OFFSET

Myself and Chris Haughton chat about books, tents and children's publishing at OFFSET 2010

Missing Picture Book Characters after Easons Event?

The David O'Callaghan rounds up the Illustration Easons Bash...

'Mass Doodling from the Audience! 3 Sad Tales of Loneliness (perfect for kids), one of a Cow 'n Chicken Thelma & Louise (and we all know how that ended) .. and An OWL RUG that made peeps go OOOOOHHH ! Yep, another nite at the Eason mothership = Happy Happy Times ! Thanx to Niamh, David (NOT The David), Chris & Chris.'

It was really lovely to meet some of the Mums and Dads who brought their kids along that night. And a great turn out from the IGI! Thank you also to Caoilfhionn who did an excellent job on the poster for the event!

The Ravenous Beast really enjoyed his trip on the train, ate a few passengers on the way. There was breaking news that a Lonely Beast, some lost Owl and a bear called Douglas were missing after the event in the picture book dept. When questioned about the disappearance, the Ravenous Beast had no comment but belched loudly. MMM?

Come one come all!

Join Bisto winner Chris Haughton along with fellow children's book illustrators Chris Judge, David Melling and myself this Thursday at 6pm in Easons, O'Connell Street for an evening of Q&A & doodling! More info on Scamp and Easons.

We promise story telling, noodling and you-can-doodling. Open from age zero to infinity!

Tickets are FREE! So no excuses, g'wan now you know you can come.

Chris Haughton wins The Bisto!!!!

WOWSERS!!!! The Bisto Book of the Year Award goes to Chris Haughton’s A Bit Lost! And the Eilís Dillon award for a first children’s book goes to Chris too!!!! Huge congratulations to Chris, he is such an nice fella and its a wonderful book.

What a year for Picture Books! The Honour Award for Illustration went to Caitríona Hastings and Andrew Whitson’s Mac Rí Éireann. And The Special Judges Award to Oliver Jeffers’ Heart and the Bottle.

The Children’s Choice Award went to the lovely Sheena Wilkinson for Taking Flight.

David Maybury has all the scoop here on the new INIS site. And can I say what a delicious site it is too :)

Back to Earth....with a bang!

I'm back at my desk after the most amazing Easter Break ever. The weather has been really warm and sunny compared to our normal drizzle. I've been surfing, boogie boarding with my little surfers, picnicing in a 500BC stone fort, breaking a knitting world record, painting plein air, and X-sailing. I fell off my X-sail yesterday and landed on my head. My brain felt like a bowling ball sloshing around in my skull. Not good! Will have to get a helmet. Back to my inbox overflowing but it was so worth it. Apologies to all the no replies, I'll get there soon I promise. Hope you all had a great break?

May is looking like a great month for illustration. Look out for some of the amazing illustration events lined up. The fantastic folk at Easons are kicking off with an Illustration Evening (soirée) with David Melling, Chris Haughton, Chris Judge and myself. Should be an evening full of doodling and noodling. Event is ticketed (free!) and you can get tickets on the Easons site.

David Maybury is a dab hand in collage and photoshop... he's turned the two Chris's, David and myself in to an illustration machine!

Then there's The Bisto, the CBI Summer School Conference and National Drawing Day on the 28th. Hope to see you at some of these events!

Fabarooney Illustrations Everywhere!

It's been a fabarooney week for illustration! First off two Irish Illustrators Kevin Waldron and Chris Haughton were chosen as rising stars Book Trust Best New Illustrators Award 2011! Hurray! They are now going to spread the love as Picture Books Ambassadors. Anthony Browne has been everywhere this week telling everyone the good news too. There is a wonderful online gallery of the illustrators here.

The wonderful Polly Dunbar has been the BookTrust Writer in residence for the past 6 months. But she leaves today. I've really enjoyed looking at her doodles and mind noodling over the past few months. Polly has put together a yummy online book called Ideas Everywhere. Go see it's wonderful... Polly you make it look so easy :)

And there is a gorgeous slide tribute of the wonderful John Burningham on the Guardian. Oh what a fabarooney week!

