Petr Horáček's Blog, page 7

Almost Christmas and some sketches!

This is a nice, but also a busy time of the year. Apart from getting ready for Christmas I somehow ended up working on three books at the same time.

I’m working on two board books and one picture book. These books have one thing in common – a deadline for the middle of February.

I’m skipping between these books as I’m waiting for the feedback from publishers. It’s a bit challenging, I must admit. I like working on these titles equally and it’s always hard to leave one book and work on another.Here is a sleeping fish I’ve been working on this week

and a polarbear.

The picture book I mentioned is a classic story “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”. Here is the work in progress.

I’m enjoying illustrating the story very much. The book is for a Korean publisher and I was asked to do the Troll a bit more scary, so this is what I’ve done.

I just hope that it’s not too scary. I’m waiting for feedback as I write.

As I was taking photos for the blog and tiding up my table for Christmas I opened one of my sketchbooks. I got stuck looking at some of the pictures and collages.

I like opening old sketchbooks. Some of the pictures I haven’t seen since I finished them and some of them I haven’t seen for years.

This was a photocopy of my drawing, but water splashed over it and this is what happened. I liked it and put the picture into the sketchbook.

This is also one of my sketches plus some paper samples. It’s a finished picture. “Young Girl, Pig, Cat and UFO”.

One more.

Well, this is it I think. It’s time to leave the work for a bit and start enjoying Christmas!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

 

 

crocodile and the others

I’ve been traveling a bit this week talking about books to children and adults too.

Look at this amazing horse I was given by little Sofia.

I visited Horton Grange Primary School in Bradford and did a workshop with rather clever children. I went to London to do a talk at the CLPE conference. It’s always nice to visit The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. It’s full of nice people who like books!

The feeling must be mutual, since  ”A First Book of Animals” by Nicola and me has appeared on the CLPE list of the staff’s best books of the year 2016! Thank you! You can download the list here.

Mentioning “A First Book of Animals”, The Federation of Children’s Book Groups published my blog about how I illustrated the book. Thank you!

For the rest of the week I was painting crocodiles. I previously mentioned how challenging  it is for me to simplify the animals for my latest board book.

I illustrated a crocodile quite successfully in the past. Here is one from ”A First Book of Animals”.In fact my Dutch publisher Lemniscaat liked the crocodile so much that they changed the cover and they have the croc on the cover of the book instead of the panda.

So it seemed to me that painting a crocodile for my board book couldn’t be easier. I was wrong. I tried to make him simple, but he was too green. Here is my first attempt.I had to print him again a couple of times and add a bit more colour. It worked – I think.Can you see the difference?

The next in line was a frog. You can’t see it!Now you can.I started this blog mentioning my school visits. I will finish with one more school. I  received these delightful photos from Ethelbert Road Primary School in Faversham. 

It seems to me that Blue Penguin is rather popular in the school.I think the display is amazing!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Talking a lot

I was in Luxembourg visiting the European School of Luxembourg II . It was a couple of very busy days.

In three days I did 9 talks, 8 workshops, saw and worked with 390 children. We finished 4 big pictures.

It was busy, but I also met lots of very nice parents and book enthusiasts who made my trip very interesting and made me feel very welcome.

This sign, made by Miriam Mala age 7, welcomed me at the airport!Here are the boards I prepared on the first morning of my visit. They are ready for the workshop.And here are the final masterpieces.This one was created by children aged 4 – 6.Here is one done by older children. It all started with a picture of a pig flying over a banana!

Here is a jumping elephant and more.

And one big picture with a cow and Suzy Goose.

I know I have helped make similar pictures before, but I can’t have enough of seeing what ideas children come up with, for example look  at this funny bird.

I also got lots of presents – drawings from children.I like the kingfisher.Or how about this picture done by Richard who loves tigers!

We talked a lot about mixing colours and textures. Look at this Mr.Bird.Janette did a puffin for meand Josef and his friends did this big oil pastel. It was as big as my suitcase and it’s a shame you can’t see all the details. The lion has a fly on his nose for example.

Anyway it was really nice to spend four days in Luxembourg and thank you to everybody involved for making the school visit successful and for making me so welcome.

