Here comes the SUN....

To celebrate being part of this fabulous blog tour Little Sniffer and I decided to make a picnic tea inspired by some of the things we spotted in Sun the latest seasonal delight from illustrator and author Sam Usher. 

The first little chap to catch our eye was the charming little green parrot on the front cover. With his delightful green plumage and perky yellow beak he leant himself perfectly to a fabulously fruity Crudités creation!

We collected together as many different coloured fruits and vegetables as we could find and made this technicolour treat! complete with mango beak, pepper plumage, a nectarine tummy, apple face and a tiny black bean for an eye, as you can see he's perched quite magnificently on a strange branch of basil. Mini Sniffers verdict, a BIG thumbs up. 

And now for something a bit more substantial!

Next to catch our eye this groovy looking chimp. Immediately we had a "Monkey Bun" in mind. So we set to work chopping snipping and shaping all of our favourite  ingredients and fashioning them in to what I think you will agree is a rather marvellous looking sandwich! 

We forgot to make a bow tie! 

Olives for nostrils, eggs for eyes (with obligatory black bean pupils) BIG green cucumber ears, a pepper mouth with a goofy ham tongue.... all in all quite unexpectedly delicious. 

Now for Little Monkey's favourite part of any meal, picnic or otherwise. 

Time of pudding! We were quite taken by the magnificent glittering sandcastle on the cover and Little Sniffer is unusually partial to jelly so we made a passionfruit jelly pot complete with sand made from crunched up biscuits. 

I hardly had time to photograph this particular component of our picnic as it was gobble up in a flash.  

REVIEW 

We have always been huge fans of this beautifully illustrated series of picture books, first the wintery delight which was Snow, then the atmospheric triumph which was Rain and now a scorching celebration of sunshine Sun. 

            

                                     

Sun is nothing short of a triumph, beaming with illustrative charm and unashamedly revelling in traditional storytelling with nothing but joy and adventure at it's core. I always delight in the beautiful intuitive depiction of the relationship between a boy and his grandfather in these books and this one in particular radiates love and friendship at it's most pure. The gentle evolution of the story is told so cleverly by at first the most subtle of detail, gently unfolding as heat parched landscapes dominate the pages. You'll never guess who boy and his grandfather unexpectedly chance upon. 

Hold on to your sun hats the almost unbelievable adventure which is about to unfold...

BUY A COPY HERE 

FOLLOW SAM ON TWITTER 

CHECK OUT THE OTHER STOPS WITH OUR BLOGGER CHUMS 

FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. 

How to draw Squirrel & Mole by Ciara Flood

To celebrate the publication of Ciara Flood's fabulously delicious second picture book with Templar Publishing 'The Perfect Picnic'  we have an amazing step by step guide to drawing your very own Mole and Squirrel! 

We'd love toy see your doodles so do tweet us @maybeswabey @TinyFlood! - Have fun! Happy sketching. 

Buy a copy of the book here! 

Templar Summer Blog Tour with Helen Hancocks!

We are OVER THE MOON to be able to welcome fantabulous illustrator extrodinaire and star of the show  Helen Hancocks to the Book Sniffer blog today as we em'bark' on a week long summer blog tour with some of our very favourite blog buddies. 

As Helen's latest picture book masterpiece
'William Heads to Hollywood' hits the bright lights of the high street book store we are thrilled to be able to share with you an exclusive insight into how this book was created, Helens inspirations and a little bit about the elusive REAL William! 
What a treat. Slap on some lippy and a feather boa, we are about to set off towards the hollywood hills! BUCKLE UP!

William is very excited to be on the Booksniffer blog, not just because he wants to swap tips on cravats and bow ties, but also show you behind the scenes of his second book -  William Heads to Hollywood.  

 The story was partially inspired by this set of photos from LIFE magazine of lots of black cats queuing to audition for a film. William was very taken with the photos, he thinks he has the perfect airs and graces of any old classic movie star so it seemed the perfect setting for book two. Although I did have the idea for William hitting Hollywood long before Missing Masterpiece hit the printing press, it just took awhile to get the idea down.

It went through a lot of changes to get to the book you see today. Some of the ideas I had didn’t work out but I may use them in something else in the future, who knows.
I watch a lot of films (if you are interested I write a monthly post on my blog about what I have seen each month)  But here are a few films I watched that stood out in helping inform some aspects of the book. 

The Purple Rose Of Cairo, Sunset Boulevard, Paris When It Sizzles, The Big Sleep, Blazing Saddles, The Third Man, Singin in The Rain, 8 1/2, Bringing Up Baby.

This photo of the Disney Canteen and the MGM lion were also pinned up on my wall whilst working on the book. 

