Frog and Frog

I started this week at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. The festival is always well organised and a great event to take part in.

I had a brilliant audience and I decided to read my new book “Blue Penguin” even though it’s not been officially published yet. I was quite surprised when during the book signing people had brought the book with them. Waterstones  in Cheltenham managed to get a couple of copies early. How exciting!

On Tuesday I was in London signing 200 copies of “Blue Penguin”. I always do a little drawing in to the book and it took me almost two hours. Together with a couple of meetings it was a rather busy day.

Since then it was just about painting frogs. I’m talking about the picture for Nicola Davies’s “My First Book of Animals”

Here is the original sketch. Very colourful poison frogs.

Since the first sketch the text has changed and we included another three species. Just doing the research and watching documentaries about frogs takes time. They are so fascinating!

Here is the final illustration (minus the text of course).The tadpoles of Poison Dart frogs stick to mucus on the backs of their parents. In the upper reaches of the rainforest trees, the parents deposit their young in pools of water that accumulate in plants.

I had a feeling that I must have drawings of frogs in my sketchbooks.

This frog is having lunch.This frog is reaching the moon.This one is a great swimmer.This one loves fish.This frog is being hunted and this one is jumping with a kangaroo.If you see a frog wearing a crown and you happen not to be already engaged or married, just kiss it.

Oh yes, look what my publisher did for me to promote the latest book “The Mouse Who Reached the Sky”. Isn’t it nice?