There’s more to visual appeal than we think. This blog tells us how to create appealing characters without resorting to cliche, genericism and stereotype.
Read More
We arrive at awe and beyond during moments of thrill, or fright, or delight or elation, where our mind is temporarily stilled, even if just for a split second, and we enter a thought-free zone.
Read More
To create compelling illustrations, we must understand how awe is triggered.
Read More
When we feel stale in our creative endeavours, fixing it isn’t a matter for more discipline of doing, it’s a case for embracing the discipline of being. Of sinking into our unselfconscious selves. Of accessing our shoot-from-the-hip selves who don’t care if no one reads us, views us, listens to us. Of becoming our best genius selves.
Read More
Impressing a publisher with your picture-book portfolio takes more than knowing how to make a picture book.
Read More
Can we teach a old dog new tricks (or an old illustrator new styles)? Not always necessary - look at John Burningham and Helen Oxenbury - but sometimes new tricks are a good idea.
Read More
Here’s how to make your editor cry (if they had time).
Here is also how to make the path smoother for your editor as they grapple with the process of turning your story into the best book possible.
Read More
There are as many ways to start writing a story as there are people who set about writing one.
Some writers start writing because they have been inspired by a setting, some begin with a ‘what if’, some with a character, some with an overheard phrase, some with a philosophy, some with a moment, an object, a loss, a gain, a spark of insight, a protracted life-changing experience.
Read More
I bought a notebook to try and overcome blogger’s block, and so I wrote a blog about that.
Read More
Incorporating fundamental folk-art elements into your work can transform a generic image into a distinctive and original picture-book illustration.
Read More
If you want to write a great picture-book story, you need to know the details of what it means to have a good cry.
Read MoreWhen it comes to illustration, understanding why we see what we see, and how we respond to what we see, provides us with the tools for attracting and holding our readers’ attention.
Read More
The art of narrative illustration has many similarities with the art of Bonsai.
Read More
Why we should read our children more fairy tales … and the stranger and rarer the tales we read, the better.
Read More
Chris van Allsberg is a master of linear perspective, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to be.
Read More
If you want to make your illustration gripping and memorable, pay attention to the shadows.
Read More
We all know the truism that a picture is worth a thousand words. The question is, which thousand words will your illustration tell? This blog considers four ways an illustrator can go astray, plus four tips to help stay on track.
Read More
Where you place your horizon in an illustration can make all the difference to the emotional impact of your image. Whole visual narratives can be told through horizon placement alone.
Read More
Clouds can make a massive difference to the emotion of an illustration. This blog post tells you how NC Wyeth did it.
Read More