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Children's author, illustrator, screenwriter

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Alex

Learning from Tenniel

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I’m forever on a quest for artistic improvement, particularly where ink and drawing is concerned. I’m very much from a fine art background and tidy artwork doesn’t come easy. I don’t necessarily want to be tidy, but it’s nice to know how!

And so, with that in mind, I’ve been doing more ink work of late, looking at some old masters. Last night it was Tenniel’s turn, and I thought I’d have a pop at drawing like him in Alice mode. There’s no rough drawing underneath, it’s just pen straight onto the paper – the best way of learning.

Honestly, the moment I ditched pencils in my sketchbooks and turned to the permanence of pens was the moment I really started to improve and understand line work.

Any way, here’s my five of spades. (I should also add, I’ve now ditched pens and draw with a rigger paintbrush.)

In-between things

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Over the coming few months I’m finishing off the 4th yeti book, and that means, you guessed it, I’m about to start something else. There are lots of projects I’d like to attempt, including umpteen potentially exciting stories sitting in my ideas folder, but today I feel a bit like this about all of them.

And while I’m here, there really is nothing like getting out a paintbrush and going crazy on a huge sheet of A1 paper with paint/ink.

Nigel the knight

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I have no idea who Nigel was, but he was a real knight who lived in Chalgrave during the 13th Century.

I bet he was a bit of a dude.

Pop-up Festival 9-10th July

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Last week I took part in the fabulous Pop-up Children’s Book Festival, which is running loads of school events plus a festival weekend in London on the 9-10th July. Just have a look at that line-up!

I was lucky enough to get to run my event at the British Library. I don’t spend enough time there, and for anyone who’s never been, you’ll be blown away by things such as Jane Austen’s writing desk, the Magna Carta and Captain Scott’s notebook (I was almost in tears reading the “I may be some time” entry).

There’s also a smart Sci-fi literature exhibition running at the minute, which my event was twinned with. It’s mostly made up of a selection of books and covers and, annoyingly, everything is behind glass. It’s like being led into a sweet shop and not being allowed to touch the sweets, let alone eat them! But that’s by the by. It’s simply great to have a timeline of sci-fi in book form.

If there’s one thing that makes it imperative that you visit, it’s the typed first page of the Day of the Triffids. I love seeing the workings of a writer, and this is brilliantly revealing, as it’s missing its most amazing first line:

When a day you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.

I’m not sure if that line can ever be beaten.

And so, without further ado here’s a picture of Harold the Hamster. This time he’s dressed as Miss Marple.