I am obviously not that hot on blogging but in a vague attempt to look as though I am on top of things over here at MCD I thought I’d do a brief overview of past few months. I’ve had another book come out POP! a popcorn based picture book, I’ve had my second BEANO BOOK come out, plus the long awaited London Transport Museum kids guide has come out. I’ve also done a second edition of the REWIRE magazine and a colourful logo for an LA based telecine company.
I do quite a few book covers for Unicorn Publishing and here are a recent three.
I’ve just designed a magazine for comms company Hanover. Issue one has just come out just about to start on Issue 2.
It came as quite a surprise to find out that the second Captain Looroll book was coming out on Jan 4th as I hadn’t started art working it in August! But here is it!
I had a wonderful time last weekend at the Primadonna Festival in Suffolk dressed as a toilet roll. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Sometimes I wonder what a ridiculous life I lead!
Lovely news that Rhinocorn Rules! has been selected to appear in the legendary centre aisle at my favourite German supermarket! Aldi ordered a special hardback version for sale at a very cheap price to help get kids reading!
I’ve just pretty much finished the artwork for Captain Looroll, my most ridiculous book yet! It’s out next April.
Infographic style range for Royal Museums Greenwich.
I’ve got two new paperback picture books out! Ginny’s Big Adventure tells the story of Ginny the guinea pig who escapes from her pet shop to find a new home where she can be herself! Dave and Greta Make The World Better! is about two friends who prove that little things can make a big difference when it comes to climate change!
It’s been a busy old time here at MCD towers. Lots of book work and the usual other bits and bobs. It was nice to have a couple of jobs from radio presenter Shaun Keaveny who is setting up various podcasts after leaving BBC Radio 6 Music.
Just done some of the posters for the cycling section of the brilliant BBC Olympics Trailer. It’s not on it for that long but it’s better than nothing!
My new book Now Go To Sleep! which is a rhyming follow up to Now Wash Your Hands! is out in May. It features Mrs Moo and introduces Shirley Sheep (Head of Sleep) who helps the kids get to sleep as they are knackered cos they stay up too late due to various reasons.
Doctorpus Doris was thrilled to learn that Waterstones had put her in their list of ‘Best Picture Books of 2020! Such an honour to be alongside some really great books. The link is here
Late last was asked to create two children’s books for the charity Young Enterprise as part of their Money Heroes program which helps young kids learn about money. I think I was asked mainly because I turned the ‘Now Wash Your Hands!’ book around in a month and the deadline on them was ridiculously tight. Anyway after much thought I came up with Ed & Bunny. Ed is a sort of sensible squirrel and Bunny is a less sensible Rabbit. They are best friends and sort of help each other, but Ed is slightly more prudent shall we say so he helps Bunny to learn about not wasting money. The irony of me doing books about money is not lost on me as I am horrendous with money!
Over the years I’ve done quite a few prop bits for ads and telly and some of them have ended up in prop houses and every now and again you are watching something and you see a bit of your artwork. The other day I was watching ‘Official Secrets’ with Keira Knightly and Ralph Fiennes (I wasn’t watching it with them, they are in it). Anyway Keira spends a hell of a lot of time sat on her sofa and behind her is one of my fake French movie posters I did years ago.
Allstate are an American Insurance company and late last year I was asked to do the graphics for the space suits and space rover for one of their adverts. Obviously it was a joy to do and always nice to see your graphics on the moon! I gave them lots of options as designing space patches has got to be up there as far as dream graphics jobs go. You can watch the ad here
It’s been quite a few months since my last blog entry. A few things have happened graphics / books wise. I finished the 28th and what I think could be the last Biographic book. They have taken up a lot of my last few years and I’m really proud of them. I have also been busy making kids books on top of my usual work. It seems that graphics is pandemic proof (obviously when you are on your own working out of the back of your kitchen and not getting paid much!) Anyway to follow this post will be some of what i’ve been up to with pics!
Just out at the London Transport Museum is a range of merchandise based on the beautiful London Transport Posters of yesteryear (love that word) When I came up with the obvious pun tranSPORT it caused quite a stir with the branding department and took quite a while to get approved! You can buy them here! https://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk
Over the Covid lockdown lots of illustrators did draw a long videos which I was a bit nervous about doing because drawing live on camera isn’t my forte! Anyone who has been to one of my events and seen my hilarious attempts at drawing my book characters will attest to! Also rhinoceroses are really hard to draw! But in the end I did a film for Booktrust! you can watch it here! I speeded some bits up to make it less boring! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZYCM9iAxzk
It’s been a busy time for Biographic Books I’ve just finished Beethoven, Prince and Abba with The Beatles, Bob Marley, Bowie and Hendrix already out there its got quite a few music titles now. Altogether there are 28 now!
