Characters on the lose!

I've started formatting my book so that I have a clear idea of the illustrations I need and where they appear. My computer has chosen this week to start playing up! When I try to 'insert' a picture it inserts an empty box - I'm beginning to wonder if computers have a sense of humour - if so, this one has a warped one!!

Or maybe the characters have gone off for a little sortie of their own, and vanished without a trace... I think I need to round them up and get them printed and bound into a book before they cause too much trouble. If they get into my 'doodle file' and interact with the characters from the doodle series anything could happen!

Coming together at last...

I've now made a start on the final illustrations for the book, so after endless random sketches it's all starting to come together. The last few pages are not yet written, but then some of the characters are sheep - and they're a bit unruly. Every book needs some mischievous characters, this one seems to have a flock of them!

Another sale in the US

I've just checked my author section on the Trafford website and found that another Monster Under The Bed book has sold in the US!

I was over in Canada last week skiing, and even having a go at some off road driving, but now I must get back to work on my book, this year seems to be running away with itself already. Why do I always have more things to do than I can ever fit in?

A new picture book

Well I've lost a few weeks to a bad case of flu, but even through the fog of flu remedies I've managed to get a bit done on my new picture book. I've got a first draft written, and some illustrations done. I'm doing the text and pictures together with this one, as I did with my first picture book 'The Monster Under The Bed' as the two need to evolve together.

When working on pictures I find that I do a lot of sketches before I finally 'meet' my character face to face, then I have to practice drawing the same character with different expressions. Often new dialogue with come once the characters have a face and their characters start to take shape.