Books

Oh Crumbs Rodney

This picture book is about a bumbling blue bear called Rodney. Little Tiger Press asked me to write a story for him after they saw his character in my portfolio. Rodney is a loveable bear who is very accident prone in the kitchen, which we see when he attempts to make a special birthday meal for his neighbour, Rita the Bear! The story is very visual and slapstick so the pictures came before the words. When starting a book I always draw out a mini version to help me to plan the story line and page content. This helps me to show the publisher how I would like the book to look and it can be easily altered too. Rodney was great fun to draw and is definitely a colourful character for children to laugh at.

How Long Did it Take to Draw?

I was given a short deadline of two months to finish the artwork for a big book fair in Europe, which I managed. Phew! I have to take regular breaks to stop my eyes becoming like moles eyes! It took me about a week to draw out the final pictures neatly in pencil crayon onto A2 paper and then weeks to paint them all. All the brightly coloured backgrounds in the book were filled in by computer at a later stage so I saved a lot of paint! Unfortunately the book didn't get published which was sad but these things happen! I use Rodney in my portfolio now and I got paid for all my hard work!