Petr Horáček's Blog, page 18

I’m just drawing

I’ll be visiting three primary schools in Lancashire, Kent and Hertfordshire next week. So a busy time ahead for me.

Knowing that, I enjoyed the few free days that were eft. We went to see friends who live by the sea in Mumbles. This is Franceska Braunerova 6years old.  She ask me to teach her how to draw an elephant.

I showed Franceska how I draw an elephant and she did this master piece. Franceska is also a great gymnast and she tried to teach me how to do a handstand and the splits, but I failed. Later on I did my picture of a sad elephant.

Tidying up and going through old sketchbooks can be quite inspiring. This is a page from my sketchbook from 2005. The blue drawing is done by my younger daughter when she was 6 years and is an angel. On the other page is Hermione from Harry Potter done by my older daughter when she was 8 years old.

Appart from getting ready for my school visits I was filling up my sketchbooks with little drawings. Things I like the best. Listening to the radio and drawing …what ever. So here we have flowers that are growing upside down.

Here is a bird who is too heavy to sit on the tree.

A tiger.

A fox between the wolves.

And here is a snail who is walking over the hills all the way to the vase. No, I don’t know why.So I better go as well. Next week I’ll be writing something about schools I suppose.

 

Happy New Year!

It’s now a few days since Father Christmas came down the chimney. We left a glass of sherry and ginger bread for him to eat. Rudolf had a carrot. They left a bit of a mess and footsteps by the fire. 

Father Christmas gave us nice presents. We didn’t mind the mess at all.

I didn’t do any work. Just met up with friends, a bit of reading, lots of eating and some walking.

I like walking on the Somerset moors. We had  floods so the walks were rather muddy.

The time between Christmas and New Year goes so quickly, or is it just me?

Well, we can’t stop time.

So HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Turkey and drawings

Happy Christmas!

I’m about to close the office for a while. Well, I’m just saying that. I don’t really have an office. What I mean is, that I’m not planning to start working on anything new this year and I’m tidying up my desk.  As I was doing so, I rediscovered this beautiful drawing. It came to me all the way from Germany and the author is the very talented Lysander Burleigh. I love the drawing.

Another picture which I received this week was sent to me by Pelle from Cape Town in South Africa. He wrote: At the beginning of our Christmas holiday something very sad happened. Madiba died. He was very old but he had worked very hard to make South Africa a nice country where people have to treat each other well. He was a hero in the whole world.  I made this picture of him as an angel.

It is a really nice picture and Pelle’s email was accompanied by lots of beautiful photos taken by his mum. Here are my favourite one.

This time of the year is the time when postmen often bring some interesting parcels. In one of them was this book.

 O.k. Silly Suzy Goose is a book which was published some time ago, but this is a special edition A Mini Pop-Up Classic. Walker Books have published just a few titles in this edition so far and Silly Suzy Goose is one of them. This advance copy was a nice Christmas present from my publisher. The book will be out in the spring of  next year.

 

In the title I mentioned a turkey, so here is one to finish off this Christmas blog.

Hunters’ stories

It seems to me that everything important I had to finish before the end of the year is now finished. Hurray!

I now have time to do all the little bits and pieces and tidy up my desk and documents. As I was going through the drawers I found one old story.

I realised, that last time I was working on it, was over last Christmas.

In the past I painted a few little pictures with hunters.

These pictures then became the inspiration for a story.

The story should be about two hunters. Two friends.

I looked at it again and I thought that it would be fun to try it as an animation.

Great idea, but the problem is, that I’ve never done any animation. I talked to my friend and neighbour about it. He is very skilful with computers, works from home and has also finished most of his important work this year. We decided to try and do something together. So I did a few sketches of a hunter.

Well yes, we got the idea about an animation in the pub. It may be perhaps a bit ambitious, but we can try.

Here is the first hunter.

He is still. He is not moving yet, but it may not take too long before he walks through the painted wood.

 

 

Great Illustration Exhibition

Last Tuesday I went to a private view of Children’s Book Illustration in Foyles on Charing Cross Road. It was such a great event. Apart from catching up with some illustrators and people who make books I also had the chance to meet people who love picture books and simply came to have a look,  or even to buy a picture by their favourite illustrator.

It was a great opportunity to see the original artwork done by so many great artists. I know that I illustrate myself, but for me it’s always interesting to see how other people do it.

You could examine the pictures very closely and see for yourself how each picture is done. You could see what material is used and also see some changes and occasional corrections.

One of my favourite pictures was Lucy Cousin’s Maisy Mouse.

It’s so hard and difficult to organise and prepare an exhibition like this, so well done Linda and everybody who helped and was involved.



I also had probably the last meeting this year with my publisher Walker Books. I now know pretty much what I’m going to work on next year. It’s quite exiting. I’ll do more pictures with mouse, moles and rabbits. I’ll also do lots of penguins. I’ve already started sketching. It’s good to be organised early I think.

The week I finished with two workshops in East London Design Show. I did a bit of reading, some drawing and with the children we made pictures of Suzy Goose. In these pictures snow was falling, because, let’s face it, Christmas is coming!

