Pseudoarmadillo

Some fuzzy friends...

2009-12-18T21:14:39Z

I can post this, because the kids never never read my blog so the secret should stay safe... These little animal necklaces just arrived in the mail in time for Christmas. They're about 1 1/2 inches tall, with a lot of personality, and they're really beautifully made. If you've never come across Etsy before, you should go and have a look. It's a sort of online shopping site where people from all over the world set up stores selling handmade goods. There are some mind-blowingly beautiful things on the site, and handmade presents are not only more interesting, but also a nice antidote to Christmas consumer madness. Of course, you can find some truly spectacularly excerable things on the site as well, and for those of you who want to marvel at the trainwreck that is the CUSTOM FEATHER PHEASANT GLADIATOR GALORE CAGED BOOT SANDAL PUMPS HEEL SHOES or wonder at the mind that conceptualised the catnip fetus toy, all misguided etsy postings are collected for you in one handy site. (Warning: Regretsy.com is often not even remotely suitable for sensitive types, and very often wildly inappropriate. But funny... oh, so funny.)

Marmaduke Duck and the Marmalade Jam

2009-12-18T11:30:54Z

May I introduce you to Marmaduke, jam-making duck extraordinaire? These are some of the roughs and character studies for one of the (many!) books I'm working on at the moment. It's written by Juliette McIver, and I think it's one of the craziest, funniest rhyming texts I've read. It'll be published by Scholastic next year. I'll post more bits and pieces as I get further along with it.

Dear diary...

2009-12-16T05:59:54Z

I haven't kept a diary properly since I was an angst-ridden teenager - unfortunately I burned all my heartrending hormonal meditations when I was about 24, after I read them back and nearly died of internal cringe. I wish I could read them again - they'd probably be good for a laugh. The only other time I've kept one was during the years our two youngest were born, and it's really nice to be able to look back. Ah, life was good then... and it still is! Anyway, I was Christmas shopping today, and I was hijacked by this Moleskine diary. It totally got its hooks in me and wouldn't let go. One little shiny notebook for every month...I fell for its pretentious gimmickry, and I'm irrevocably in love with it. Notebook fetishists will understand. Is it 2010 yet? I NEED to start writing in these....

The Day the Saucers Came

2009-12-13T06:16:00Z

Do you like Neil Gaiman? Do you like books? Do you like getting stuff for free? Then you'll love The Day The Saucers came, a free online book written by Neil Gaiman, and illustrated by Jouni Koponen.

Deck the halls with copies of Fearless...

2009-12-04T00:48:35Z

Fa la la la laaaa, la la laaa laaaaaah!!!

Fearless is one of the books recommended as a Christmas pressie by both the Australian Womans' Weekly and New Idea. That does good things to my Festive Spirit (hence the earlier burst of song. Sorry about that...)

Anyone up for a bit of a Challenge?

2009-12-03T03:20:44Z

I'm really delighted to see that all three of the books I've illustrated are part of the NSW Premiers' Reading Challenge. It's very lovely to imagine real kids, actually out there all over the state, really, actually, truly reading the books I worked on.

Happy reading, guys, and good luck with the Challenge!

Where books come to life

2009-11-18T03:04:42Z

The New Zealand Book Council commissioned this amazing video to inspire people to pick up a novel and read. I'm in awe - although I'm not sure if I want to be immersed in Maurice Gee's Auckland. .

Very very sketchy

2009-11-05T12:00:23Z

I thought it might be fun to post some more early sketches, in the really rough stages. They may be grubby and scribbly, and covered in coffee stains and fingerprints, or full of hideous anatomical mistakes, but there's a kind of energy about first sketches that so often gets killed in the finals. I'm working hard on trying to keep that energy going through all the stages of a picture, but I'm not quite there yet...

Anyway - here's 2 kids in silly hats feeding stolen cake to a bunch of gulls...

Glorious

2009-10-24T04:40:48Z

Looking for inspiration for painting seascapes, and found this flickr set of truly incredible wave photos. Each one is a perfectly frozen instant of collision, and random forms that seem to have presence and purpose. Wow.

Kids' opinions...

2009-10-17T09:38:12Z

I was just forwarded these lovely, sensitive reponses from a primary school class who studied Mending Lucille. They're a very perceptive and thoughtful group, I think!

Josh “ …thinks it would have been hard to write the book feeling so much emotion. The book is heart warming”
Phoebe said “ ..the pictures look like photos.”
Kira said “ the plane is taking the mother to heaven.”
Jess “…thinks it’s very moving”
Mia said…” the story is enchanted”
Matt thinks that …”at the end, it’s a new world for the family as they are happy together.”
Anna thought the art looks a bit like a journal.
Amy said the artwork is colourful and has cuddles.
Alex said “…the book is very descriptive.”
Kobey thought the story was sad. The artwork is wonderful.
Noah said that…” The illustrations show the girl is broken hearted.”
Sadie said “… I feel connected to the book. And when the girl let go of the healed bird, she also let go of her grief.”

Thanks to all of you for your lovely comments.