I came back and on Saturday I went to Hay on Wye – the Winter Festival. Nicola and I we did one more talk about A First Book of Animals. Nicola was great as always and I did the paintings as best as I could.

The event itself was in the old castle. It was cold, but rather atmospheric.

I stayed a bit longer and saw one really nice event with Piers Torday and later on I saw Rob Biddulph.

Here I’m with Rob and with the first glass of mulled wine this year.It’s always nice to see fellow illustrators in action. Rob was very entertaining, his books are very funny and the event was a great success. I’m glad I stayed longer!Thanks to the HAY Festival for having us.

 

Painting an Owl

I’m a bit busy organising upcoming events and getting ready for my visit to Luxembourg. I’ve never been before and I’m looking forward to spending a couple of days in the European School of Luxembourg II.

So doing lots of other things I thought I won’t start working on my new board-books until I come back, but I just couldn’t wait. I’m doing a board-book full of sleepy animals. I love drawing animals. The first of them to do is an owl.

I have painted an owl before. This one is from the book I did with Nicola Davies “A First Book of Animals”.

In fact Nicola and I met a beautiful owl quite recently!

This owl is from my book “Look out Suzy Goose”. She has just woken up ..and she is not happy!

The owl in the board-book should be a bit simpler.

And she should be in a tree.

I thought there’s is nothing easier than painting an owl, but I was wrong.

I shouldn’t do this, but I will show you how bad some of my pictures can be. These two owls are a real disaster!I panicked a bit. I remembered that I must have a picture of an owl I did some time ago and I liked it.

Finally I found it, but it was a bit scary.

Anyway, I didn’t give up. At the end of the second day I had a picture of an owl. The very first spread of my new board-book.It will be a lift the flap board-book, so now you can see her.and now you can’t!

As I said Luxembourg is my first stop. I’m leaving ….now and the Hay Festival Winter Weekend is next. If you want to see Nicola and me talking about the book and painting animals come to see us next Saturday!

I think I’ve finished

An endpaper is usually the very last picture I do when I illustrate a book. I’ve just finished one. It means - I’ve finished a book!

Looking at my previous blog I’m surprised at how quickly the time goes. I did a couple of events and school visits and painted a couple of pictures.

Last time I mentioned changes I have to do in my latest book “The Mouse Who Wasn’t Scared”. Here they are.

This is now the very first page of the book. The opening scene.

I promised to hide the sleeping wolf a bit more, so I did. Can you see him under the leaves?Now you can see him! I’m quite proud of this wolf, I must say.

So it left me with the cover. Here is a pencil sketch for itand here is the finished cover. It’s the front and back of the book.This is how the book cover may look when it’s fitted with the text.

I’ve mentioned events I’ve done with Nicola Davies. We are currently promoting our new book “A First Book of Animals”. During those events Nicola does most of the talking and I paint. I do four paintings in 50 minutes.  We give the pictures to the children, so I don’t really have time to look properly at the finished pictures, but this time somebody took a photo of my whale.This one was rather good I thought.

Here is another lovely photo I received.

It’s a window of the Children’s Bookshop in Huddersfield. It’s not the first time they decorated their window with my book. This time it’s “Blue Penguin”. Thank you very much!

I’m about to start working on two board books, but before that I’ll travel to visit the European School in Luxembourg. It will be a very busy couple of days, but I’m looking forward to it!

And the very last announcement. I found this rather old drawing done by my youngest daughter Cecilia. It’s a drawing of a big tiger and guess what was on the birthday card I did for her 18th birthday last week? A TIGER!

Do it again

A couple weeks ago I finished all the artwork for my latest book “The Mouse Who Wasn’t Scared”. Well, I thought I’d finished it, but my editors looked through the text once again and “made some changes”.

The changes resulted in changing four pictures, throw one illustration out and make one new one.

It does happen sometimes and I don’t mind. First, I know the changes are good (I wanted it to be this way anyway) and secondly, after some time I’m in my studio, painting and printing, doing what I like best.

This picture is now a bit busier and the wolf more hidden.This picture is no longer in the bookand neither is this one.

