Wednesday 14 September 2016

Sketchbooking

For me the best way to start a new character and discover his or her story is to sketch them and see what they end up doing, what environment sits comfortably with the character and what friends appear? What adventures will the pencil take them on? 

And then there are those naughty characters, like little piglet Kay, that impatiently just pop up whenever they want. Even when it isn't her turn yet!



It looks like little Momo has a big bear friend. And I think it is cold where they are, but somehow I think that they would much prefer a warm place with soft grass and flowers. But it isn't anywhere near them. Hmmm. Maybe a little journey might be in order? We'll see. 



I love sketch books and sketching, doodling,  playing, thinking, drawing. And there is of course enormous joy in viewing others' sketch books. I recently bought "The Bird King" by Shaun Tan, and what a joy to view page after page of delicious sketches. And then there is the wonderful Sara Midda's sketchbook "The South of France, a sketchbook". And if you really want to get me drooling there is Oliver Jeffer's Sketchbook. These are some of my favourite sketchbooks. I would love to find out what yours are. It will be such a delight to find more artists' sketchbooks to enjoy and get inspired by!


Wednesday 22 June 2016

New picture book?

A few months ago I put a little doodle I made on Facebook and for some reason he made a lot of people comment, despite being just a little doodle. Here he is, the little fellow.



You see, there isn't much of him, but somehow people liked him and he also kept haunting my mind. So it's probably best that he gets a story. His name is Momo. That much is clear. But rather than just making up a story for him, I would like to discover first who he is and from there see what is happening in his life.

If you'd like to follow an adventure in picture book making, I thought I'd use this blog to record the progress of discovering Momo.