Silly Voices! Ooo-ArrR!

EeeeK! It's been two months since I posted! That's rubbish!! But anyway...

Last week I visited London Town because the lovely folk at Templar had asked me to do a sound recording of 'The Pirate Cruncher', so they can publish a version of the book with a CD in the back. They said they could hire an actor, but it's more special when the author reads the book.


So I found myself in a proper recording studio, with big headphones on, and the sound engineer/director asking me to "ham it up a bit". I think he was used to proper actors, there were CDs by Stephen Fry and Dawn French on the desk in reception, rather than bungling doodlers from Wales. But he did get me to do a variety of silly voices, which I am sure will be terribly embarrassing when I have to listen to myself on CD. I even had to keep the voices consistent for each character, which doesn't normally happen when I read the book to kids.

I'll post again on publication, on April Fools Day(!!), but the new book's already listed on Amazon, here!

Thank you to Rebecca Elliot, Templar's UK Publishing Manager, for coming along to hold my hand, and sending me the photo! And thanks to Heavy Entertainment, for trying to make me sound like a pirate!

Alienology: We Are Not Alone...

OooOooH, it's been aaaaages....... Sorry. It's been a busy month (again).

On 1st October, Templar published 'Alienology' , part of their hugely successful 'Ology' series and the first of these books that I've had the opportunity to work on. I love aliens and robots and space, so it was great fun to work on. Nghiem Ta, the wonderful and very organised Art Director, gave me a spreadsheet with all sorts of information about twenty or so aliens and then I spent a few weeks doodling away, until I had a couple of nice line-ups showing all the aliens to scale.

Here's one of the line-ups, and a few of the aliens at a larger scale. 'Alienology' is available from all good bookstores now!


And one illustration I particularly enjoyed researching... The internal organs of the 'Grey' alien!! EeeurggHh!!! (I with an under drawing by the very clever pencil maestro, Douglas Carrel)


And for anyone who lives in London and likes books (and aliens), I'll be at the Waterstones store in Kensington on the 28th October doing some drawing and colouring-in, along with the author of 'Alienology', Dugald Steer. I think we're due at 2pm....

Lecker Piraten!! Pirata Nhac! Alle Tiders Bitte!

I've been a bit quiet. My original plan to blog once a week has gone awry. But it was the summer holidays. I had a lot to do. Some book covers. An enormous jigsaw. An off-putting five-year-old who spent too much time in my doodling room. And we went on holiday to Cardigan Bay.

But when we arrived home from our sunny Welsh holiday I had a card from UPS, and after one of those funny automated calls, they delivered a surprise package from my publisher, Templar....

Five foreign editions of 'The Pirate Cruncher'!! Oo-aRR!! (With little post-it notes so I know which one is which!)






So now the UK, US and Oz editions have been joined by Danish, Finnish, Italian, German and Brazilian editions. I'm struggling to get my head around the fact that a little boy, or girl, could be leafing through my silly pirate story in a sunny suburb of Rio de Janiero. It's just weeeeeeird!!But very very exciting!

And soon I shall be able to talk all pirate-y in six different languages. Yup. Or "Achtung, Monster!" as they say in Germany.

'Beastly Business: Battle of the Zombies!'
One of my first book jobs was a cover and fifteen black-and-white illustrations for the first 'Beastly Business' book, 'Werewolf vs. Dragon'. That was published a couple of years ago, and now we're on number five!
'Battle of the Zombies' was published at the end of last week, so here's the cover, which has a lenticular in the centre that changes the normal Ulf in to the werewolf Ulf. The lenticulars are fun to look at, but make the cover a little bit complicated to design, because anything that flips within the lenticular (in this case, Ulf on his dirtbike and the two grabbing zombies) has to be contained in a circle in the centre of the image, and I also have to allow an area for 'bleed'.

Each book has fifteen illustrations inside which I draw in Photoshop on my Wacom Cintiq, with a brush tip that gives a traditional 'pen and ink' feel. Here's one, showing the ghostly Headless Harold looking for his undead army, who are buried in the woods. He's followed by the regular baddie, Baron Marackai, and his incompetent henchmen, Blud and Bone, aboard their wobbly tractor.
I've also been working on some new covers for the paperback versions. Books one and two are done, and I'm working on books three and four this month. They don't have the lenticulars, and that makes them much more straightforward to design and 'paint'. Phew.

The 'Read it Again!' Award goes to....

....Amy Husband! For her wonderful book, 'Dear Miss...'


I had a great day out last week at Cambridgeshire Libraries' 'Read it Again!' award ceremony. I was shortlisted, along with eight other debut author-illustrators, most of whom were at the event in Buckden. Here's some info:
As a virtual hermit, shackled to my desk in the hills of Wales, it was lovely to get out into the daylight and meet all the other illustrators, chat about colouring-in and be swamped by excited kids. We signed lots of pieces of paper, a few books and the odd poster. We stood on stage and babbled on about our books for a few minutes (I showed a few photos of when I was a pirate), and then we all escaped to a nearby pub, where I enjoyed a couple of pints of Guinness. All in all, a super day out.

It was a four hour train journey to Cambridgeshire, and a four hour train journey home. On the way there, I managed to scribble a few sketchy layouts for a possible new picture book, but on the way back I was lured into a deep snooze by the aforementioned Guinness. I woke up with a start as the train pulled into Crewe station, pulled my sandals on, stuffed my things into my bag and dashed off the train in a panic, as people were trying to get on. I breathed a sigh of relief on the platform until I suddenly remembered my train went direct to Chester, and I didn't need to change at Crewe at all. I just got back on as the buzzer was sounding and the doors slammed shut behind me. I felt such a buffoon, I went to sit in a different carriage. And fell asleep again. Zzzzzzzzzz.

So, a big 'Congratulations!' to Amy, whose book about a boy writing more and more fantastical letters in an attempt to avoid a return to school, is hilarious! If she had a website, I'd link to it. But she hasn't. So I told her to make one. Or start a blog. She said she would. So maybe she will. And then I'll link to it. Hooray!

Aliens!
Daisy had a sleep when she got home from school yesterday, so when it came to bedtime she just wasn't tired. So we decided to draw aliens in the garden. I had a big glass of red wine, and Daisy had milk with a chocolate straw. We stayed up until 9pm, until we both got tired and a little bit moody.

I did a sketch of Rex, the King of Space...

And Daisy copied one of my aliens. Or maybe I copied one of hers.... Hmmmmm.

The Thingies!
I was packing up my office in March, because we were moving house, and I found this old drawing. I'd scanned it and sent it to 'Imagine FX' a while back, for an article on inspiration. I think the drawing dates from about 1982 when I was 11 years old. I've got a photo somewhere of me lying on a blanket on our back lawn drawing this.

The 'Thingies' were an alien race, and over the next few years, my Friend Daniel (who I generously made Vice President of the RSPCT) and I, created a whole universe for the Thingies to live in. I liked drawing the bad guys, called the Morons (a lot of thought went into the names!!), who had German infantry helmets and big tanks.

The funny thing about this, is that it's not so far removed from the work I do as a concept artist now. A rough-ish doodle, a few notes and a bit of silliness.

I'll try and scan some other stuff if I can find it.....