They are now for sale as a separate pictures… well, any minute soon…perhaps after a couple of weeks, just to be sure that there are no further changes.

I was at the Loogabarooga Festival in Loughborough on Saturday and it was really lovely. I had probably the youngest audience I’d have ever had. A four month old girl Lili May and her parents sat in the front row and the little girl was watching and listening to the books and didn’t heckle me at all. She had a great time!

My event was at Charnwood Museum and as I arrived early I had a great time to see the exhibition by Jim Kay “Illustrating Harry Potter”. Jim’s illustrations are truly amazing. So much detail and so much work. He really is doing a great job illustrating Harry Potter!

I also visited the local library just across the road from the museum. It was a lovely place with really friendly ladies, who showed me a great pile of beautifully illustrated books!

When I got home I had good news waiting for me. List of nominated books for the CLIP Kate Greenway Medal 2017 was released and two of my books are on the list!

Blue Penguin 

and the other one is The Greedy Goat.

It will be a long time before we will know who made it to the short list, but it makes me think, that the year when my book “Puffin Peter” was shortlisted, Jim Kay won it. Oh well.

And one more thing to read just in case you haven’t seen it yet. Nicola Davies talks about some facts and thoughts about her favourite animals from our new book “A First Book of Animals”.

It has been busy

It was a busy week. I went to London to sign a stock of “A First Book of Animals” for independent bookshops. It was a big pile of five hundred books and it took me almost five hours to do it. On my way home I got extra book labels to sign “when I have a minute”. I didn’t mind. Independent bookshops are doing a great job and we all should do everything to support them. Without independent bookshops things would go down hill very quickly.And this is what independent bookshops are doing for us. This is the window of “Tales on Moon Lane” and this one is the Children’s Bookshop in Huddersfield.

I did a school visit at the lovely little Ewhurst Infant School. I’ve been there before a couple years ago and it was a great day making books with children.

Last week I was also twice at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. On Monday I did an event with Nicola Davies, talking and painting animals from our book. I’m really enjoying these events. Nicola is a great speaker and it is always great fun watching the children being involved and having a good time.

Then I was back on Friday to do a talk about my picture books. I love the Cheltenham festival and I always have a nice audience. I also have a very young audience, but it all works well. It’s simple, the parents who take children to such events are the parents who read books to their children, therefore the children listen well and enjoy the stories.

The next stop was in Totnes -Turn the Page Totnes – Children’s Book Festival. Once again I did an event with Nicola. It was brilliant, we even had a real barn owl visitor, who joined us on the stage! 

Totnes was really nice and it was one of the festivals, where you can meet up and chat with fellow illustrators and writers and you can also go to see their talks. Nick Sharratt’s event was fun!

I’m now hoping to catch up with my work.I have these sketches for a picture book on the table and some sketches for a board book too.I’d better get on with it.

I’m back and the book is out

I’ve been away for three weeks. I was in Prague to start with. I did a couple of talks and met lots of nice people who like books and picture books in particular.

I even met one of my favourite artists and book illustrators – Kvete Pacovska! She signed my book!

Later I travelled to the south of the Czech Republic and spent two weeks in the woods and meadows, counting dears and woodpeckers.

I do this trip to the wild every autumn. I write new ideas for books, I paint and I walk in the woods.Woods are so inspiring. You have to be very careful not to step on something beautiful. I love these mushrooms, they are like little flames in the middle of the woods.

Autumn is my favourite part of the year. Just the sunsets….they are so amazing.

I paint outside, but it’s not always easy. One day the fog lasted for a whole day!

I still finished my picture though.

Here are two more paintings I did.

The whole trip to my home country was great. I did lots of writing and painting. It’s too early to be sure, but I think I have an idea for a nice book!

It’s always hard to go back to the city, but this time I had no chance to think about it. As soon as I came back I did a master class at the University of Worcester and then an exhibition opening of  ”The Worldwide Picture Book Illustration Competition”. What amazing work was there to be seen!

And look what a nice poster was done for me!

