Some special spookiness from my sketchbook to you...
Uncle Fred
Watercolour owl
The deep dark wood. With a cat in it.
PUMPKINS
Here are some pre-Halloween pumpkins I've just painted in my sketchbook.
HALF-TERM PUZZLES
It's half term! So here are a few bits and bobs to keep the kids busy for, oh, about three seconds. First up, can you spot the sausage among the sausage dogs? 🌭🌭🌭🌭🌭
Next, can you (or your little ones) navigate the maze and help Odd Dog find herself?
This one is a bit trickier. Can you spot the 6 differences between these two cow dogs?
I've saved the hardest until the end. Can you spot the 12 seasonal words hidden somewhere within this illustration?
There you go. Hope you had fun :)
There May Be A Castle spotted in the wild...
We are spending half-term in St Ives down in Cornwall and spotted Piers Torday's amazing book (sporting a cover designed by me) in the St Ives Bookseller on Fore Street. Great to see it in it's natural environment.
COVER REVEAL: SUNK!
Excited to be able to (finally) show you all the cover of my fourth book, "Sunk!" - a pirate adventure for Penguin Blue. Publishes March 2017. 🐧☠️⚓️
There May Be A Castle by Piers Torday
There May Be A Castle by the brilliant Piers Torday is published today by Quercus. I was lucky enough to draw the cover and some bits and pieces inside too. It's SUCH a good book, highly recommended for children and adults alike.
#PackedLunchPostIt
Those of you who follow me on Instagram or Twitter will probably know that I draw a picture on a post-it note every day for my youngest daughter Poppy and put it in her lunchbox to brighten up her lunchtime. Well, a couple of weeks ago HarperCollins and Waterstones put on a small exhibition in London featuring 150 or so of the 600+ post-its that I have drawn over the last three years…
Amazingly, the Evening Standard covered it…
And so did BuzzFeed.
Since then it has gone crazy. I’ve been interviewed by ABC News, The Huffington Post and The Metro, and the notes have been featured on MarthaStewart.com, India Today, Bored Panda, Stuff, 360doc and countless other blogs and websites. What a strange experience it is to be involved with something that goes a bit viral. Pretty exciting though.
As the media buzz dies down you can rest assured the #PackedLunchPostIt notes will go on. Poppy is showing no signs of changing from packed-lunches to school dinners, despite my encouragement! You can keep up to date with the notes by checking out my daily posts on Twitter and Instagram.
Now, who fancies a sandwich?
Radio Boy
Bit of news. I am very excited to be illustrating DJ Christian O'Connell's first children's book, Radio Boy, which is out early next year. And it's brilliant! ⚡️📻🎙
Odd Dog Out published today
My third book is published in the UK today. Hope you and your little ones enjoy Odd Dog Out.
ODD DOG OUT TEASER
Poppy’s packed-lunch post-its in the Telegraph
This is pretty amazing. The sister of a Telegraph journalist saw some of Poppy’s packed-lunch post-its on Twitter and told her about them, so she got in touch and asked if they could make a video. This is what they came up with. Cool, huh?
You can she lots more of the post-it notes themselves on Twitter here, and on Instagram here.
A ridiculously long update
Hello! It’s been a while.
I haven’t posted anything for about 6 months (v naughty of me) so I thought I’d do a mother-of-all-updates update now to make up for it. Here’s everything that’s happened since (just before) Christmas…
*deep breath*
Packed-lunch Post-its
You’ll be relieved to hear that my youngest daughter Poppy’s Packed-Lunch Post-its are still going strong. In the build up to Christmas (I know, it’s seems like a lifetime ago) we had an advent theme. Here they all are…
Odd Dog Out
January was spent artworking my third picture book, Odd Dog Out. This is my favourite bit of the book-making process. Just me in my little studio for a month painting away. Such fun. Here’s the cover…
and here are a few teasers…
HarperCollins also released the blurb for the interweb:
It’s a dog’s life in the big city…
For busy dogs
A busy day
Of busy work
And busy play…
But one dog doesn’t quite fit in. It’s lonely being the odd dog out, when all she wants to do is find her place in the world. She’s willing to go to the other side of the world to look for it… but it might take a different kind of journey for her to discover that maybe where she’s meant to be is right back where she started…
A gloriously illustrated story about leaving home and finding yourself, from the bestselling and award-winning Rob Biddulph, author of Blown Away and GRRRRR!
