I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO CALL MY CAT - guest blog with Simon Philip and Ella Bailey

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I am beyond thrilled to be able to welcome the creators of one of my favourite new picture books to the Book Sniffer blog today. 

I Don't Know What to Call my Cat by Simon Philip and Ella Bailey (published by the good folk at Simon and Schuster) is a wildly funny and deliciously charming celebration of the somewhat "challenging" relationship humans often have with their feline companions.

A madcap case of identity confusion, power struggles, daring escapes and mystery solving, wrapped up in the most purrrrfect picture book package. 

NB: I must admit I am ever so slightly in love with Steve the gorilla (everyone loves a bad boy) who doesn't love an ape who so daintily plucks goodies from his nose with such aplomb and scant regard for social etiquette. I just know you will fall for his masculin charms too... 

Simon Philip is one of my absolute top picture book authors of the moment and happens to be the mastermind behind my favourite picture book of 2016 (Award Winning) You Must Bring a Hat (illustrated by the magnificent creature that is Kate Hindley) His writing is both wonderfully warm and deviously intelligent and he is absolutely adept at weaving the most witty of yarns.

FIND OUT MORE HERE 

Ella's detail rich, beautifully stylised illustrations made me weep with laughter and the minute details had me pawing the pages repeatedly. Ella and Simon have proven to be a creative match made in picture book heaven. 

Where/How I Work 

with Author Simon Philip 

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER 

I work almost entirely at home.  The upside of this is that I work where I live – it’s the shortest commute in the history of commuting.  I don’t, but I suppose I could work whilst in bed, meaning I’d wake up and literally be at work in the blink of an eye.

The downside is that I live where I work.  Sometimes I wake up and – BOOM! – in the blink of an eye, I’m at work again.  It wouldn’t be so bad if the cleaner did his job properly, the binman actually took out the bins, and the chef washed up his equipment after cooking, but somehow that rarely happens.

It would be fun to tell you I’m one of those glamorous writers that sits in their very own corner of a cosy coffee shop, smashing out book after book whilst looking arty, intellectual and biscuit-crumb-free.  But that would be a lie.  The truth is I’m banned from my local coffee shops for ‘drinking coffee too loudly’ and making other customers ‘uncomfortable’ by ‘staring too intently at the muffins.’  Plus, I was always covered in crumbs.  Working from home will have to do.

Luckily, I’m not short of options and there are fewer restraints than in a trendy café or coffee shop.  For example, if it’s a warm, muggy day I sometimes choose to work in the fridge.  If I’ve hit a wall and need to shake things up a bit, I squeeze myself into the washing machine and set the spin cycle to 1800 (I’m smaller in real life than you might expect, although I still have to remove the washing first).  The disadvantage to this is that my writing can become a sloppy mess, which tends to irritate editors.

When I’m not in the washing machine or the fridge, I work at this desk in my study:

I recently moved house so the walls are still a bit bare.  However, there is this view of the cathedral from my study window:

Granted, it’s rather inconsiderately interrupted.  And I can’t see it from my chair.  But, trust me, it is still a view. 

Also, I sometimes work from this set-up in my living room:

You might notice that I’ve cunningly moved the footstool from my sofa to maximise lounging potential.  As you’d expect, I get lots of work done here: I definitely write millions of beautiful words and certainly don’t just sit there drinking coffee and watching videos of leopards chasing monkeys.  It’s a very comfortable arrangement.

And the radiator’s not on fire, by the way.  If it were, I’d just move to the fridge.

How I work is very simple.  I categorise my initial ideas into small, medium-sized, and enormous ideas. 

For small ideas, I use this delightful little golf pencil:

Medium-sized ideas require medium-sized equipment:

And if the idea I have is enormous, so too is the writing utensil: 

And on really bad writing days where none of those work and the words don’t flow, it’s normally because I’m using the wrong spoon.

By the way, just so you know, being a writer can be quite solitary.  It can make some people a little ‘odd.’

Thankfully that’s yet to happen to me...

How I work 

with Illustrator Ella Bailey 

I don’t always have a set process for how I go about my illustrations - I like to vary how I work depending on the needs and timescale of the project. Although I will very often start off by drafting ideas with a pencil and paper, I usually find myself nowadays drawing everything straight onto the computer! 

I would say that for most projects, I work 80-90% digitally, using my trusty drawing tablet and Photoshop - and this book was definitely no exception. I love the absolute flexibility that working digitally gives me, to be able to change anything, at anytime!

For the illustrations in I Don’t Know What to Call My Cat, I started of with a rough black and white outline of what I want to achieve - this was, at times, very rough! From there, I began to block everything out in lumps of colour. I find this to be the easiest way for me to work out the overall composition of an image. 

