Dragon v Dinosaur! Published Today!

The Little Witch with an Itch...has a brother! 

Out today, the second magical story by author Helen Baugh. I was thrilled to illustrate the next tale of The Witch with an Itch. Now we have even more explosive spells in Dragon v Dinosaur. It's bursting with extraordinary transformations. 

The new story introduces a wizard brother, the little witch's twin! Brimming with rhyming fun, this time it's about sibling rivalry with the power of magic spells firing up the competition stakes, the conjuring creates a variety of exciting transformations. Ultimately the terrible two must work out their magic might and get with their imagination to save the day - and themselves!

This spells double trouble!

Here's a peek at some of the character sketches. 

New Book!

Doctor Molly's Medicine Case!

Here is Doctor Molly! She has the best medicine case ever and it has to be said that there's something quite magical at work - again - in my latest work published by the good people at Walker books and written by the fantastic Miriam Moss. 

This story opens a world of imagination where Doctor Molly can find the perfect cure for her patients with the help of the reader. The magic of the medicine case is that it is stuffed to the depths with potential cures. Cures that can make you laugh, or cured with a song to forget that you're feeling out of sorts. All is possible, but then Doctor Molly can find the best cure of all for her toys.

Once Miriam and I agreed on the main characters, the real work began! Little Doctor Molly went through some development from the original roughs where she had various hair styles and wore glasses, then settling on the distinctive hair band which interchanged with her doctor's costume. Even though I have some experience painting for novelty books, this one proved to be quite complex, getting the page turns and flaps to balance nicely! Here are some early roughs.

A sneezing polar bear arrives as Doctor Molly's first patient. I kept the backdrop very minimal ( for me! ) soft hues painted in water colour for the cure scenes.

What is inside that Case?!

A cure for any rainy day!

The contents of Dr. Molly's case changes with each animal patient. I included a whole collection of play things that I loved as a child...Balloons, Binoculars, glitter glue and small shiny things kept in tiny boxes. Of course I still have an over stuffed drawer in my studio with many of these items.

A further reading link from Miriam and me here on the Walker Picture Book Party blog 

Magic works for any age

The Witch with an Itch worked its spell on the classes at Northwold Primary School. Once they started drawing they just couldn't stop!

Get ready, DRAW!

With the many school visits come the planning and preparation - How to present the next book. I really enjoy taking my books to the different year groups in each school and discovering what the kids make of the characters and story telling. A big part of my visit is setting the scene for some creativity to burst forth. By the end of the class there's a bustling energy and flurry of artworks produced!

Thomas Primary School London

World Book Day

World Book day no longer fits into just one day. Now it's more like World Book Month! Which is a great thing, as children, schools and libraries around the globe get stuck into their best reads and favourite story characters.
I took my latest title Witch with an Itch to some lively classrooms and these are some of the results. Big, bold, colourful drawings and magical spells.
Hubble Bubble! From Kingsmead Primary School.

The Littlest Witch casts her spells

Published today! The Witch with an Itch written by Helen Baugh is a funny and intriguing, rhyming tale about a bold little witch and her first encounters with magic. We see her skipping through the Little Witch school gates, freshly qualified with wand poised to make her mark on the world.  Everything seems right but as the first spell is cast the magic backfires and despite word perfect incantation the spell goes wrong!
Nature features largely throughout this story and for me it was a pleasure to illustrate the shade dappled woodland and its bustling traffic of insects and other small slimy creatures not normally given much attention. We tiptoe behind the little witch with her trail of wrong spells and increasingly explosive clouds of colourful magic where finally, in fits of frustration and comic anger she has a dramatic realisation! 
Helen's story gave me plenty of challenges, fitting all the action into the layouts, even though the spreads are HUGE  thanks to the Jonathan Cape super large format and keeping the creatures appealing at that size - How do you make a newt look cute?! It has been a treat to work on this tale of human nature and animal magic. Here's some more art/sketches on what has kept me very busy these past weeks.