Children's book writer and illustrator
I love seeing early sketches for a project. You can see how much work goes into a project before the final images are created, and it’s fun to spot glimpses of the final characters showing through in those first designs. I also like to imagine how different a story might have looked if the creators went with different designs to start with. It’s as if you’re seeing the story as it appears in a parallel universe.
Here are some early sketches for My Dead Bunny. Some spoilers below.
My new book is about a zombie rabbit. It’s written by Sigi Cohen and it’s called My Dead Bunny.
Last week I showed some reference sketches for the secondary characters (Mum, Dad and the sister) and the three main human characters (Sigi, Billy and Stan).
Today I’m showing some reference sketches for the eponymous character: the dead bunny.
Continue reading “Meet the Cast of ‘My Dead Bunny’ (part 3)”
My new book is about a zombie rabbit. It’s written by Sigi Cohen and it’s called My Dead Bunny.
Earlier this week I showed some reference sketches for the secondary characters: Mum, Dad and the sister.
Today I’m focusing on the three main (human) characters: the unnamed narrator (who I named Sigi after the author), and his friends Billy and Stan.
Continue reading “Meet the Cast of ‘My Dead Bunny’ (part 2)”
My new book is about a zombie rabbit. It’s written by Sigi Cohen and it’s called My Dead Bunny.
This week and next, I’m writing three posts to introduce you to the cast of the book.
Continue reading “Meet the Cast of ‘My Dead Bunny’ (part 1)”
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.
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.