Children’s Book Illustration – Exhibition

The exhibition is starting on Tuesday. I’m really looking forward to it. I want to see the original illustrations from these well known books. It’s also a great selections of artist and I’m sure that anybody who likes picture books will find their favourite.

It’s hard to exhibit illustrations from picture books I think. The reason is, that picture book works as a whole. If you take one picture out it may not always make sense.  Another problem is that the text is often an important part of the picture. When you take the text out, you end up with an empty space in the picture and I’m not even mentioning the problems with novelty books, books with holes and cut outs.  This is why it’s so hard to show pictures from books and this is why the exhibition in The Gallery in Foyles is so special. I hope you can make it.

I should have a few of my pictures there. Three of them were framed, although this one may be already sold, I was told.

Elephant in the bath.

One more puffin from Puffin Peter.

So I’ll be in London on Tuesday, hoping to pop into Tate Modern to see the Paul Klee exhibition – just to get some tips how to draw properly.

Another event I’m looking forward to is the East London Design Show. I’ll be there on Sunday 8th of December and my first event starts at 2pm and will last an hour. The next one will start at 3.30pm and finish at 4.30pm. I’m planning to do a bit of reading and drawing and then a workshop. We should make, with anybody who pops in, a concertina book based on Suzy Goose. Since next Sunday is definitely nearer to Christmas, we may even try to introduce some snowflakes in the pictures.

 

Well, that’s it for next week. Since I bravely mentioned Christmas I may just as well talk about sweets and cakes. My daughter made a cake. It was a masterpiece.

The only downside was that she took it to school to share it with her friends and teacher. They all enjoyed it. I was allowed to lick the empty box when she came home.

 

 

 

Can children draw pink elephants?

In last two weeks I did a couple of workshops based on my book Elephant. One of these workshops was with Pop Up Projects CIC. The event was part of INSET and I worked with eighteen primary school teachers. I liked working with adults for a change and it was fun to see them slowly changing into a child again. It’s nice to see grownups loosing themselves in a game, cutting and gluing paper, drawing and making up stories.

Later on I did the same workshop with children age 6 and 7. In the workshop itself I wanted everybody to make up a story from the idea  ”what can happen if you get an elephant in the house?”I want also everybody to illustrate it.  Together we make a little concertina book.The interesting thing was to see was that there was no difference between the way how the children dealt with the task and how the adults did it. Very similar ideas. We had an elephant in the bath, on the sofa, on a slide, dancing or singing, even playing tennis. The only different was, that children were not afraid to draw elephants pink, blue, or in the colours of rainbow. Adults went for the more traditional grey colour.

I love the pictures which some of the very little children did. The simplicity of it, the colours. It’s so easy to motivate children and make them exited about art.

But there was something I still think about. In one school I was running two workshops in two different classes. In the first class, the children got on with the book, using different coloured papers, pastels, wax crayons, coming out with elephants which can jump, are pink or multicoloured.

In he second class the children were struggling and they didn’t know what to do. They were copying from each other. Then I realised, when I wasn’t there, the teacher started saying things like “your elephant is too big and the house too small, it will never fit in. Do it again”. She started telling the children about perspective and messing with their ideas. It all stopped being fun and the idea of doing a picture book turned into some kind of boring home work. It made me so cross and I tried to put it right, but the damage was done. I felt sorry for the children who were so unfortunate to end up with a teacher like this.

 

More news.

In the last Edinburgh Festival I was asked by the lovely Vivian French, if I would come to do a talk for the students of illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, so I went last week. I had a great time. I did a bit of tutoring in the morning and talk in the afternoon. It was quite inspiring for me to see and talk to talented students (and teachers). As I was talking to students it happened that we mention a few times Red Riding Hood and in connection with it also amazing drawings of girls and wolves by Kiki Smith. Then it was time for me to do my talk and in the end I showed some of the pictures from my sketchbooks and this one popped out.

If I remember it correctly I did this drawing some time ago thinking of both – Kiki Smith and Red Riding hood.

The last thing I would like to mention again is this.

I hope you can make it!

 

In celebration of our 10th anniversary we

have invited the illustrators to exhibit and sell some of their most exciting and sought-after original artwork.

Please come – all our welcome, children too – and it’s free!

The Gallery, 3rd Floor, Foyles Bookshop,

113 – 119 Charing Cross Road,

London WC2H 0EB

from Tuesday 3rd – Saturday 7th December 2013

. 9.30am – 5.30pm daily

Contact Linda Owen-Lloyd

during the exhibition on

07799 690818

linda@chilcrensbookillustration.com

www.childrensbookillustration.com

Bookworm

Last month I was in the Czech Republic. In a beautiful cottage in the woods I wrote down some ideas for my new picture book. I came home with lots of sketches and notes.

I was trying to get these ideas together and make some sense of it so I can show it to my publisher. One of the ideas was a novelty book about a bookworm. I was quite exited about it. I could already see the the holes and cut outs and a shiny worm going through the old manuscripts.

I was even happy with the worm eating the book I was just writing.And as I was sketching in the solitude of my studio I thought about Eric Carle. Why? I wonder.

