Petr Horáček's Blog, page 20

House full of paintings

Over the weekend I took part in the York Festival of Ideas. The festival started on 13th of June and will go on until 29th of June. The programme is really interesting and there is so much to see. I wish I lived nearer York, so I could pop in over the next two weeks again. Have a look at the web site  so you know what is going on.

The festival is really well organised (it always helps). I did my talk and workshop at the lovely Acomb Explore Library. With the children we made some little concertina books based on my picture book “Puffin Peter”.

The children did a very good job and we had great fun.

When I came home I couldn’t get through the hall. The reason was the number of my wife’s  paintings stored there.

The lovely  gallery in Worcester is closing down. It was a gallery where Claire use to exhibit, so all her paintings ended up in our house.

I love Claire’s paintings. It’s nice to see them again, but I’m panicking. I simply know that some of them may end up in my studio.

And this is the reason for my blog this week. I’m selfishly advertising Claire’s painting. Now is the time to get a bargain and help me keep my studio tidy. Just have a look at Claire’s web site. I hope you will like it.

Board books and School visits

These two board books were published last week. TADAAAH !

I wrote a bit about board books for different blogs and I also did some interviews.  Here is one I did for a lovely blog “Playing by the book” (just click).

I also visited two schools at the beginning of the week. The first one was Canterbury Road Primary School in Kent, the other was Alerton Primary School in Bradford.

Both of these schools were great. The children were really nice and friendly and so were the teachers – it often goes hand in hand. Nice teachers equal nice children. We had lots of fun and together we made lovely pictures. Of course I forgot my camera again, so I took some pictures of the cards I got from children when I got home. This big card was from all the children in Year 4  and was bigger than the suitcase I was travelling with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside there were small letters from the children. Here are some of them.

    I love these pictures.

I was a bit worried about travelling from Kent to Bradford, but the journey was really good. I met a nice family with baby Oscar and  clever boy William who had just had his 6th Birthday. We had a good laugh on the train.

The rest of the week is now a bit hazey. I had a knee operation on Thursday. It went fine and it is quite a welcome break for me. I’m watching lots of tennis on the telly at the moment. What a treat. I wanted to find some pictures in my sketchbooks which would be related to my op adventure. Here is one which reminded me of the feeling you  have when you fall asleep under general anaesthetic. 

And one more. I also got two sticks and then fish cakes when I got home. 

I don’t know about a medal, but I haven’t take any painkillers, so maybe it’s for bravery.

 

 

Wychwood

This week I was sketching new ideas for board books. I have two board books coming out this month, but I can’t help myself, I want to do more.

Here are the first sketches. I like the freshness of the first ideas and would like to get that into the final version.

 

 

 

 

 

On the table are also final black and white sketches for “Tresure Island”.

Time to get on with it.

 

But what I wanted to write about is Wychwood Festival in Cheltenham which happened over the weekend. I was there with my daughters and Claire. I did a talk.

I like the Wychwood Festival for its relaxed atmosphere. It went well and I really enjoyed it. I also went to see Wendy Meddour and her talented daughter illustrator Mina,  funny and loud Philip Ardagh, I did Hobgoblin beer tasting and met with my friends, Janet and her husband…can you guess who the geezer is?

 

Yes, it’s Tony De Saulles. The illustrator of Horrible Science. Tony came to do a talk and his gruesome drawings.  Here is better picture of Tony.

We stayed until late.  We had to, because my wife insisted that we must see the Human League. Oh YES! The Human League playing live at Wychwood. My daughters could hardly talk after dancing and singing their songs so loudly. It was a great concert. Wychwood was a perfect way to do some work and enjoy myself at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

Prague Book Festival

It is a week since I came back from the Prague book festival “Svet Knihy 2013″. It was a very, very busy week. I did some workshops, some talks, some interviews for papers and a one and a half hour  long interview on the radio. That was fun, because the programme started at 10.30pm and finished at midnight. People called in with their questions, so you can imagine what kind of questions people who can’t sleep have. We hardly talked about books at all.