One scene/page of the book I had thought about including from day one was the party scene, after watching Paris when it sizzles I had a bit of an obsession of fitting a party scene in to some art work some how 

It was an excuse to go a bit crazy with costumes and things. William especially liked the idea too - he was very keen on mingling with the stars. Below is a few photos, from a very small initial thumbnail through to the painting of the party scene. So many fun things to spot in this page too. You may notice the Hollywood sign in these photos - but you may wonder why it isn’t in the book - well what I didn’t know and only found out once I had sent off the art work was the sign is copyrighted! Who would have thought?! 

Although this is one of my favourite spreads it is also the one that caused the most anguish in creating it - so much detail (my own fault) and a tight deadline, equaled  a random shakey hand and many tears. But I think it was worth it. I am just a little sad that the perfect Jelly I drew ended up in the page fold - I was so annoyed when I discovered that would happen. That and the fact i forgot to paint on Williams whiskers! shh don’t tell anyone.

The Hockney documentary came out just before I started painting up the art work, I think his use of colour rubbed of on me and helped to inspire the California feel. 

I always try and keep a sheet of paper to try out the colours before committing them to work, its like an extra bit of work. I also wipe my brushes on rags/kitchen roll and found they create nice textures too. 

Most of the time I never mix up enough for the big areas! But I do like the texture, tone and brush marks this can lead to. I use gouache paint and I think it has a mind of its own - i haven’t quite worked out if I am using it properly. oh well, sometimes the best bits are the result of happy mistakes.

I also use pencils to map out the page, i have just got in to using mechanical pencils, they are very pleasing to use. Also a rubber to rub everything out when it all goes wrong - it always means theres a lot of eraser lint to vacuum up afterwards. 

I hope you all enjoy Williams latest adventure, he is off to have some prawns and a cat nap - its hard work being an international cat of mystery!
In the mean time I thought I would leave you with a picture of what I am currently working on....

Don't forget to stop by and check out the other stops on the tour which are listed in the banner on the right hand side of this page! 

Buy a copy of 'William Heads to Hollywood' HERE 

THANK YOU Templar Publishing for organising this. 

HUGE thanks to Helen Hancocks (and William) 

for taking part. FOLLOW HELEN ON TWITTER @helenhancocks 

Review: Olive and the Embarrassing Hat by Tor Freeman

I have been an over enthusiastic fan of Olive since she first appeared on my book shelf in 'Olive and the BIG Secret' , since then I have been thrilled and delighted by Olive and her menagerie of mates on three occasions secondly in 'Olive and the Bad Mood' and now in perhaps my favourite Olive adventure thus far in 'Olive and the Embarrassing Hat' 

In this joyful exploration of the outer limits of friendship Olive is given a rather outlandish hat by her best pal Joe. Together they wear their matching hats but Olive becomes increasingly self conscious and in a fit of embarrassment discards her precious gift. 

Will Joe EVER forgive Olive and how can Olive possibly make it up to her best friend? 

A beautifully written cleverly observed story about being proud of who you are and treasuring your friends. 

Tor is an intuitive and imaginative storyteller and her use of a joyous eye boggling technicolor palette really bring these beautiful books to life. Each of these stories subtly broaches themes and 'emotions' many parents of young children will be very familiar with and can be used to discuss these in a non confrontational, indirect and enjoyable way. 

Great stories to read in a group with lots of opportunity to invent funny voices for each of these hilarious characters. 

Utterly purrrfect, a fantastic feline triumph of the highest order! 

Bravo! Encore Olive, see you again soon we hope. 

PUBLISHING IN AUGUST 

PRE ORDER YOUR COPY NOW! 

Follow Tor on Twitter @tormalore

Visit her website here 

Levi Pinfold - creator of Greenaway WINNING picture book, Black Dog

Book Sniffer EXCLUSIVE ...

We are utterly thrilled to be able to present to you dearest Sniffers,
Illustrator Levi Pinfold's top #scribbletips
As an award-winning author and illustrator of the highest calibre it was an utter privilege to listen to him speak about the process behind creating these works of art which eventually become beautiful picture books to treasure. (Video to follow shortly)

Here are Levi's top tips...

1/ Draw things that you like – I used to love drawing superheroes (and Marshmallow Man)

2/ Observation is key, really look at the things you are drawing…

3/ Don't confine yourself to a sketchbook – draw on anything, big sheets of paper are very liberating.

4/ Try different mediums – I love using Egg tempera.

5/ Break things down into simple steps then you can draw anything.

6/ Colour effects your mood – be creative with it.

7/ Just doodle – it's quite relaxing
Every challenge is an opportunity and every opportunity is a challenge.

8/ Think about the object you are trying to draw as a collection of shapes.

9/ Look back at old sketch books for inspiration.

10/ Experiment with formats – panoramas are a unique way of working.

Now get doodling!

Thank you to delightfully dishy and utterly inspirational Levi and of course the charming folk at Templar Publishing for letting me come along and meet the man himself. You can follow Templar on Twitter @templarbooks to find out more.

Levi is also on Twitter so seek him
out @LeviPinfold

#Scribbletips
#LeviPinfold
#greenaway2013