Jonathan Allen's Blog: Mutterings and Witterings, page 3

Cambridge Drawing Society

Well, it’s that time of year again, and my partner, Gill is getting her pictures ready to submit to the Cambridge Drawing Society open exhibition. She paints lovely watercolours, and gets voted the favourite in the show quite often. This sort of thing. . .

A portrait of my daughter Isobel

Good huh?

For my part, I have never indulged, mainly because I draw directly onto my computer for work purposes these days and computer prints are not allowed. Also, I have never been that sure if my stuff would fit in with the ethos of the show seeing as it’s work from my imagination and is humorous in style and content. But there is nothing in the guidelines that says that submitted work has to be drawn from life or be deadly serious, so this year I thought,’Well, why not?’ and sent in my entry form just in time. Which left me about five days to come up with four actual physically-drawn-on-paper type pictures that I had hurriedly called on the entry form, ‘Cat 1′, ‘Cat 2′, ‘Cat 3′, and ‘Cat 4′.

Well, I’ve managed that, for better or worse, and found that I actually enjoyed the process. What the ‘art loving public’ will make of these daft fat cats I don’t know. They may not even get accepted in the first place. Still, Ronald Searle was the honorary president, so daft fat cats may resonate

Here they are.

I think I may have priced myself out of the market at £120 a go, but I had to think of a figure off the top of my head and subtract the CDS’s 40% not to mention framing costs. . .

The exhibition is at Cambridge Guild Hall and is on from Saturday 13th to Saturday the 20th April. Pop in and have a look if you are in the area.

Six free copies in Danish. . .

This may or may not be Danish. . .

It may seem churlish to moan, but moaning is what illustrators do, apart from illustrating, obviously. (My illustrator friend John says that the collective noun for illustrators should be a ‘Moan’, I can see where he’s coming from there. . .)

So, in churlish moaning mode, and carrying on from the title of this post, just what am I supposed to do with six copies of ‘I’m Not Cute!’ or whatever, in Danish? Or in French, or Finnish, or Japanese, or Spanish, or, or, or. . .

Almost certainly not Danish. . .

You see, every time a book is translated and published in another country I get my contractually agreed three or more copies of it in said language. Of course, it’s nice to get foreign editions and be read in other countries, and I am grateful and pleased etc, and getting copies is good, but the trouble is, these copies tend to end up in a box in the loft, along with the English copies I didn’t give away to friends or didn’t get round to donating to a local school or something. I get six of them, and a further six in paperback if there is one. I feel they deserve a better fate really.

Verging on the Danish perhaps?. . .

Don’t get me wrong, I am not presenting this as an awful problem, deserving of your sympathy. I suppose I’m just pointing out an unintended side effect of being a children’s author/illustrator that you are probably unaware of. My silly dilemma.

I do give copies to local schools from time to time but with all the sorting out of copies, finding a box to put them in, driving to the school, remembering to alert them beforehand and getting round to do any of the above when I don’t really have to and would rather be doing something else, means it doesn’t happen very often. . . Me being me and all. . .

Unlikely to be Danish. . .

I used to distribute them to friends and family , but now their kids are all grown up or in their late teens, that outlet has long since dried up. So even if I do manage to get round to shifting a few English language copies that still leaves the foreign language editions festering in their cardboard box. I know someone in France with a five year old so that’s one copy sorted, but that’s about it.

Danish? Look, don’t ask me . .

I mention all this because, today, for some reason, I had a burst of Resolve, which sounds like some kind of air freshener or something but no, this Resolve was the steely kind that Gets Things Done!

Today I narrowed my eyes, took a deep breath, unfolded the ladder, and boldly ventured into the loft. . .

There were a stack of about five of those supermarket veg boxes, heaving with my out of sight, out of mind books, eying me resentfully, little knowing that my only concern was their eventual freedom. Oh, Foolish books! Mind you, some of them had about twenty years worth of resentment to discharge. . .

Well, who knows? Could be Danish. . .

So anyway, I grasped the nettle and sorted them all out, keeping two copies of every English language edition and one of each foreign edition. The rest I heaved downstairs and sorted into piles according to language. I made a bunch of gift boxes for the nearest four or so primary schools out of most of the English language ones, which I will deliver in the next few days. The foreign language editions still glowered at me from their respective piles, but I had a plan! The local freecycle network! Maybe, I thought, if I stick them on there, someone would be glad to take them off my hands. We shall see.

