Describe the place where you write/draw.

What is your most treasured possession?

What times of the day do you work?

What distracts you?
Read the rest of this entry »

Rather like Neill (see his post) I find boats more interesting when they are taken out of their natural habitat. It must be an illustrator thing.
One of the very first films I saw was Pinnochio, and my favourite scene was Geppetto’s boat being consumed by a massive whale. The puppet maker seemed to live quite happily in the stomach of the beast, which resembled an enormous damp cathedral. Another film that impressed my youthful mind was Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits, featuring a giant that wore a pirate ship as a hat. Gilliam confesses in the director’s commentary that he borrowed the idea from a Brian Froud illustration, which I have since discovered in the book Master Snickup’s Cloak.
Also in the early Eighties, I was very keen on the work of comic book artist Mike McMahon; at the time he was illustrating a story called Slaine, set in the world of Celtic mythology. One adventure featured the Cloud Curragh, an ancient ship that sailed through the sky, powered by Ogham stones and the occasional human sacrifice.
I find boats fun to draw, but I prefer it if they are sailing through space or recycled as a tree house, etc. I think it’s because I find them visually unbalanced when they are bobbing about in the water. The bottom half is hidden, which is a shame as there’s a very satisfying relationship between the curve of a sail and the rounded, sculptural quality of a nice hull.

David Wyatt has been an illustrator for a good while. Find out more at his ramshackle blog.

Recently, a news story concerning the unearthing of a witch’s cottage caught my eye.

According to reports, it was clearly a witch’s cottage because it had a mummified cat bricked up in the walls, and was found in Pendle, the scene of a notorious outbreak of maleficence in the early 17th century. Ten people were hanged as witches due to a tragic tangle of religious intolerance, familial rivalry and superstition.
Whether or not this particular dwelling played host to all manner of frightful witchery will be doubtless be pondered upon by historians and people (like me) with over-active imaginations. I’ve always loved old buildings – they act as a focal point for history and legends; they are like batteries generating stories, some down-to-earth and some fanciful. Read the rest of this entry »

I have had so many embarrassing incidents to deal with they have become unremarkable. As a part-time musician, every week seems to offer an interesting new way of making an idiot of oneself in public; the trick is to carry on regardless, pretend nothing horrendous has occurred and save the squirming and self-loathing for later.

Consequently, I am going ‘off-brief’ to talk about Trolls.

I recently had the pleasure of illustrating the cover of Conrad Mason’s The Demon’s Watch, which features a pair of identical Troll twins. To get me in the mood I did some research and looked through some of my favourite Troll artists (if this article becomes tedious, skip to the end and click on some of the links for some visual treats).

In Norse mythology, Trolls began life as the offspring of Ymir, the Frost Giant. They were said to be of huge size, varied in appearance and temperament; generally more like gods than the bridge-bothering creatures of folklore we recognise today.

Gradually they settled into the mythic landscape as a race of beings representative of the elements; sometimes benevolent, sometimes mischievous, sometimes downright vicious. They lived in societies of their own, in hollow hills, forests and wild mountainous regions. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you heard of Hay Fever?..

Several DFB authors and illustrators authors caught it this year! Sarah McIntyre, Candy Gourlay and The Etherington Brothers all went down with bad cases of the contagious fever this year, from attending Hay Festival 2011.

Symptoms?

Shivers of excitement, blistering friendliness and a rash of book-lovers..

The cure?

A strong dose of workshops, talks and festival antics, taken with a marquee-ful of your favourite authors and illustrators!

So what did these lovely DFBers get up to all weekend?? Well…

Robin & Lorenzo Etherington(AKA The Etherington Bros) -  sold out their workshop(!), and it sounds like they had a blast monkeying around with their 200+ fans(!!). . When I asked Robin what his festival highlight was, I was  hit with a wave of enthusiasm and a list as long as my arm. But I think that ‘Finally getting to perform our show for our respective wives and see them really enjoy it’ and ‘getting papped by ten year olds and knuckle bumped by a legion of new readers’  were probably two of their more memorable experiences! Check out what else they got up to on their awesome blog here. Or for more details of what these boys can teach and show you, have a look around their new Comic Club site..

Sarah McIntyre and Candy Gourlay appeared as part of a triple-decker event alongside a favourite author of theirs, Geraldine McCaughrean – what a treat for the audience!  And beforehand, when Sarah heard the weather forecast, she drew this fantastic picture of how their trio might end up -

 - but, of course, the event was far from a wash out.

And, needless to say our fantastic authors didn’t leave it at that, they also ran their own their own talks and workshops! You can read Candy’s hilarious blog about the group experience, and of course her own workshop here. Candy’s writing workshop was all about legends… and there were some brilliantly silly ideas.

Sarah was also full of fun and seemed to meet up with nearly ALL the festivalgoers at Hay – even the Duchess of Cornwall!! For the lowdown on how Sarah a)wangled and b)handled this, check out Sarah’s blog, here.

Hooray for Hay, and for our truly brilliant authors who helped make this year’s festival such a success!!

(And if all that wasn’t enough, see how much fun was had by the many celebrity and non-celebrity attendees here.)

Here you go – just in case you didn’t catch John on Open Book, talking with Mariella and Eoin Colfer about writing for adults and children.  This was prompted by his new adult book, The Absolutist, but John did mention his DFB book NOAH BARLEYWATER RUNS AWAY,  and Mariella referred to his first children’s book, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS.  A very interesting discussion!

Have a listen, by clicking here.. The show’s only online until Friday, so catch up, now!

That’s right, The Green Man – also known as Lob – has been spotted! Many believe that The Green Man is a character from English myth and legend, but we here at DFB know otherwise.. And now we have evidence! Lob was caught on camera on World Book Day, see for yourselves -

Have you got any World Book Day stories to share or photos to show us? Please do send them in.

Biggest thanks to Lob for joining in World Book Day and making this year such a special one.

Last Friday, to celebrate the launch of Neill Cameron’s DFC Library title, Mo-Bot High, Blackwell’s Children’s Dept played host to a GIANT MO-BOT PARTY!

….Needless to say, it was awesome.

Neill had prepared some fantastic mo-bot activity sheets and  a ‘card-bot’ that was collectivly decorated by his fans, friends and family. Bot-tastic! He even led a comic drawing session that involved lots of audience input, with some pretty hilarious results..

The MO-BOT HIGH dedication includes ‘anyone who’s ever daydreamed of having a giant robot to smash up their school.’  Enough said.

1. Buy your copy of MO-BOT HIGH here.

2. Investigate all the extras and juice on the MO-BOT HIGH website here!

3. Check out Neill’s post about the evening(and generally snoop around his blog – it’s always chocker full of sparkling ideas, insights and illustration..) here!!