I will post some more teasers and updates as we get closer to publication day (August 24).
Sad goodbyes
We lost a couple of my musical heroes early on in the year and as such I was moved to draw a couple of tribute sketches. First David Bowie…
and then Prince…
Star Wars
After Christmas, Poppy’s Packed-lunch Post-its took on a Star Wars theme (’cos we loved The Force Awakens so much)…
GRRRRR! in paperback
On January 29 my second picture book GRRRRR! was published in paperback. Here’s the cover complete with a sticker saying how ace I am (!)
And here’s the fab window display at Waterstones Darlington…
Blown Away board book
A couple of days later Blown Away was published as a board book. Perfect for little ones with sticky fingers. I am so pleased with this version - it looks so cute. As does my nephew Lewis in this picture…
World Book Day 2016
The beginning of March saw another World Book Day. Here’s Fred from GRRRRR! doing his bit…
And here are Alex Tucker and Pearl MacMurray in their Fred Bear and Penguin Blue costumes…
IBW Book Award
March also saw GRRRRR! shortlisted for the Independent Book Week Book Award which is, obviously, very exciting.
It is, however, up against some extremely stiff competition so am certain it won’t win, but what an honour to be selected alongside the likes of Julia Donaldson, David Walliams and Judith Kerr…
Four more books with HarperCollins
In March I signed a new four book deal with HarperCollins. I really love working with the team who are the best in the business (they have just been named Children’s Publisher of the Year for the third year in a row to prove this point) so was absolutely thrilled to put pen to paper. Here’s the story in the Bookseller.
Leaving the Observer
March also saw me leave my job as art director of the Observer Magazine to become a full-time author. It was a very bitter/sweet moment for me as I will really miss the people that I’ve worked with for the last nine years. On the other hand I’m hugely excited about my new adventure in the world of books. I feel very lucky to have this opportunity.
Bangalore
In April I read Blown Away and GRRRRR! via Skype to a group of children who live in Bangalore, India. My cousin Fran and her family are currently living out there (she has her own blog actually, click here to give it a read. It’s SO good) and she set the whole thing up. It worked really well and the kids were amazingly talented. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable experience that I hope to repeat very soon. Maybe next time I can actually go out there in person! Here are a few pics…
International editions
Several international editions of my books have been published so far this year including the Norwegian version of Blown Away, and the Greek, Spanish, Catalan and French versions of GRRRRR!
More greetings cards with Roger la Borde
I’ve made a couple of GRRRRR! birthday cards with the lovely people at Roger la Borde. Here they are. They’re foil-blocked too although you can’t see that in these pics. Available from all nice card shpps, garden centres, museums etc. There’s also a Father’s Day one but I’ll post that next week nearer the big day itself. I have also just finished a huge Odd Dog Out range for them. More of that later too…
Game of Bones
My favourite show, Game of Thrones, returned to TV screens in April so I did some drawings of the penguins from Blown Away dressed as the characters. Couldn’t resist…
More Packed-lunch Post-its
Meanwhile, I was still drawing a picture on a post-it note every day for Poppy. The current them is Disney films in chronological order. Here are the first 50…
3000 chairs project
I was very pleased to support the brilliant 3000 chairs project set up by Nicola Davies in response to the government’s decision not to allow lone refugee children a safe haven in the uk. Click here to learn more about the project. Here is my contribution…
Other stuff
I’ve also been eventing…
…getting some amazing letters from my readers…
…proofing Odd Dog Out…
….practising with my new water-colours…
….getting exciting about the upcoming theatrical adaptation of Blown Away…
…and doing several secret projects that I’m not allowed to tell you about yet…
So all in all, it’s been an extremely busy year so far. Hence no blog posts until now. Sorry that this one is such a monster, but at least I now feel up to date. Well done if you’ve made it this far!
You can always follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for slightly shorter updates in real time.
For now though… BYEEEEEE
Blown Away in the Evening Standard
Got a lovely surprise on my commute home last night when reading the Standard. Blown Away was included among the best books for young children in their London Life section. “Beautifully illustrated and wittily written” apparently. *Blushes*.
Read the whole thing here
Print Shop
After lots of requests, I have finally got around to making a (very) limited number of fine art prints based on images, scenes and characters from my two books Blown Away and GRRRRR!. They are now available to buy here.
