Mr Sleepyhead

Mr Sleepyhead rough concepts

After completing a 32 page picture book for a competition in 2020, I had decided to do a smaller children's book in page number count. The main reason, that I would have a quicker turnaround time to complete the book. 

 

Therefore this book will be 13 pages of an actual story. This doesn't include things like the title page, dedication page and other pages that will need to be added.

 

I won't go into the story at this stage other than to say, its to do with a sleepy bear who needs to go to bed.

Mr Sleepyhead - Concept 1

There is only one main character, a bear.

I saw him as a classic looking bear. The look of the bear was derived from my extensive collection of pre-loved books, from such great illustrators as JP Miller, Mary Blair and Maurice Sendak. 

Research ideas for Mr Sleepyhead

Concept 1 model

Hope to put up some more for Mr Sleepyhead soon :) Thanks for visiting.

A New Journey

In 2020, during the Pandemic, lots of things were down, the job market for one thing. Finance was tight. I am sure like a lot of people, it was an incredibly hard time. Out of work, countless submission's of CV's and cover letters later, I took some time out, to do a children's book challenge. At first it seemed counter-intuitive. What, do a month long book challenge whilst your out of work? What about the bills? Your family? These things weighed heavily on me. But, I had to do this challenge.

 

So what happened? A seed of change begun. I started to ask myself, what am I trying to say in my art? What do I really value? See, I have been doing fan art for years. And I really do love this stuff. But I was starting to question the longevity of it. How could I possibly entertain creating this type of art and make money from it? It wasn't my original art to sell, and it just didn't feel right to do so.

I was in a calder-sac, a dead end. I was lost.

 

Now on holiday, Christmas of 2020, with my beautiful wife and daughter, in Wellington. Just rocking around a mall, I happened to come across this pop-up second hand bookshop. The books are free. Crazy, right?  Shuffling through a stack of books, I came across one I hadn't seen in years.

Copyright Maurice Sendak

Where the Wild Things Are.

Sure it was tattered, had marks and dog-eared pages. But I didn't care. I loved this book. The story, the colors, the monsters. Max in his sailing boat. Pure bliss.

Here is where it started to make sense to me. Children's books. I have always loved Children's books.

Why had I not put two and two together? Slow learner I guess.

 

Fast forward to 2022, and my collection of Maurice Sendak books has grown. Also, I have now amassed quite a sizeable quantity of pre-loved classic children's books. Classics by the likes of Bill Peet, Dr Seuss, and Golden Books (mainly 1950's to 1970's), as examples. 

 

And, I have finally returned to the drawing board. Wanting to craft my own children's book.

 

In my next post, I will hope to update my tentative beginnings, of this adventure. 

I imagine that going forward, this blog will start to change too. Not sure what that means at the moment, but I do welcome the new journey.

Copyright Maurice Sendak

Apologies for the word count in this post.

Thank you for popping on in. Take care.

Attitude with Gratitude

 

Lately I have been trying to adopt an attitude of gratitude. 

To stop, observe, and take in things, which though may seem small, are actually amazing gifts.

Just this weekend past, I was having some daddy-time with my daughter, hanging out in the botanical gardens. 

Such a beautiful place.

And my daughter, so full of life. Adventurous, sassy, determined. And always up for a giggle. How lucky am I?

I am learning to be more grateful.

Indiana & Bear illustration

 

This was an image that I inked up from an initial inktober drawing I did, over the 30 day drawing challenge. I wanted to see how I could push an image in a direction that might 'inspire' a story, possibly.

I also wanted to explore how different color schemes can evoke different feelings for your characters. These above images are just some examples.

What follows below are three images, rendered slightly differently. 

I ended up choosing the 3rd image. 

To see my inkotober challenge, click here 

As always, thanks for visiting. Take care

Love that Vinyl

 

Something I try to do often, is listen to music, and specifically on my Crosley Coupe Turntable. There is something magical about the experience found whilst listening to vinyl. 

Thanks to my beautiful wife for finding this record player, its been such a treat.