Adam Stower will be interviewed alongside author Francesca Simon on the Big Book Babble on Tuesday 24th April at 11am. Red House and Scholastic present Big Book Babble to encourage children to enjoy reading. Each programme features popular children's authors, illustrators and poets in a Q&A session with comedian James Campbell in front of a live and virtual audience of children. Fans of Horrid Henry will see author Francesca Simon talking about her recent book, The Sleeping Army, illustrated by Adam Stower. Adam will be drawing live in the studio and also discussing his own picture book, Silly Doggy! (Templar).
Jonny Duddle has been working as a character designer for director Peter Lord at Aardman Features Studio in Bristol for the last three years on the animated adventure The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists which is now on general release in cinemas. Jonny share's his experiences working with Aardman in an interview on The Pirates!Band of Misfits Crew Vlog:
"Peter Lord briefed me for the Pirate with Prosthetics during my first work visit to Bristol. He described him as a particularly unlucky pirate, with a variety of prosthetic additions, and that was about it. So I started off with a very scrawly sheet of ideas, from the practical (like a ‘fishing rod attachment’) to the downright silly (erm, ‘ship biscuit ear’?). Then Pete and Jeff looked over the first sketches with their wonderful eyes (the lucky blighters have more than one each which is testament to the relative safety of animation when compared to pirating), and sent me an email with lots of feedback, such as “Wooden teeth are a great idea”, “I wonder if you could design a head that has both the innocent simplicity of the first head, with some of the craziness of the second” and “I like his hook and the sort of wooden hinged arm that goes with it. No idea how it’s meant to move, but somehow I don’t think anybody’s going to worry about that! I read the feedback and got on with another sheet of drawings. This time I could pick the bits I liked from the first sheet, mix them up, and work with Pete and Jeff’s feedback and what they liked to create something which gets us a bit closer to a suitable design. Pete looked at the new sheet, and said the body was looking good and his favourite head was the one in the middle. So then I did a colour one in Adobe Photoshop, combining the body and the head that Pete liked. The proportions are a bit awry, and the colours changed for the finished puppet, but amazingly the Pirate with Prosthetics was pretty much done. All that was left to do was a turnaround, showing him from the front, back and side, and then the drawings were sent off to the model-making rooms, where the sculptors work their magic to bring it all to life."
CONGRATULATIONS! We’re proud to announce that Jonny Duddle, has won the most prestigious and valuable children’s book prize in the country for his picture book The Pirates Next Door (Templar). His book was crowned overall winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2012 which, champions new and emerging talent in children’s writing.
Announcing the award, Melissa Cox, Children’s Buyer at Waterstones, described the book as a thoroughly deserving winner: “The Pirates Next Door is full of the anarchic wit and invention children love in a picture book. It’s fresh and fun and has been a huge hit in Waterstones’ shops across the country, and had an incredible reception from booksellers, parents and, most importantly, children. Jonny is a huge new talent in the picture book field.” Book Trade
Internationally renowned collage artist Daniel Morgenstern designed this stylish illustration for the program cover used the Paducah Orchestra's performance of key pieces from Mozart's vast repertoire. The performance took place in Kentucky USA. This is just one in a huge series of Daniel's contemporary high profile portraits.
This month at The Art Market, Louise Morgan has produced this vibrant and colourful illustration for an article discussing 'Catering Trends' for Square Meal Magazine.
UK artist Migy Blanco has recently finished a great new card range with Woodmansterne that is being launched in April..
Migy who is based in Buenos Aires, injects Woodmansterne with some of that South American colour and has produced a super stylish 12 card occasion range that combines a unique blend of text and illustration that draws on all his editorial experience. The cards cover New Home to Anniversary and will be in shops soon!