I started last week at the Imagine Festival at the South Bank Centre. I read there some of my books – Butterfly, Butterfly                                                      

Silly Suzy Goose    The Fly                     and Puffin Peter. 

But the main thing was the workshop. In fact I did two workshops. One in the morning and one after lunch. Both were well attended. About 30 children and me. I helped the children make little books about Puffin Peter. Here is a cover of one such book.

The book had just two pages. On Page 1 Peter is looking for his friend Paul. As in the book “Puffin Peter”, he  describes his friend as being black and white.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

On the second page is a surprise. Peter finds a black and white animal, but he is not Paul. Children came out with any animal which is black and white. It could be a killer whale, magpie, skunk, zebra…or panda.

I really enjoyed the workshop and it is quite interesting how many black & white animals exist. Here are some sketches of black and white animals from my sketch book.

I love tapirs. I think they are gorgeous.

Also some cows are black and white.

Here is a picture of two pandas. They get into a fight for a bit of bamboo.

I have also some zebras in my sketchbook.

This one is sleeping.

And this one is in the company of  a black and white panda and stripy tiger.

Oh yes, talking about zebras, here are two zebras from my book which is going to be published in the Spring.

Thinking about it, my very first book was about things which are black and white. Here is the cover of the book.

Of course, the book finished with a picture of ……a zebra.

My friend Clare, who makes lovely jewellery click here sent me a mug. The idea was for me to design some pictures for it. I loved the idea. Here are the images.

This one is based on a character from my book  Silly Suzy Goose. The penguins march around the mug and at the moment when you want to have a drink, Suzy pops into view.

I like this one because everybody can make up their own story.

And this picture is based on one of my older illustrations.

I like the decorativeness of this picture. I also like the contrast of black and white and the red.

The final idea is very colourful and abstract with plenty space for your imagination.

So that is what I was working on last week. I also visited Waterstones on Piccadilly in London. I was invited to draw Puffin Peter and also sign some books. Here is photo of me working hard.

It was the biggest picture of Puffin Peter I’d ever done. In fact, I did two of them that day and as you can see I enjoyed it, .

And this is how happy I was when I’d finished.

Lately I’ve been finishing off a mock-up of a picture book. It will now stay in my draw. I”ll see if I still like it after few weeks. If I do, I’ll show it to somebody.

In the story is a frog. I like drawing frogs. They are quite easy to draw once you sort out the legs. Here are some old sketches from the time when I hadn’t yet sorted out the legs.

I like animals (and people in fact) in situations when they are loosing control. They look so surprised. Animals are not used to being out of control. Here is a picture of a frog being out of control. It slipped on the stone.

This picture is from my book called “Doing Nothing”.

I have found some more sketches of frogs in my sketchbook. A  frog is having lunch.

“Princess and a Kiss.” The Princess is hoping that the frog is a Prince.

and the last picture is about jumping with a kangaroo.

I’m sure there are some very big frogs somewhere, but I also hope there are some rather small kangaroos somewhere too, otherwise the picture doesn’t make sense at all.

There are times when things do not go as they should.  I did this picture soon after my computer crashed. At the time it helped me calm down. By the way it’s not me in the picture, I hardly ever wear a tie. The picture describes my feelings at the time quite well.

This drawing, from my little sketchbook, looks like a sketch for the previous picture, but I did it some time later. Perhaps just to remind myself about the nice time I had by trying to cope with the bad mood I had at the time….you know what I mean.

Talking about moments when thing are not going according to plan – here is a man going to his office and around the corner something rather unpleasant is waiting for him.

Close up of “something rather unpleasant”.

On this picture it is me. It’s a sunny afternoon after lunch and I’m sitting in the armchair in our siting room and I’m hiding – pretending that I’m not there.

Here is me once more, but it’s me being much older. The picture is called ” I painted what I could”. That’s it for this week.

This is the cover of my book called “Puffin Peter”.

And here are some pictures from the book.

The book was published Spring 2011. Since then I haven’t drawn many puffins – not until last week.

Last week I was asked by the people at Puffin Post if I could do a drawing of a puffin for them. It was great opportunity to have another go with the character. Puffin Post wanted me to draw a single picture of a puffin, which will be reproduced and given to children who are shortlisted for a cover competition.

