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Children's author, illustrator, screenwriter

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The Yetis on the Guardian website

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Mythical 9th Division Guardian

I’m very excited to say that a guide to drawing yetis has just gone live on the Guardian children’s books site. The Guardian has always been the paper my family read. As an art school teen with my sights set on something or other (does anybody know what they want to do until they’re doing it?), I had a goal of one day getting my work into the Guardian in some shape or form.

I’ve written a couple of blogposts for their website, but to have my characters feature there is that goal finally achieved. I feel all emotional. And I think I now need to set a new goal.

Go Yetis!

Read all Alex Milway’s Guardian articles.

Drawing Harold the Hamster

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I’ve been drawing a lot of late – in bed, on the trains, in school staff rooms. Obviously, this drawing is extra to yetis book 3, which I’m very pleased to say is nearing completion. The scribbles and doodles seem to revolve around my hamster friend, Harold, as well as many vikings.

Harold is one of those characters that appeared almost fully formed, and yet also out of a need for a foil for Pigsticks the pig. Pigsticks needed a friend to get up to stuff with, and Harold arrived on the page without much trouble. His attitude is just perfect for a sidekick to the energetic and super-positive pig.

The more pictures I draw of Harold, the more I love him, and the more situations I want to put him in. I love to see how he reacts to things, and I’m currently enjoying making him look after a load of baby hamsters.
Baby hamsters don’t have any features other than eyes and a nose, in case you were wondering.

And here’s Harold again, covered in the little monkeys! He’s fast becoming overrun with them!

An Interesting Victorian Children’s Alphabet

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At a charity shop today I came across an old copy of the Mother’s Picture Alphabet. I’m always interested in picture alphabets and friezes that go in nurseries (I had a Mr Men one as a child!).

This one, however, is a little extraordinary in that the letter ‘S’ depicts slavery. Now while I applaud the sentiment, and raising awareness of slavery was clearly of the utmost importance back in the 1800s, it really shows how our views of childhood are different now to what they were then.

Imagine what would happen if an alphabet for children today tried to educate on issues of the world! A is for Alcoholism, B is for Barbiturate Overdose, C is for Capital Punishment, and so on…

Drawing the yetis: from rough to smooth

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I’m deep into the artwork for the third yeti book – the Magma Conspiracy. It’s shaping up to be the most exciting of the books, and the art is both challenging me to the extreme, and enormous fun to draw.

I always think it’s nice to see the roughs of artwork, to notice how things change, and get smarter as they’re worked up, and here’s one from the middle of the book (click it for a bigger version). As you can see, the yetis don’t look too much like yetis, and there’s a reason for that. Obviously, to explain would be to give away the plot, so for the time being you’ll have to settle for knowing that at some point the yetis wear big hippo outfits…

Yeti roughs and Astroboy

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I’ve recently come to the end of roughing out all the comic sections of the third yeti book, The Magma Conspiracy. It’s simply amazing how much effort is required to make a comic, and that’s before you’ve even started on the artwork.

To inspire me – and teach me in the art of comics – I’m currently reading Astroboy. I’ve been a huge admirer of Tezuka for a few years now, ever since I listened to Helen McCarthy discuss his work at Streatham Library. The world of Astroboy is bonkers, to say the least, but the artwork is so clean and assured, not to mention incredibly powerful. Explosions explode, speed effects really do convey speed, and composition is nigh on perfect. I think he really does draw the best robots out there.

And so, back to work. Yetis can’t draw themselves, sadly.