There are 8 different prints in total, some of which are in editions of 15 and some only 10. So very limited I’m afraid. Here are some detail shots…
And here’s the technical stuff (in case you’re interested): they are giclée prints, some A3, some A4, on 100% cotton Hahnemühle 310gsm William Turner fine art paper. Each print has been carefully created to ensure that the colours are reproduced exactly as the artist originally intended. They are signed, numbered and embossed with an official seal. Also, each print will be accompanied by a signed letter of authenticity.
Happy shopping…
Merry Christmas range with Roger la Borde
Yes, I know it’s only mid-November, but I thought I’d tell you that the lovely folk at Roger la Borde and I have teamed up to make a range of Christmas cards, bags and wrapping paper.
They feature Clive, the polar bear from Blown Away…
a Christmas hippo…
a decorated reindeer…
and some double-sided wrapping paper featuring all of them (as well as a festive bunny and some meerkats)…
They are available now at places like Scribbler, Daunt Books, Out and About, Liberty, Fortnum & Mason, the Natural History Museum, the Medici Society, Gill Wing, the Designers Guild and Foyles. They are also in loads of independent shops, galleries, bookshops and garden centres (in the UK), so keep an eye out for ‘em.
Oh, and may I be the first to wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
The Rhino-pupils
A couple of weeks ago I received this letter from some children in Germany…
How could I refuse such an offer? (Particularly loved “Settled?”). Here’s my reply…
GRRRRR! autumn tour
Last Saturday was the final date of my GRRRRR! autumn tour. Over the course of an action-packed month I travelled all over the country, visiting schools, libraries, bookshops, universities, theatres and festivals meeting lots of amazing people along the way.
So what did we do on the tour? Well, we read my books…
we did some very loud GRRRRRs (using our megaphones)…
we drew lots of bears…
we created our own stories…
and we measured the loudness of our GRRRRRs using a Growl-o-meter.
I also spent a lot of time on trains…
and a lot of time signing books too.
Now for a few event shots. Here I am in Leeds…
Manchester…
Cromer…
London…
and Bath.
I even got to scribble on bookshop walls a couple of times. First, at the famous Norfolk Children’s Book Centre…
and then at the equally famous Tales on Moon Lane…
When we arrived at Cheltenham for the festival, I was (ahem) blown away by the Waterstones Children’s Hideaway. I had illustrated the festival programme cover and as such the tent was a given a GRRRRR! theme. Here are some pics (featuring my wife and two of my daughters)…
The festival bookshop had a great display (and a good stash) of my books too which was handy given that I had a three hour signing session after my event.
So there we go. Autumn tour done and dusted. It was SUCH fun and I’m really sad that it’s all over. But, having said that, book three isn’t going to write itself, so for me it’s time to switch focus.
I’d like to thank my amazing publicity team at HarperCollins who put the whole shabang together. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I feel very lucky to be working with you all. Extra special thanks to Nicola, Vicki, Simon, Serena and Sam who accompanied me on the tour events. You have all been brilliant and it was a pleasure spending time with you.
Also, a huge shout out to my many and varied hosts. Everybody made me feel very welcome. Thanks so much for having me.
The biggest thank you of all, however, must go to everybody who came to see me. It’s so much easier and more rewarding when the audiences are as fantastic as you were. It was great fun meeting you all.
Until next time…
This term I’ve been revisiting my childhood for Poppy’s Packed-lunch post-its. Here are the first five weeks worth…
Retro post-it notes
How to draw… a very loud GRRRRR!
A month or so ago I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute a second gallery to the Guardian’s brilliant How To Draw… series. My first, How To Draw… A Windy Day, featuring the characters from Blown Away, got a great response so I was more than happy to oblige.
Click here to see the new one…
Draw It! Colour It! Creatures
I am very pleased to have contributed to this ace new book, Draw It! Colour It! Creatures, published by Macmillan. It’s a lovely collaboration between 40+ artists and illustrators (including Axel Scheffler, Chris Riddell, Emily Gravett, Jim Field, David Mackintosh, Alex T Smith, Tim Hopgood, Marta Altes, Sarah McIntyre, Lorna Scobie and, oh, LOTS more!). The idea is that we start the drawings and the readers finish them off!
My two offerings are a hungry whale…
and a posse of peacocks…
You can buy the book here: http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/childrens/draw-it-colour-it-creatures-with,macmillan-childrens-books-9781447290704