If you have 9:52 minutes to spare, have a listen to my reading of The Frank Show in this short film complete with pictures from the book. And that’s it. Plain and simple.
The little film will be available for a short time only on the site. If you’d like to hear a terrific reading try the official audio book read by the actor/author Stephen Mangan.
You can see here a short video I made about making a storyboard for a book. It will only take 3 minutes, but making a storyboard can take much longer than that and that’s not a bad idea.
Before I storyboard something, I will probably have written the story down as words. But this isn’t always the case because I often find the story by working within the storyboard by drawing. It’s a chicken-and-egg situation and every book is different.
There’s an earlier film about how to make a book dummy, which would be the next step in the process for me once I have a storyboard and text layout I’m satisfied with.
The police have been involved.
My picture book Marshall Armstrong is New To Our School was published in 2011, and this year Danish actor Sira Stampe did a very fine reading of it. She even dressed the part in a jumper reminiscent of the first edition’s dust jacket.
I first saw Sira acting in 1998 in a production of The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley, in the theatre above the Drayton Arms pub in South Kensington. Oddly, that play has similarities to Marshall Armstrong: a strange, outside influence effecting a status quo. I’m pleased to have her read this book all these years later. Personally, I don’t know how she can keep a straight face, but that’s what makes it a good performance I guess.
Sira illustrates books too, but she can also play the saw.
Thanks Sira!
Are you sitting comfortably? Sira Stampe reads Marshall Armstrong is New To Our School.
Typical house style in Worcestershire, England.
Collage added 22nd April 2021. Drawing unknown.
In the days before digital photography, I made this picture of my corner of the studio with a painting in progress. It is an acrylic on canvas and is from a series of landscapes with figures in them. I don’t remember anything about this one, though I know I don’t know where it is now.
I remember it was satisfying to work on a large scale after concentrating so much on pen and ink drawings on paper, sitting at a desk. I don’t like acrylic paint so much. In the hot climate the paint would dry very quickly (something I liked about watercolour and ink) and I soon changed to oil paint.
I can recommend drum thrones to all painters.
Joseph Banks the botanist and naturalist sure travelled a lot. He wrote a lot of letters too. I bet he wished he could draw and paint, but he had artists pictorialise his specimens for him. He’d have to give them some descriptive ‘colour’ to help because the specimens they were using for reference would have been a little dull by the time he returned from his voyages.
These covers are for a selection of his written work:
190 x 130mm TPS, jacketed hardbacks; various extents.
You may have your own bespoke, handmade, original, non-fungible 25mm button badge by contacting me through email or Instagram. I’ll post it anywhere in the world it needs to be. Each original is only £15. Be in the ‘IN’ crowd with one of your own button badges. Suitable for all seasons and either hemisphere.
Cold Cream 25mm button badge. Red ink and black ink on white paper.
I’m speaking (online) at Nottingham Trent University (Illustration and Graphic Design post and undergraduates) on Wednesday 10th March. It’s an informal talk about book design and planning a long-form visual narrative, and generally about making a book: typography, the print process and the publishing process. I’ll also discuss my practice as a freelancer and author of my own books. There’s plenty time to ask questions too. I hope you can join us.
