(click to zoom)

Every time we get a new topic for the storyblog I try and find something from my own experience or something I have already produced to use for my entry. Unfortunately, I haven’t really been on a boat recently and the only image I had of the sea and a boat was from one of my Robinson Crusoe illustrations, which I have already used on here, so I decided I would try and sketch something to do with the A Boy and  Bear in a Boat.

I haven’t yet read the book (but I really like the cover), so I thought I would literally take the title and illustrate that. I kind of had in mind that I wanted to do it more as a character sketch. I have a photo of myself (taken in Scotland a couple of years back) which I always thought looked like someone peering into the distance from the mast of a ship, So I decided to do the character in that pose, only from the front.

sketch of the boy

original photograph (taken in scotland)

So I sketched out the boy in a paddling boat with a teddy bear in his shoulder pack. but it didn’t really feel finished so I started doodling around it, until there was not only a boy and a bear in a boat…there was now also a map, a compass, a pipe, a book and even a tea stain (from the cover).

Richard Collingridge is an illustrator and concept artist.  He has previously worked on the covers for Trash by Andy Mulligan, The Deserter by Peadar O’ Guilin, and WE by John Dickinson.  Richard’s first picture book, When It Snows, is currently in production.  You can find out more about Richard on his webpage.