Bruno and Titch

This is the last picture I'm posting from Bruno and Titch. I'm working full-time on finishing the artwork at the moment, which is going smoothly enough (*searches around for wood to touch*).  I had lots of fun drawing these comic-style panels. Click on the picture for a better view. 

New York Times

   So, not to come across all boasty but this is too exciting not to put up.  Bye-Bye Baby Brother! has somehow made it into the New York Times over the weekend. It's pretty much made my week.  

Dublin Writers Festival

    I just got back from Dublin, where I did two workshops in The Ark as part of the Dublin Writers Festival. (The Ark is a fantastic children's centre in Temple Bar). One event was a storytime with Bye-Bye Baby Brother! Afterwards we did lots of fun drawing activities:

           The other was a drawing workshop for older kids with The Powers. As The Powers will be a multimedia project with a book, a blog written from the point of view of the main character, an animation and song, there's great scope for fun things to explore. Here's a couple of pictures that will be on the blog when it launches:

    Then, in the afternoon I had a lovely signing in Dubray Books, Grafton St. This is a great picture of a little fan of Bye-Bye Baby Brother! called Muireann, who apparently likes the endpapers of the book where she likes to count the "buggies". She's rocking those pigtails:

Pirates Ahoy

Last two pieces I'm posting from The Powers - a deadly pirate ship as seen through a telescope plus a catastrophic turn of events in the penultimate chapter. Click for a more detailed view. 

So that's it for the artwork for The Powers - The Not So Super Superheroes and it was really so much fun to work on. Little Island and the author Kevin Stevens have been amazing and gave me so much leeway to do what I wanted with it. I love working in black and white, something about removing the colour makes the drawing have more impact and also makes it a whole lot easier and faster. It'll be out in October so watch this space etc. 

Incidentally, if you know any 7-10 year olds, bring them along to this event at The Ark http://www.dublinwritersfestival.com/event/the-powers-workshop-with-sheena-dempsey  next Saturday. It's part of the Dublin Writer's Festival and I'll be talking about how I went about making the drawings for the book among other things.

Dog versus cliff

    This is a drawing from the book by Kevin Stevens that I'm illustrating for Little Island. I'm almost finished final artwork and it has been a really enjoyable (but challenging) process. This is the bit where the beloved family pet, Pucker, is on the verge of plunging to his doggie death.

Bruno, Titch and a Fat Frenchman

More peeking of the sneaky kind

A portion of a spread from Bruno and Titch. 

I am a fan

     Here is a brilliant talk that Kevin Waldron gave at OFFSET last year by the way. I've just watched it for the first time now, it's a fascinating insight into his process, diverse influences, methodology etc.
Highly recommend.

Sneak peek

                   Much as the term "sneak peek" kind of annoys me,  here's one of the title page that I previously posted as  a rough. That typeface won't make the final cut. I'm playing around with colour and trying to establish an interesting palette for the rest of the book. Fun times.

Meet the Powers

                I think it's safe to mention now that I'm working on illustrations for a very funny chapter book which will be out in October 2013. A fantastic Irish publisher called Little Island are publishing it. The story is about a family of inept superheroes called The Powers who are a thorn in the side of the Irish nation. It's written by an American author called Kevin Stevens and I'm really excited to be working with Little Island and also to be working in black and white, which makes a nice change from colour. Click to get a better view of these hapless folk. 

Spec Work

            Some character sketches I did for a publisher a few months ago on a speculative basis. They've apparently gone in a completely different direction from the brief they issued. Oh well. Such is the risk with spec work. 

Bruno and Titch and the Imminent Bologna Deadline

        I'm imposing a social life lockdown on myself for the month of February as the Bologna Book Fair is just around the corner. Here's a rough of the title page. 

Party, Party, Party!

    Come on down to Tales on Moon Lane in Herne Hill on the 14th March if you're not busy.

Hello little book!

       Advance copies of Bye-Bye Baby Brother! arrived in the post on Friday morning. To be honest, I was expecting the moment when I'd hold the finished thing in my hands to be something of an anti-climax having worked on it for so long. It definitely wasn't. I am so impressed with how everyone in Walker Books put it all together, the cover, the paper, the design, the shiny little bits on the rocket (I think there might be a more technical name for those but it eludes me right now, UV something-or-other).

          This is what you don't get if you self-publish, the expertise of the team of talented designers and editors that work on your book in-house, I could never in a million years have designed it so well myself. I especially love the American edition which has a really lovely jacket cover.

The Next Big Thing

          So, I've been tagged by Michelle Robinson in an internet meme called "The Next Big Thing" where creative types answer a series of questions about their latest projects. Here goes:

What's the title of your next book?
For now it's called Bruno and Titch but that might all change closer to publication time.

Where did the idea come from?
It began with the rather sinister idea of an inventor boy getting a guinea pig to try out his outlandish inventions on. Since then it has changed considerably and now it has a lot more heart. I seem to be establishing a pattern where I begin with two characters and one is inclined to torment the other. Then the publisher steps in and reins in the evil thoughts and what comes out is a picture book that resembles something more suitable for publication. Bruno is a spirited, inventive, energetic boy who is extremely excited about his new pet. Titch is just an innocent little guinea pig who has bitten off more than he can chew.

What genre does your book fall under?
Strictly speaking, picture books. So about ages 2 - 6, but show me an adult who doesn't enjoy a good picture book...surely no such person exists?

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? 
For Bruno, an English-speaking version of the boy in La Vita é Bella. Spirited and imaginative.