I heard that he has illustrated about seventy books. I know only a few of them and  I thought, I’ve never heard Eric Carle talking. I found on the internet Eric Carle doing a lecture about his life and work. It was very interesting. So I was happily drawing and listening and suddenly Mr Carle is talking about “The Very Hungry Cutterpillar”, explaining that the very first idea for this book was a book about a bookworm. “WHAT?” And it’s not the first time this has happened to me.

I swear I wanted to do a book about a ladybird and a chameleon and a sloth even before I knew that Eric Carl had already done it. I was born and grow up in Czechoslovakia and we didn’t know the amazing books of Eric Carle. Oh well, I will have to learn to live with it.

Eric Carle did mention that his agent wasn’t happy with the idea of a bookworm and so they abandoned the idea. He didn’t do a book about the bookworm and he didn’t explain exactly why.  I thought “Good”, at least I can show my idea to my editor without feeling too stupid.

So I did show the idea to my editor and guess what. Nothing. It didn’t pass. Jokes about bookworms are difficult to translate. Yes, it’s true I must admit. For example in Czech we have a book moth as an equivalent to a bookworm. Not all tlibrarians would like the idea of books being damaged by anybody, not even by a little cute bookworm.

And so it happens that my idea of a bookworm will end up in my draw marked as “Ideas”. It may one day be eaten by a bookworm. Who knows.

I did a book about worms before though. It’s called “Jonathan & Martha”. It’s a book about love and sharing. Jonathan and Martha are not exactly bookworms. They eat fruit, but they are still worms.

The last thing I wanted to mention this week is this.

Ten year anniversary of Children’s Book Illustrations.! You can see and perhaps buy amazing pictures.  Tuesday the 3rd December I’ll be there!

 

 

 

 

Moving on with the mouse

In my last blog I mentioned that I’m working on another board book. This one will also have holes and shaped pages….I just can’t help myself.

There will be a wind blowing, leaves flying,..

snow falling and some surprise at the end of the book. Quite a lot will happen in a book with six double spreads.

I also did a bit of traveling by train. I can’t draw on the train, so I went through my sketches, trying to write new ideas for picture books. Funnily enough I have quite a few of them.  I don’t know where to start. I’m skipping from one idea to another and I’m not doing anything properly. One of the books I would like to do is a book about a goat. The story is finished, but I have to leave it on the side for the time being.  It’s too early to decide if it is any good or not.

I looked at my computer trying to find a picture of a goat I did few years ago. I found it.

I did this picture for friends. I still like the picture, but I would like to do the goat slightly differently these days. I’d better start sketching.

On Saturday I went to Streatham in London. Hitherfield Primary School was celebrating the completion of their expansion building programme. They have spent lots and lots of time and money making the school very pretty and modern.  The day was great fun even though complete mayhem with children running, magicians doing magic, faces were painted and cakes were served. I did workshops, signed books, talked to children and adults and did a talk about my books at the end of the day.

The day was rather different from my usual school visits, but I liked that. Mainly because everybody was so happy and relaxed. The Head with the parents and children did a great job. It was really nice to see parents and children being so closely involved in such a big project. The Head Mr. Chris Ashley – Jones seems to be rather popular and therefore a happy man. Here he is with children and I’m there as well. I’m kneeling of course, otherwise I’m much much taller.

Starting again

I’m working on new board books. They always come out in pairs. The first one is about a snail and it’s been finished for some time. The other one is about a mouse and about…that is the problem. We wanted it to be about seasons of the year, but then I thought I can do better than that.

Last week I had a meeting with my editor Denise Johnstone-Burt. Denise is really nice and she is a friend, but she is also a great editor and so it didn’t take long before she said: ” Look Petr, it’s not good enough. It simply doesn’t work”.

What do you do in a situation like this? You excuse yourself, go around the corner, cry a bit, come back and admit that you actually thought the same but were afraid to admit it to yourself.

After that everything is much easier. I went home and changed the book. It was easier than I thought it would be. It’s always good to have a proper chat about your work. Being just with your thoughts and pencil can be a lonely job.

Since that meeting  I have had permission to get on with the final work. The part of my job I like the best. I will get on with it as soon as we finish decorating my daughter’s room.

Last Saturday I also attended Young Librarians Group conference in Aston University in Birmingham. I was doing a short talk together with two young artists Yasmeen Ismail and Tom Percival. They both are very talented and I could listen to them talking about their work much, much longer than the time schedule allowed us.

Tom was mentioning his latest picture book “Herman’s Letter” and was also showing an animated trailer for the book which he did himself! It was brilliant.

It was great to see Yasmeen’s sketches and see how she worked on the book “Time for Bed Fred!” Yasmeen’s illustrations are stunning.

I was talking about the importance of board books and picture books and at the end I read Elephant. I thought the librarians deserved a story at the end of the day.

Admiring Yasmeen’s illustrations, I found something interesting . Yasmeen’s Fred is having a bath in the same bath as my Elephant! I hope they changed the water.

I’m sure we are not the first and the last illustrators who put animals into the bath, but the fact that we thought that a pink bath with golden legs is best for our pets is rather interesting. I liked that.