I then went to the Crickhowell book festival and did an event with Nicola Davies and now I’m off to do the same at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. I’ll be doing a school visit in Ewhurst and I’m in Cheltenham again on Friday…and then Totnes book festival on Saturday…

…and in the middle of everything “A FIRST BOOK OF ANIMALS” by Nicola and me was published! How exciting! I’m off to London to sign a stock of 500 copies. My hand will hurt, I’m sure, but I’m so excited about the book. It was such a fun to work on it.

THANK YOU NICOLA AND WALKER BOOKS for giving me such a wonderful book to illustrate!

 

Holiday, advertising and off again

It seems only  yesterday (and it almost is) since we came home from holiday. Rome was hot and full of amazing architecture and Florence is now one of my favourite cities.

Inspiration is everywhere you look. My favourite place in Florence is Covent of San Marco  and the beautiful frescos done by Fra Angelico.

Since we came home I’ve been working on a new idea for a board book. I like doing board books and I say that a picture book is like writing a novel, but a board book is like writing a poem.

What I mean is, that it’s not easy and one has to be very economical with words and with the story too.

So far I haven’t got very far.

But I like a challenge.

I’m now going to pack these sketches and tomorrow I’m off to the Czech Republic. I’ll start in Prague doing a couple of talks. One of them on 13th September is going to be in the City Library in Prague. Here is the invitation.

Next day at 16.30 I’ll be doing a little event in a newly opened shop “Hamleys”. They are selling my books in English over there. I’ll also pop into a Czech school.

And finally there will be time to travel to the south of Prague and stay in this beautiful cottage next to the wood and apple orchard, and I will paint, write and sketch new ideas. I can’t wait!

This place is magical and I will walk through the woods a lot and I come back with some ideas. My latest picture book “The Greedy Goat” was “born” there.

I’ll sadly miss a couple of things here in England. One of them is a live creative musical storytelling art show. One of the people behind this project is Ann Bruder. Ann was one of my students in Arvon this year and if you haven’t heard about her yet, you will soon.

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Ready Steady GO! is an immersive theatre show for 3-9 year olds and their families which allows the audience to create, decorate and drive cardboard cars. Check Ann’s website for the dates of the tour.

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I have just mentioned “Arvon” Centre. If you are interested about writing and illustrating books for children, don’t look any further. Here is one course just for you!
Rooted in Nature: Writing and Illustrating for Children

The tutors on this course are Nicola Davies and Jackie Morris.  I’m sure none of these incredibly talented ladies needs an introduction. As far as I know there may still be some places free.

One thing I’m not going to miss, because it’s in Prague is the exhibition of my good friend Vladimir Hanus. I used to study with Vladimir at the Academy of Fine Art in Prague. I discovered books for children, but Vlada never stopped painting pictures. His paintings and objects are beautiful and he is definitely one of the best painters around these days.

His paintings are full of colours and light. I can’t wait to see it!

O.k. I’m off. Here is one more finished illustration just before I go.

 

Edinburgh International Book Festival

I’m home, back from the beautiful city of Edinburgh.

I feel as if I’m repeating myself every year, but the truth is that I love Edinburgh and I love everything about the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The people who come to the events, the friendly atmosphere, the cosiness of the venue and mainly the fact that it is absolutely brilliantly and professionally run by people who are devoted to what they do. Everybody is so friendly and helpful. That’s why the festival is always such a success.

This year I did two talks and readings from my books. It all went very well and we had fun. My other event was with the amazing writer and author of our latest book Nicola Davies. Just look at this photo of us taken by Chris Close. Chris is is the photographer who’s funny and beautiful pictures are always hanging in the festival. He is also a very nice guy to talk to. Look at his work on his website!

It was the very first time that Nicola and I have done a talk together. Nicola knows so much about animals and nature.  I could listen to her for ever.

My part in our event was to show some sketches, talk briefly about the illustrations and draw some animals on stage as Nicola was talking. It was great fun, though quite  challenging.The pictures were not too bad considering that I had only a couple of minutes to do them. Frank won a chameleon.

This little boy got an ostrich and an ice-cream, but the ice-cream was probably from his grandma.

It was a nice couple of days in Edinburgh. I’m looking forward to the next time!