At this stage I usually like to decide on a colour palette, too. Colour is very important to my work - I love to limit myself to a few key colours, although with I Don’t Know… I will admit this went out the window a little bit!

Once I have all the shapes and colours laid out, this is when I can start to add line and details. This was an especially laborious, and extremely enjoyable, process for I Don’t Know…, as many of the pages ended up being jam-packed with detail! 

To prevent everything from looking a little flat, I have lots and lots of customised brushes that let me create all sorts of effects - I especially love chalky textures and paint splatters! I also have a library of various textures, from print effects to crayon scribbles, that I used to add depth and interest to the artwork.

The addition of texture is usually the last stage in my process for any project, and perhaps one of my favourite bits! 

A very important thing I like to be able to do at this point, is to step away from the illustration - leave it alone for a few hours (or days if possible), and then come back to it with fresh eyes! This helps me see if there are any bits that are not quite right, or any more details that can be added.

I Don’t Know What to Call My Cat was an especially fun project to work on for me - I had a lot of fun injecting as much humour into the illustrations as possible! I do, however, think I have drawn enough cats now to last me a while!

Images are attached for the post! I hope the length doesn’t prove to be a problem for you – it’s a little longer than I had anticipated it to be.

In fond remembrance of my cats past ...

Dolly, Little, Billy, Jimmy, Rupert, Ruskin, Truffle,Tabitha and Mouse...

and for my present companions Claude and Pearl

Welcoming Molly Maybe creator Kristina Stephenson!

We are thrilled and delighted to welcome supremely talented  

Sir Charlie Stinky Socks creator

Kristina Stephenson to Book Sniffer Towers today! 

When Molly landed on our doorstep we were over the moon, Sir Charlie has long been a favourite with the little Sniffer and this new addition to the book shelf is every bit as charming (and of course there is a hirsute hound in this one too which made it extra special). 

Kristina has kindly taken time out to write a beautiful and enlightening piece for us on the development of her latest picture book featuring a feisty young hero and her canine companion including some lovely sneak peeks at development sketches! 

INTRODUCING

Molly Maybe's Monsters 

'The Dappity-Doofer' 

NOW head over to Twitter @maybeswabey to find out how to win one of 5 copies of Molly Maybe in all her monstrous glory! 

BUY THE BOOK HERE! 

FOLLOW Kristina on Twitter

With thanks to Simon and Schuster
 for sending me a copy of this brilliantly bonkers book! 

Grandad's Island by Benji Davies

Three cheers for wonderful  Benji Davies on the publication of his second author / Illustrated picture book 

Grandad's Island.

'Syd loves Grandad, Grandad loves Syd. 

And that will never change.'

I am a huge fan of picture books which feature strong and positive representations of the treasured bond between children and their grandparents, it is truly a unique and special relationship and one which should be celebrated just like this. 

Syd is a delightfully endearing little chap and his Grandpa whom fortunately he spends a great deal of time with is full of life and joy and an utterly unquenchable a taste for adventure. 

Syd and his beloved Grandpa embark on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure together as his house magically transforms into a tall ship! 

The mischievous pair find themselves washed up on on a mystical tropical island inhabited by vibrant wildlife and a very 'Handy-about-the-house' Orangutan. 

Many happy hours are spent exploring and larking about, from renovating an abandoned shack to, sharing quiet moments enjoying the wildlife - The complete joy shared by the two and the fun and tenderness in their friendship pours from every page. 

The subtle observations of these precious moments and this special relationship are observed so beautifully by Davies that you become utterly absorbed in the island and all it has to hold. 

As with all good stories there must come an end .. there will be tears by the time you reach this utterly heart wrenching illustration... 

No bookshelf should be without a copy of this poignant and utterly breath-taking picture book. 

As touching and poignant as the last hug between the boy and the Snowman by Raymond Briggs 

You can buy it here!  

FOLLOW BENJI ON TWITTER 

& visit his website here!

Here is a small selection of other beautiful and sensitive books about coping with loss...

By Giles Paley-Phillips and Iris Deppe 

By Susan Varley 

By Britta Teckentrup 

By John Burningham 

Monsters Love Underpants

TOOT TOOT - It's here! It's finally here. Time to get our best underpants on and celebrate the arrival of 'Monsters Love Underpants' the latest collaboration by best-selling duo Claire Freedman and Ben Cort. 

As you can imagine it's barking mad and full of comedy and this time we are introduced to a whole miriad of bizarre and freakishly furry monsters. Each magnificent monster has it's own unique preference for undergarments and little book sniffing monsters will adore sniggering at the mischief they get up to and the chaos they cause. 

Not a truly scary monster in sight but lots and lots and lots of FUN! Prepare to read this one over and over and over again! 

We are thrilled to welcome Ben and Claire to Book Sniffer Towers to talk a bit more about the creation of then monsterrific picture book and yes we will all be wearing our very smartest pants! 