The big blue photo is a self portrait. It’s a reflexion from the glass roof of one of the best galleries in Prague “Museum Kampa” (below). 

Here is me preparing one of the pictures for a workshop.

Below a photo from the workshop. The clever girl is  Apolenka and she drew lots of nice puffins. The photo was taken by  Michal Svacek who is great photographer and works also for the newspaper “MF Dnes”.

 My Prague visit wasn’t just work. I had time to see my friends, my family and had also chance to meet with new friends. Here are some of them. Jana and Zuzana (Jana’s mum).

 

Jana Balazova is writer, poet, photographer and very talented girl. She is only fourteen years old, but she has already published a book. And it’s a beautiful book. It’s call “Together  ( When text touches a photograph)”. Unfortunately it is, so far, only written in czech and it may take some time before somebody very good will translate the beautiful poems, but if you speak czech, order the book now.

Another photo I took in Prague. Bizarre things are happening every day in the old streets of Prague.

The last photo is again taken by Michal Svacek. I’m here with the finished picture. Children and I painted and collaged this picture together. We then presented it to Bulovka Hospital. It is hanging now in the newly decorated  children’s ward of the hospital.

You see, what was really behind my Prague visit, was the publishing of  ”Puffin Peter” in Czech.  

 

 

Board books

I started my career as a writer and illustrator in 2001 by publishing two board books “Strawberries are Red” and “What is Black and White”.  Walker Books published the books. They are my best selling board books and they are still in print.

For these two books I received  “ Newcomer Award 2001” by Books for Children.

Since then I have published ten more board books. Board books take a special part of my work.

I have sometimes felt that booksellers and bookshops often overlook the importance of board books. I have noticed, that in the shops there are less and less board books. They are often pushed somewhere into a corner (or by the floor), where they are hardly noticed.

We should understand that a board book could and often is a child’s very first contact with a form of visual art.

A board book has usually “only” seven spreads. Working on a board book may look easy but the opposite is true.

To make a good board book is hard work and it takes time. Children may not have as much experience as adults, but they are not stupid.

Board books with random images without any concept won’t do. Children want more and they deserve more.

Children do like colourful pictures and images they may recognise, but they also appreciate a good story. This is the hardest part of a board book. To come up with a simple and interesting concept for a board book is not easy.

I’m lucky to be published by Walker Books. I work with editors who are very professional and very passionate about children’s books.

Together we spend hours discussing new ideas for board books. My editors won’t be happy until the book is absolutely right. In my drawer I have at least three times more ideas than I have published board books. Not every idea works.

A big part of my board books is a novelty aspect. All of my board books have holes, cut outs, shaped pages and sometimes a turning wheel, which changes colours in the final image.

The child can chase a mouse through the pages of the book, follow a car which is going to visit granny, travel by train over the hills, woods and bridges. The shaped pages slowly build into a final picture as you turn the pages.

Yes, the game itself is important, but I also do like the idea, that children are learning to like books as an objects. Next time the child sees a book, it will feel the need to touch it and open it.

The shape, the quality of the materials, the whole feel about the board book is very important. That is another strength of board books published by Walker Books. Walker publishes a series of high quality board books as “Baby Walker”.

My latest board books are call “Time for Bed” and “Honk Honk! Baa Baa!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prague and Papuchalk

I’m off to Prague.  I’m taking part in the book festival Svet Knihy 2013 (World of Books).  The festival takes place in this beautiful art nouveau building. It is called Vystaviste.

One of the reasons I’m going is the publication of Puffin Peter in Czech, my mother tongue.  Quite exciting!  The Czech publisher Portal is publishing it.

 

There will also be workshops to do and a few interviews including one on Czech Radio.  Paintings created at the workshops by children and me will be presented to the children’s ward of Bulovka Hospital.

I also hope that there will be time to meet friends for a pint.

Larger doesn’t taste as good as in Prague.  Talking about beer here is one of my old pictures from my sketchbook.  It’s called A Queue for Beer.

 

Charity picture and sketches

I was asked to do a picture for a charity auction. Since it’s a Secret Art Show exhibition, I realised – I could tell you the name of the organisation and wouldn’t be able to show you the picture, or I could show you the picture and not  tell you the name of the organisation. Hmm…I don’t know.

