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!