 Not even close to Danish. . .

Tune in next time folks. . . Dan Dan Daaaaah! (whoever he is. .)

World Rights Boxer Books. www.boxerbooks.com

Crufts

It was a horrible drive up the A14/M6 in fog that didn’t lift all day, but once I got to the NEC, I knew it was worth the effort. Crufts didn’t let me down. It was fascinating. I wandered around, people watching and dog watching with my camera pretty much glued to my eye.

It was Toy and Utility Day and in every aisle, driven, determined, steely eyed , set jawed women in clothes you probably only see at dog shows and weddings grimly brushed, blow dried and primped small, placidly accepting dogs of the small, fluffy or hairy kind. Driven, determined, steely eyed, set jawed gay and straight, but I would tentatively say mostly gay men did likewise. Husbands, partners and various family members hovered, or sat, idling on their mobiles.

Visitors and exhibitors milled around, exchanging Dog Talk and show gossip, every now and then pausing to do the arms length squint that camera and phone makers force us to do since viewfinders fell out of favour. (My camera has a viewfinder thank God).

In their respective aisle Bulldogs lay slumped in their cages, half asleep, pendulous jowls spreading like melting candle wax as the poor overbred creatures snorted and snored, oblivious to the permanently tragic gaze of pop-eyed Pugs and forlorn French Bulldogs. In other aisles Pomeranians yapped, Yorkies yelped, Italian Greyhounds quivered  in anorexic paroxisms while dandylion headed Bischon Frises sat looking slightly self conscious as one of the living, breathing exercises in surreal topiary that constitutes a Standard Poodle, perched on its special grooming table nearby, got it’s quiff sorted. It’s a dog’s life.

Partly owing to the dullest of dull foggy days outside, not much daylight permeated the vast hanger like halls. the artificial lights were OK but for photographic purposes it was tricky. I really didn’t want to use flash as I felt it would be intrusive and off putting for the dog groomers, not to mention the dogs. So I had to up the ISO on my X100 to uncomfortable levels (the higher you go the lower the light you can operate in but the more noisy/grainy the result) hence the only average technical quality of these shots.

Still, technical quality aside, I think you get an idea of what it’s like wandering the halls at the NEC when Crufts is on. I am going for a sort of cumulative documentary effect, but from the veiwpoint of an amused/bemused outside observer, enjoying the absurdity of the event without judging it too hard.

p.s. – I dunno if it was by choice because of the lurid green flooring, but I have never seen so many people wearing orange. Unless I just gravitated towards them when picking photographic subjects. . .

All shots taken with an Fuji X100 with a Nikon WC-E68 wide angle adaptor at ISO 6400 trying to keep at f5.6 or above and the shutter speed above 1/30. So motion blur and underexposure was a constant worry. Oh well, next time it might be sunny outside. . .

I’m a guest Blogger. . .

On a site called ‘Picture Book Den’. Which is a blog dedicated to the Picture Book, with posts from it’s resident writers and from guest bloggers. I came across the site a few weeks ago and liked it very much. I cheekily asked them if they would be interested in a guest post from me, and they said ‘yes’ which was nice of them

Anyway, it’s up today, so here I am writing a blog post about a blog post. I might get caught in some sort of literary feedback loop but it’s worth the risk.

http://picturebookden.blogspot.co.uk

is the link. The pics are a bit small but I’m hoping they can fix that. You can click on them to see a bigger version I think.

Happy Easter x

Margaret Mahy stamps!

Many years ago I was given the job of illustrating a story Margaret Mahy had written. Her agent at the time, the late Vanessa Hamilton, was at J.M. Dent and had published my first picture book not long before. Both she and Margaret weren’t sure that the story would work as a picture book and wondered what I could make of it as it seemed rather repetitive and bit strange. It sounded like it might have been about to be shelved. It was about a boy who looked like a shark. . .

I wasn’t really sure about it at first but I didn’t really know what does or doesn’t make a good picture book as I was just starting out pretty much fresh from Art School. I liked the idea of making a boy look like a shark, that was right up my street, so I played around with it, did some drawings and sent them off to Vanessa. They met with approval from her and from Margaret, and that was how ‘The Great White Man Eating Shark’ came about.