On Sudden Hill - An interview with it's creators Linda Sarah and Benji Davies

Ethereal and nostalgic in 'box' loads Benji and Sarah have created a magical environment set to ignite imaginations big and small...

On Sudden Hill is 'Stand By Me' for pre-schoolers, filled with emotion and stark scenery the reader is magnetically drawn to the three small boys and the intricacies of their beguiling friendship. The poetic lyrical text weaves a tender tale of innocence and explores the limitless nature of a child's imagination.

We are beyond thrilled to welcome the creators of
On Sudden Hill to Book Sniffer Towers to tell us a little more about the creation and development of the lead characters in this book, how they came to be and how Benji so deftly put a face to their names. 

Linda Sarah Author :

Hello Book Sniffer (I love your blog name by the way), thank you for having me here!

The names for the boys just tumbled out with the story - when that happens, I love it and usually they feel right - like the characters have been there all along, just waiting for the right moment to appear and say: Howdy - I've got something to tell you! 

It was originally written as a story for older readers, the boys were young teenagers - a much fiercer story, but when sifting through my chaotic piles of notebooks with ideas and story fragments, I thought it could maybe work for younger people as well - the idea of feeling left out, but also having nowhere to express those feelings, no one who is interested etc., - and re-writing it seemed simple and easy, which is a good sign I think.

I honestly can't remember how I first pictured Birt, Etho and Shu, but when I started to see Benji's sketches of them, I had a huge feeling of "Yes!" and I adore how he has brought them to life - they are totally as they should be (and so much better!). Their feelings, evoked by his tender expressions, gestures, reflected in surroundings etc. - just perfect and magical.

Benji Davies Illustrator :

                         

Characters I think are one of the hardest parts of illustrating a book.

The main characters, the starring roles of the book, need to be able to carry the story, to tell the story through their actions. And to do that they need to be believable, they need to hold within them some truth about the story. This all starts in the way that they look.

Of course each illustrator can come up with a vastly different character to the same text, so its by no means set in concrete by the words. That's where as the illustrator you get to tell the story how you see it, you get to shape the characters and the settings, design the place inside which the story unfolds.

First of all you need to know the function of the character, how do they relate to the other characters and elements in the story. In a well written text I think this just pops out at you and perhaps gets easier the more books you illustrate, as you hopefully get better at it.

You have to take their most important characteristics and make them embody those ideas. Are they vulnerable? Make them small. Do they need to be physically big enough to do something specific in the story, to reach on top of a wall perhaps? Make them tall. Or give them long arms. This sounds quite simple but actually can be quite a complex process of unravelling the text to get the right feel for the character. Its a bit like finding a missing piece of jigsaw that fits perfectly in the hole. All these choices have to feel right for the story. Even if they feel random I think there is something subconscious at work, guiding the choices - hair colour, posture, costume. All of these choices will be reflected in the atmosphere and tone of the book. 

For On Sudden Hill I felt that it was such an emotional text, that I couldn’t see the characters without visualising their world first. I thought it needed a more organic approach, to see the bigger picture and then start pulling the characters out.

First of all I started to draw silhouettes of some of the scenes in the text, or moments that I felt would evoke the atmosphere of the book. In animation they call these kind of sketches and drawings the ‘beats’.

 

These beats really helped me to start shaping the story, getting into the sense of place and the interaction between the three boys.

I then sort of hoped that their characters would start to filter through. I made more further sketches.

I was starting to get an idea of how a couple of them might look, very roughly. I think some of them were a bit too old looking, but that wasn’t important for this stage. It was better to just get something down than worry about specifics.  I would have loved to have been able to keep more of these silhouettes in the final book but I think it might have been too dark and moody.

Then I made some more detailed character sketches and also a design for the box-cart which I based on my previous silhouette drawings.

As I started to artwork, their individual personalities started to take shape. They still needed to be younger though, and I gave them more appeal by making their clothes brighter and more detailed.

Then at a late stage, we (my art director, editor and myself) realised that it wasn’t really working as well as it could. One of the characters was stealing the limelight - the wrong one! But rather than start the characters from scratch they suggested a straight swap of two of the characters. So Birt became Shu and Shu, Birt. It was completely contrary to how I had been thinking but the characters worked but it made complete sense. 

I think it shows that you can never be entirely sure what the right solution for a character is, but that when you get it right everything falls into place.

Vists Benji's website here 

Buy the book HERE

Follow Benji (Benji_Davies) 

& Sarah (@travelandsing) on Twitter

With HUGE thanks to the team at Simon and Schuster  (especially Jade)
for inviting us to kick off this blog tour!

Make sure you pop over to Wondrous Reads tomorrow for the next installment of the On Sudden Hill blog tour! 

Toodle Pip!