Raccoons

With my second picture book finally finished I've been busily writing my third whilst waiting for other projects to begin.  Everything lately has been very much in a rough pencil drawn stage so it's been a while since I actually completed an image.  Today I just wanted to finish something, and these little chaps were waiting in my sketchbook.

Here are a few more raccoons from the same sketchbook...

BathBookBed

Booktrust have launched a new bedtime routine initiative called #BathBookBed.  This is an illustration inspired by that.  With birds of course.  What else?

Be sure to check on Twitter to see plenty of other illustrator's take on this.

School Is Magic!

In February and March of this year my partner in crime and I took it upon ourselves to visit a few local primary schools to read Life Is Magic,  draw with the pupils, and do a little magic ourselves.

For those of you who don't know, I live in Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland.  That means I'm this far up...

The schools we visited were very rural and absolutely lovely to us.

Houdini's first day at school...

Highland cow spotting

I was bowled over by the kid's enthusiasm for books and their absolute love of drawing.  My favourite part of each day was seeing the pictures they drew.  Here are some of the pupil's drawings from a few of our visits

Knockbreck Primary 1

Dornoch Primary 2

 





















Rhian was inspired to put on her own magic show at home.  Here are the tickets

Come on, come to it!

On World Book Day we were lucky enough to be invited by OnFife to perform to school children in two of their local venues.  Huge thanks to all the wonderful staff for their magical organisational skills and enthusiasm.  Here are some pictures of that lovely afternoon

Monsieur Lapin and Houdini

The best seat in the house

Mid-magic at the Buckhaven Theatre

Reading at the Lochgelly Centre

And here's a wonderful display by the pupils and staff at Chryston Primary School from the village I grew up in.

What a talented bunch

In progress

 

I'm particularly fond of this Gary

Book two

While I've been waiting for Life Is Magic to be officially out and about in the world I've been working hard on book two.  The Bologna Children's Book Fair starts next week so no doubt bits and pieces will be revealed.  Until then all I can tell you is this...

There will be hats.


This is top secret so keep it under your hats.

How To Draw...Houdini

If you haven't been over to the Booksniffer's site then you absolutely should.  She sniffs out the best in children's books so be sure to take a look.  You can read her review of Life Is Magic here, but be sure to take a wander because there's loads more to see.  She kindly featured a How To Draw Houdini recently and I've recreated it here.  Thanks Sniffer!

Meet the bunnies

Life Is Magic is finally out, yay!  If you haven't seen it yet then allow me to introduce you to a few of the characters...

Book trailer magic

Here is the book trailer for Life Is Magic made by people far smarter than me.  Thanks to Jonathon Moore and any magical assistants he may have had.

Tadaaaaaa!