Library Week, some doodles and The Bisto!

Happy Library week everyone! Enjoy this wonderful movie as part of the Library week celebrations.

It's been a busy few days for Books; what with World Book Day and World Book Night over the last week. Don't forget to spend your €1.50 tokens you got last Thursday. Mums and Dads they could be rolled up in a hairy ball at the bottom of the school bag! There are some wonderful videos of the authors reading on the World Book Day Site here.

Huge congrats also to my fellow Walker Books picture book makers Kevin Waldron and Chris Haughton on the Bisto Shortlist. It's great to see so many picture Books on the Bisto Shortlist. 5 out of 10 titles are Picture books!

On a sobering note, Mags Walsh of CBI in the Irish Times, calls out for the new government to reinstate the school book grant to schools and libraries. She says the abolition of the grant two years ago has "fundamentally affected access to books for kids who don't have access to books at home".

The Irish Book Awards!

On The Road with Mavis and Marge won The DAA Children’s Book of the Year!!!! I am thrilled!!!! Thank you so, so much to all my friends and family from all over the world who voted for Mavis and Marge. Thank you especially to Walker Books!!!!!

We had the best night...

at the best table,

with the best Sarah!

The best Mo!

We even had two Bonds...Conor and Chris!

The brilliant Jo!

The lovely Robert Dunbar and my totally rocking deadly designer Deirdre!

We had the wonderful Jane Harris!

The fabulous Susan!

And of course the best rep in the universe! (Conor Hackett!)

And a very, very late night :)

HURRAY!

Owl, Chicken & Cow Book Tour!

The uber talented Walker Books rep Conor Hackett brought myself and Chris Haughton on a whirlwind book signing session to eleven stores yesterday. I am still dizzy!

We had a great day, it was so wonderful to meet all the brilliant booksellers in Dublin who do trojan work all year around. I really appreciate all the support they have given to me over the years. We got a really lovely welcome in all stores.

Here's are some of the highlights...

The Chris, the owl, the giraffe, the Niamh, the chicken, the cow.

Blocking escalators...

ouch Chris may never draw again...

Ahh! Crimbo owl tree...

Yum!

Walker Books window at Hodges Figgis, Dublin!

Take your own picture, post on Facebook or Twitter and Conor Hackett promises to send you a free print from Tiny Little Fly signed by Kavin Waldron!

The Dublin Airport Authority Children's Competition

Ever dreamed of dark forests, talking squirrels or midnight escapades under the light of a full moon?

If so, then put pen to paper, the DAA has launched a writing competition where you have to imagine what happens in Chris Haughton’s picture above.

Get scribbling!

OFFSET 2010

OFFSET 2010 was really inspirational, a fantastic conference. The dedication and attention to detail that Richard Seabrooke, Bren B and Peter O’Dwyer brought to the event was outstanding.

There was a really lovely atmosphere all weekend; international legends, new talent, illustrators, animators, photographers and designers mingled with each other over coffees and chats. It was great to put names to faces; I thought that the IGI had a really strong presence. It made me proud to be part of a community that is really vibrant and positive. It is up to us to shape the future and as Steven Heller says not to create BORING work.

A recurrent theme over the weekend was how much the whole design world has been shook up, namely by that box in the corner, 'THE INTERNET'. Refreshing to hear that illustrators (Nate Williams Martin Haake) can live all over the world and also have clients form all over the world too. Illustrators are looking to different markets, branding, licensing. Things I never would of thought of before, but now my brain is overloaded!

On yes and tents. Myself and Chris Haughton realised that if you want to get into kids book first thing that you have to do it buy a cheap tent, nothing fancy. I signed my first book in a forest in Australia, while living in a tent. And Chris went to Bologna to find a home for A BIT LOST and also stayed in a ... tent!

And yes I am definitely suffering from POS (Post Offset Syndrome!) Can't wait til next year...