phrase, "But other than those things, Josh was as brave as a lion".