I mention this because I got a nice package in the post today. Margaret sadly died last year, and the New Zealand post office are issuing a set of commemorative stamps to recognise her genius and her importance to Children’s Books and to New Zealand and World literature. The Great White Man-Eating Shark is the $2.40 stamp! With Norvin, the boy who looked like a shark rampaging across it. Norvin also got major billing on the First Day Cover envelope. Needless to say I am pleased and proud.

I illustrated four books in all for Margaret over the years, ‘The Great White Man-Eating Shark’, my favourite, ‘The Three-Legged Cat’, ‘Beaten By a Balloon’, and ‘Simply Delicious!’

There was a really excellent animation made of ‘Shark’ directed by Euan Frizzell, who also sadly died last year. Have a look, it’s great. it won a prize at the Ottawa Animation festival back in the day.

http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-great-white-man-eating-shark-1991

Music – A bit of what’s loosely known as ’60′s Garage’

Or ‘Garage Rock’, not a term I like as it implies rather too much rock and not enough pop.

I think I’ll bung the odd interesting and cool youtube vid in between other posts.

Because -

a.) It’s fun and I like it.

b.) I like it and it’s fun.

Sir Douglas Quintet – She’s About A Mover – YouTube

-

Photo from the website of the bass player of the Sir Douglas Quintet, Jack Barber

Dig that organ sound ‘Based’ on Ray Charles’s ‘What I’d Say’ but not so it hurts. Classic!

Just a link as you have to sign up to some fancy upgrade to play videos within a blog page it seems. And anyway i don’t want to take traffic away from anyone, even Youtube. . .

Fuji x100 wide angle

Fishermens’ huts at Southwold

I really like my x100. In fact, since I flogged my Nikon D90 and a few lenses to pay for a second hand X100 a year and a bit ago, if not longer, I have hardly ever felt the need for anything else. Maybe once or twice, when stuck at the back of a crowd, I might have wished for a zoom lens, but that’s about it. The trouble is, that when the idea of going just a bit wider gets mentioned, I can’t helping thinking it would be a nice option.

A 35mm equiv lens is a great focal distance for all sorts of situations, but I have to admit to the niggling desire for something a touch wider sometimes. It doesn’t help that I am used to my little Ricoh GX200 (my other favourite camera, but for different reasons) and it’s wide angle to short-tele zoom lens. I found that the distance I chose to stand from my subject was automatically right for a 28 or 24mm lens. I kept having to take two steps back to get the framing right with my x100. I’m more at ease with it now, and I can guess better, but it made me realise that I am comfortable with a 24/28mm equiv lens and enjoy the slight distortions and the ability to fit a lot in the frame that it brings.

Fishermens’ boats and tractors at Southwold

So I did some research into what was available. Obviously, the fuji add on 28mm equiv made especially for the x100 would be first choice, but for around £250 they can keep it. That left a few options made for earlier cameras of other makes. Others have posted at length about this so I won’t go into tedious detail. Suffice it to say I hit ebay and tried a dead cheapie from the far east. I wasn’t very impressed. I tried a huge minolta, which was soft at the edges and just too bleedin big. I tried a raynox, which was the same only smaller, and eventually hit on the nikon WC-E68. This was still a touch soft at the edges but better than all the others, imho. I find it perfectly usable.

My X100 with the Nikon WC-E68

So really I am just endorsing the Nikon as a reasonably priced (I paid around £50 I think on ebay) alternative to the fuji wide adaptor. You need a 49-52 step down ring. (The x100 is 49mm and the nikon fits 52mm) I fitted it on top of the uv filter/lens protector as that way I have less fiddling about to do when I want to remove the nikon and I couldn’t see any difference in the quality of test shots with and without the filter. The only issue is that as the lens is very convex, there is no lens cap available. I use a soft lens bag with an elastic band round it to protect it when not in use. Not high tech I know, but it protects it OK from casual scratches etc. Knocks and bangs would be a different matter, but then I try not to bash my camera about

Fishermens’ boatyard and tractor at Southwold

I’ve been trying to keep it on my camera for an extended period, to give it a good run and see if I like what I can do with it. So far I am pleased. For the type of shots I like it works fine. And the whole shebang still fits in my jacket pocket, just.