I’m  going to show you the picture this time and I may mentinon the organisation  some other time in my blog. Here it is.

I like the idea of secret exhibitions. Artists are asked to donate a picture of an exact size. In this case it was 25cm x 25cm. The name of the artist is on the back  of the picture, so people who buy it don’t know who the artist is until they have bought the picture.  Nobody buys a name, but the picture they really like. It’s a great idea to raise money.

As an illustrator I also like the fact, that it is relatively easy to do the picture in a short time. Format 25 x 25cm, or the size of a postcard is not too difficult.

It’s also a good opportunity to try something different. My picture is called  ”An Old Lady is waiting for Something”. I don’t know exactly why I did it, but I’m quite happy with it.

I don’t draw people very often. I prefer drawing animals, but for some reason in last few days I haven’t been doing anything else but drawing people. Not just ordinary people but also lots of pirates.

These are just first pencil sketches for the book..can you guess what the book is? I’ll write about the book more in the future, so I will let you guess for now.

Bicycle picture

Friend of mine Andrew opened a bike shop.  It’s called “Barbourne Bicycles”.

 

It’s a lovely little shop and there Andrew services, repairs and restores bicycles. Here is the proud shop owner himself in the company of one of his beauties.

I like cycling and I like Andrew, so I decided to paint a picture for Andrew’s shop.

I’ve painted and drawn a few “cycling pictures” in the past. Here are some samples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know why  the deer is following the man. It’s one of the drawings which happend too quickly to allow me to think about it. I like the image though, so I painted it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The previous pictures are rather small, so I took it  as a challenge to paint a big version of  the man being followed by a deer. Here it is – the final picture for “Barbourne Bicycles”. It’s called “Andrew’s Bike” the size is 800 x 500 cm.

I must say, it looks quite good in the shop. Andrew also seems to like the picture I think. If not, he acted well and hung it on the wall with a big smile.

 

And one more picture popped out from my computer as I was poking through my cycling images.  It’s me some time ago. These days I have less hair, a bigger bike  and a bad knee, so I won’t be able to do this again any time soon.

Is this Spring?

I just came from a walk. What a beautiful morning it was. I saw butterflies, bumblebees and beetles everywhere. Maybe spring is finally here.

I was looking for some pictures of insects in my folders. I found quite a few of them. This is a final spread from my book  ”Butterfly Butterfly”.

And here are some drawings of the butterflies from my little sketchbooks.   This one is flying against the sun. It explains why you can’t see all the colours. This is one is a moth.

Some time ago I  published a board book called “Flutterby Butterfly”.  This earthworm and caterpillar are from the book.

 

Here is rather strange snail from my little sketchbook. If I’m remembering rightly, this drawing was inspired by an image I saw a Grayson Perry vase.

This drawing was inspired by Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”. It is Franz himself being attacked by a beetle.

Talking about being attacked by an insect, here is a gardener being attacked by a rather big ladybird.

 

Another thing happened yesterday to me.  I was already drawing for some time in my studio, when I realised, that on the chair next to me is a big bumblebee. He was alright, just not quite fully awake after the long winter.

 

On this last picture is a man being knocked out by incredibly big fly. Oh yes, I also have a book about a Fly. 

Orangutan

At the last meeting at Walker Books we were talking about working on a new pop-up book.

I actually like this stage, when I’m thinking about a new idea. It won’t be a surprise, if I say that there will be animals.

One of them should be an orangutan. I found it rather difficult to draw apes and monkeys. In this blog, I would like to show you some bad drawings of orangutans. I have a few of them.

This one is older. Not just the orangutan, but the drawing too.

Here is a girl talking to an orangutan. It makes me think, that I have a picture of a girl and gorilla somewhere.

Here it is. Talking about a gorilla..here is one more.

When I was searching for an orangutan on the net I found this lovely photo. Isn’t it great?

And here is my first sketch of an orangutan for the pop-up book. Hmm there’s a long way to go.