I did this picture for them.

Just as I was about to put the drawing into the envelope, I was called from my publisher Walker Books. They told me that Andrew, a really nice guy,  is leaving the publishers and they would like me to do him a picture.  Apparently he likes Puffin Peter very much.

So I started to draw the second picture of the puffin that week. It was like reliving the book again. I really enjoyed doing the picture for Andrew and I wish him lots of luck in his new job. This is Andrew’s Puffin.

Talking about puffins. I’m taking part in the “Imagine Festival” at Southbank Centre in London.
My events are on Monday 13th February. I will run a workshop where you can make your own small book about Puffin Peter. The first workshop is from 10.30am to 11.15  and the second workshop is from 1.pm to 2.pm. You are very welcome!

By the way I do love drawing birds. This one is probably my favourite bird character “Silly Suzy Goose”.

And here are some sketches from my little sketchbook.

“A white crow on Trafalgar Square”

“A very tall stork and a giraffe”

and maybe one more

“An old cat and a very old parrot”

Recently I found this amazing photo. Three hunters hunting a stuffed moose.

I love the photo very much and I love moose too, so I’ve been painting some.

In the original version of this picture I even had the three hunters. The picture was quite similar to the photo. I thought about calling the picture ” Moose and three stuffed hunters”, but the picture didn’t look right to me. The hunters didn’t look stuffed enough and it looked as if the moose wouldn’t stand a chance, so I changed it. I replaced the hunters for pine trees. It makes a happier image.

O.K. here is another moose and this time there is a hunter as well, but only one. I don’t mind the hunter this time. He is alone and it’s quite obvious he is going to miss. In fact the hunter doesn’t even try.

One more moose. I think moose are amazing animals and I wish I could do a book about one. One day. I think I will.

Well, I could paint moose all week, but I had to work as well, so apart from the boring bits as in paper work, I’ve been working on a mock up idea for my new book.

Without giving away too much I can say that the book is going to be about a tadpole.

Here are some early colour sketches.

This is just a pond and a starry night….

and this is a finished sketch.

Once again. This is how the picture started…

and the finished illustration.

There are more pictures to be done before I can show it to anybody, but I’m really enjoying working on the new ideas.

More pictures are coming!

The first week of the New Year is over. I have spent most of it by tiding up my computer, writing e-mails and sorting out bits and pieces. I also prepared papers for a new mock up. Simply, I’m still getting ready. I have also taken lots of photos of images from my sketchbooks.

I was quite impressed by how many of them are related to Red Riding Hood.

Here she is walking her dog through the forest.

The same picture painted on a very small canvas. Personally I prefer the sketch.

This is an older picture with Red Riding Hood.

And another one. I do these little sketches in a small sketchbook, which is always by my table. I do them whenever I feel like it. They are usually inspired by something I just heard on the radio, or by some image in a magazine or newspaper.

It looks like a picture of a deer, but there is also Red Riding Hood. There, in the background.

Somebody fell asleep in the wood. It could easily be Red Riding Hood. Can you see the deer too?

House in the Wood. Is this the house where the granny lives? I don’t know.

This is the last picture. It looks like Red Riding Hood, but it’s not. The girl’s name is Lucy and she is a character from my book “Butterfly, Butterfly”. She didn’t quite make it into the book, so she is left over.  The wolf is from my book “Look Out Suzy Goose”. He didn’t make it into the book either, so I’ve  joined these two together. The title of the picture could be “Lucy and the Wolf”.

Wolf: “Tell me where your granny lives.”

Lucy: “I’m not telling you anything. Who do you think I am? Red Riding Hood?”

More pictures next week!

Hello everybody and welcome to my new blog!

This blog is my New Year’s Resolution.  From now on I’m planning to write every week something…..interesting. OK it’s maybe  too ambitious, so let’s say that every week, I’ll write something about my work and every week I will show some of the sketches or pictures I’m working on.
The new year has only just started, so here is one of my older pictures The Jump. I think it symbolizes “launching’ (the launching of the new blog) quite well.
I’m wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
Petr