All shots taken with the WC-E68 in place

I’m Not Reading!

World Rights Boxer Books. www.boxerbooks.com

(the cover pic is linked to Amazon uk, but it can be bought from bookshops, they pay tax I believe. . . )

Here be my latest book!

Only just out, as of a few days ago, published by Boxer Books both here and in The United States. There will no doubt be other language editions forthcoming. It will be being toted round at Bologna to grab some co-editions. That makes six ‘I’m Not!’ books in the series now.

(I’m Not Cute! I’m Not Scared! I’m Not Santa! I’m Not Sleepy! I’m Not Ready! and now I’m Not Reading!)

Baby Owl is getting to be a brand Well. . . in a small way at least.

The other good news about this book is that it got a good review in a prestigious American book magazine/website called Kirkus Review. So I am feeling quite pleased right now, as long as I don’t think about the state of children’s publishing at the moment and get depressed again. . .

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jonathan-allen/im-not-reading/

Text reproduced below. I hope I’m allowed to do this.

“Baby Owl’s plan to read a story to his toy, Owly (not the delightful comic-book character, but adorable just the same), turns viral.

Tiny Chick promises to sit quietly if he can listen also. But here come his brothers and sisters, followed by his cousins, all jumping on poor Baby Owl’s lap, pushing and shoving and all but pulverizing him. He protests and demands quiet, but when even more chicks join in, all his good intentions are brought crashing down by the frightening over-exuberance of his audience, and he calls for help. Dad comes to the rescue, and along with the chicks’ mom, he brings order to the chaos so Baby Owl can read the story without further ado. Allen’s latest adventure starring the endearing Baby Owl displays a nice mix of charm and mayhem, but that moment when Owl disappears in the crowd of crazed chicks is downright terrifying. So what will young readers find here? Is it a lesson in the joys of reading or a warning about mob rule, at least as it pertains to demented chicks, or perhaps a homily about trusting wise and loving parents? It’s all there, and Allen’s sharp, bright digital cartoons make it all work. Even the endpapers are filled with those goofy little chicks, not appearing the least bit threatening. A sweet, cozy ending suggests a perfect bedtime story.

Fun and reassuring. (Picture book. 3-6)”

Bologna by the skin of my teeth. . .

Phew. I spent a pretty frantic couple of days last week getting a project ready for my main publisher, for presentation at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which is either imminent, already happening or just happened, depending when you read this (it happens sometime around the end of March) . OK, big deal, you say, all illustrators do that. Yeah, but this was for an idea that was only semi worked out and wasn’t even on the radar for publication as far as either myself or my publisher was concerned the week before.

Feeling somewhat dejected that my small stack of picture book ideas had been turned down, and pondering the rough drawings I had done for one of these rejects, thinking that there was something there worth pursuing if only I could bring it to the fore. . . I sat down with my trusty notebook and slowly but surely wrestled it into the shape of something much more solid and joined up. So much so, that I emailed it back to my publisher as I know he liked the drawings and the basic concept. He liked it, and after a short pause, sent me an email saying

‘Decide on a title and I need a cover by tomorrow – OK? Don’t you love this business?’

(the catalogue for the book fair was being printed next day!) Talk about getting in under the wire!

So, the rough dummy  of my possible next book will be doing the rounds at Bologna. Let’s hope it gets a good response.

News flash. It made the cover of the brochure. Nice. . .

it might just be about a cat. . . .

World Rights Boxer Books. www.boxerbooks.com

Crawled out from under me stone again, innit. . .

I have decided to start posting stuff again. Yay!

I had lots of ideas about how I was going to use this space to share stuff I was doing, but I got bogged down somewhat by worrying about whether I should put my photographic noodlings and my surface design noodlings etc alongside my bona fide actual children’s book stuff, and whether anyone gave a stuff either way. I couldn’t decide, so catatonia set in and I let it all slide.

But now I have decided that I don’t actually give a stuff either way myself, which frees me up to post whatever I flamin’ well like and if anyone reads it, well that’s a bonus. I might even try facebook and twitter again. . . I said ‘might’. . .

To mark this epoch defining moment I have changed the template to this rather fun chalkboard one. Hope you like it.

I’ll get round to some actual content in a bit, just saying hello again really and setting out my intention fwiw.

cheers,

Jonathan