For Titch, presumably an enormously gifted guinea pig star, yet to be discovered. I'll be directing some auditions soon: Killer Fringe a Definite Requirement.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? 
It will be published by Walker Books some time in 2014. My lovely agent is Penny Holroyde at the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Anxious guinea pig wants nothing more than to go to his new Forever Home but gets more than he bargained for when he meets a new friend, Bruno.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
It's hard to say because it's such a gradual process and also a dual process between the words and pictures. I've been working on the whole thing on and off since about March but I've been working (reluctantly) in my day job too and on other projects at the same time. Writing an actual first draft didn't take too long but I spent a long time on the groundwork beforehand.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? 
I can't think of any similar stories in picture books, I hope there aren't any. In terms of the type of relationship between two characters, maybe a cross between Joel Stewart's Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie and Oliver Jeffer's penguin and boy books. (I do like to flatter myself by comparing myself to these two).

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I suppose I was struck by the opportunity for humour where the guinea pig was concerned and felt a fondness for the characters that I wanted to bring to life.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
Did I mention Titch's killer fringe?

Who are you passing the baton onto for next week's Next Big Thing?
I'm passing it on to the wonderful author/illustrator Faye Hanson whose highly detailed, sumptuous books are so clever and beautiful.

And please have a look at Michelle's blog and recent Next Big Thing post, I really look forward to her witty blog updates.

Bruno - character sketches

      This is Bruno as he will appear in the finished book.

Decisions, decisions

         I went with a lighter, purplish grey for Titch's fur in the end because it just goes better with other colours. I had made his fur a dark brown (see previous post below) but consequently had a bit of a dilemma because I didn't think that he looked as appealing and as he's my main character, he needs to look pretty damn cute and loveable. Also, I find earthy colours more tricky to pull off, they just don't work as well in my pictures.  

             It was another illustrator called Holly Surplice who suggested (on my facebook fan page) a steely grey instead of brown and it really helped. Social media can be really handy sometimes. Thank you Holly! 

Colour Swatch

    Trying out colour palettes. I tried this in primary colours but it looked terrible. Maybe a cooler palette is the way to go. 

Hairdo

       A drawing of Titch from the second book. Bruno has fashioned his hair into lovely pigtails which Titch seems delighted with. At the risk of counting my chickens, I think the story is falling nicely into place. More on that soon. 

Character Sketches

  ...for a project about which I can't say too much right now. I'm enjoying working in black and white though, it's all so straightforward with the simple extraction of colour. 

Kirkdale Bookshop Exhibition

 

       I forgot to mention that there's an exhibition of some of my work along with a few other illustrators (Noelle Davies-Brock, Viviane Schwarz,  John Kelly among others) in Kirkdale Bookshop and Gallery as part of the Sydenham Arts Festival. It's on until the end of August so drop in if you're in a south-easterly direction. There's some nice prints and originals on show and for sale.

Cover

     Here is a sneak peek at the cover of Bye-Bye Baby Brother! I say "sneak" peek as I'm not sure whether I'm actually supposed to post it as it's still not final final, I don't think, and parts of it might change.

This post might self-destruct and disappear soon.

Characters

I've been working on some characters for my portfolio, here are some of them.

Thumbnails for Book Number Two

       I'm in that stage of planning where there's nothing "finished" or exciting to post. So here are some indecipherable thumbnails. 

Springing Along

         I've been indoors for most of the last two days listening to back to back episodes from the BBC Desert Island Discs Archives. Sometimes I hate the isolation aspect of illustration but I am actually really enjoying it this week. Maybe it's all the talk of being deserted on an island, along with the hypnotically calming theme music which has most definitely infiltrated my brain. Here are a couple more drawings of the Bruno and Titch variety. Click to embiggen! 

Illustration Performance

 Yesterday, I was in Whitechapel Hospital doing an interactive illustration performance with Deborah Andrews of Pentapaper which was commissioned to her by the Vital Arts Festival. It was quite a lot of fun, we were installed in A and E and hidden behind a decorated, canvas structure and patients and staff were invited to submit words or ideas through a little letterbox. We then drew a picture of the request and patients collected them afterwards. Here is a photo of one drawing (of a nautilus) out of about thirty-five pictures we did in 3 and a half hours. We drew them very quickly so there was no time to be precious about it, but that was all part of the fun.

Walker Éireann

               I've just heard that Walker Books have announced a new imprint in Ireland, Walker Éireann! Read all about it here: http://hackettflynn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/walker-eireann-imprint-announced-at.html  The way things are going in the publishing industry, with the market shrinking, Amazon taking over and smaller independent bookshops being squeezed out, it's really lovely to read heartening news like this.

Gangster Cat

Further adventures of Cowboy Cat, somewhere along the way he fell in with a bad crowd and has taken to a life of crime. This took forever to assemble, seven hours in front of Photoshop Make Sheena Go Crazy. 

Bear Face

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Sketch - Bruno's Inventing Paraphernalia

            Four days of blogging in a row, stop the lights! This must be a world record! Somebody get me an award, quick! I will soon qualify as an actual, proper blogger if I keep this up!  

          It's just another humble offering, a sketch of some of Bruno's inventing kit. It's a bit sloppy really but I'm still going with this rough look for the moment. I suppose Bruno would have a bag like this that he brings everywhere with him with all of his tools and plans and parts and pencils and the like. Plus his Inventing Hat of course. Poor Titch, I'm sure it's not very comfortable for him in there, there's probably all sorts of things sticking into his bum.