upcoming Workshops & EVENTS
Birgitta Sif
Author/illustrator
Date
Thursday 10th June
Time
7-9.00PM (UK GMT)
Venue
Online, Zoom
FEE
£12 (INCLUDES booking fee)
Birgitta Sif is an award winning children's book author and illustrator.
She was born in Iceland, lived in and around Scandinavia and America while growing up, and worked as a graphic designer in New York City before graduating with a Masters in Children's Book Illustration from the Cambridge School of Art.
She is the creator of the Kate Greenaway shortlisted picture book, OLIVER, which was also shortlisted for the Nordic Children's Book Literature Prize. Her books Frances Dean Who Loved To Dance and Dance and OLIVER were both endorsed by Amnesty International. Birgitta has written and illustrated numerous picturebooks that have sold all over the world. Her most recent picturebook HUGO is published by Walker Book UK. She is currently working on a book series with Candlewick Press in the US.
Join us to hear Birgitta talk about her career so far, her inspirations, process and what she's currently working on. After Birgitta's talk there will be a Q&A and a live fun workshop.
Sara OGilvie
Author/illustrator
Date
Thursday 22nd July
Time
7-9.00PM (UK GMT)
Venue
Online, Zoom
FEE
£12 (INCLUDES booking fee)
Sara Ogilvie is an award-winning illustrator and printmaker from Edinburgh, based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
After many years working primarily as a printmaker her first steps into the world of picture books resulted in Dogs Don’t do Ballet, with writer Anna Kemp, published in 2010 for Simon and Schuster.
Since then her picture book collaborations have made numerous shortlists including The Roald Dahl Funny prize (3 times), Sainsburys Picture Book awards (twice) and the Waterstones Children’s Prize. In 2011 she was one of Booktrust’s Best New Illustrators, and in 2016, in collaboration with Julia Donaldson, The Detective Dog won the Books are my Bag award in the picture book category.
In 2018 her illustrated commission for Dodie Smith’s The One Hundred and one Dalmations, for the Folio Society won a D&AD pencil in the Book Design category.
Her Illustrated books have been adapted for the stage by The Little Angel Puppet Theatre in London, and New Writing North in Tyneside, while animated pages have been created for TV on the Bookaboo series. Her latest picture book collaboration with Julia Donaldson, The Hospital Dog was published in October 2020.
Sara has taught illustration and printmaking for over 20 years at many colleges and universities both in the UK and abroad. She currently teaches part time on the Graphic Design course at Northumbria University.
Join us to hear Sara talk about her publishing career so far, working in picture books and illustrated fiction, her use of materials, inspirations and process. After Sara's talk there will be a Q&A and a live workshop.
Picture Book Cover Design Workshop
Date/TIME uk GMT
NEW DATES
Wednesday 28th July
4-7PM
Tuesday 19th October
1-4PM
Venue
Online, Zoom
FEE
£45 (INCLUDES booking fee)
This workshop will give you knowledge and information into creating a cover design for your book. Covers are the first thing your readers will see, and so creating a successful cover is very important.
Art director and designer Ness will guide you through the different approaches and key elements to consider that are often used when creating a cover.
Maisie will share some of her industry experiences working as an illustrator with designers on her book covers.
The workshop is split into sections:
A lecture and Q&A session
A cover design exercise
Small group discussion
From this workshop you will:
Learn skills to move forward with your cover design
Be inspired by a variety of cover design ideas from other illustrators
Receive individual feedback on one of your cover ideas
Have the opportunity to ask two industry professionals questions
After the event you will have the opportunity to send in one picture book cover design and receive individual written feedback on this.
This workshop is open to anyone at any level. It could be your first time designing a cover, you might a student, graduate, or currently working on a project that you need cover design help with.
Character Design Workshop
Date/TIME uk GMT
NEW DATE
Wednesday 8th September
10-1PM
Venue
Online, Zoom
FEE
£45 (INCLUDES booking fee)
This workshop will give you the knowledge and insight to begin creating characters for your picture book projects. Illustrator and author, Maisie, will guide you through why characters are so important for stories, what makes a good character and more. Maisie will also share her own approach to character design. This will include how she works on character, from the ideas stage, through to the final artwork. Ness will discuss some of her industry experiences working as a designer with illustrators on character.
The workshop is split into sections:
A lecture and Q&A session
A character drawing exercise
Small group discussion
From this workshop you will:
Learn skills to move forward with your own character design
Feel inspired by the examples shown
Have a greater understanding of a characters role within a picture book
Have the chance to ask two industry professionals questions
After the workshop you will have the opportunity to send in one character you have created and receive individual written feedback on this.
The workshop is open to ALL (whatever your level). It could be your first time creating a character, you might be a student, graduate, or currently working on a project that you feel you’d like character development help with. If so, this is the workshop for you!
Picture Books:
Insides Layout Design Workshop
Date/TIME uk GMT
NEW DATE
Tuesday 14th September
4-7PM
Venue
Online, Zoom
FEE
£45 (INCLUDES booking fee)
This workshop will give you knowledge and information into designing the insides of picture books.
Art director and designer Ness will guide you through various examples and different approaches to laying out the inside of a picture book.
Maisie will share some of her industry experience of working as an illustrator on the insides of picture books.
The workshop is split into sections:
A lecture and Q&A session
A picture book insides design exercise with the opportunity to share what you create.
From this workshop you will:
Learn about different approaches to picture book design
Further your understanding of working with text and image
Be inspired by examples of picture book inside designs
Receive feedback on work created during the workshop
Have the opportunity to ask two industry professionals questions
After the event you will have the opportunity to send in work created from this workshop and receive individual written feedback on this.
This workshop is open to anyone at any level. It could be you have written a text and want to try and lay it out with illustrations or you could be currently working on a picture book which needs work on the pacing or layout.
Date
Thursday 16th September
Time
7-8.30PM (UK GMT)
Venue
Online, Zoom
FEE
£2O (INCLUDES booking fee)
Alice Corrie is an editor and sometimes author of illustrated children's books. She has been freelance since 2010 following a 9 year in-house stint at Random House Children’s Books (now PRH). Since going freelance Alice’s primary focus has been on editing picture books and illustrated fiction for a wide variety of clients. She has made the occasional foray into writing to commission for Egmont and Templar (Winnie-the-Pooh and Little Grey Rabbit) and also has two forthcoming original picture book texts, Fabulous Fifi (Owlet Press, 2021) and When I am Gone (Ladybird 2022), but she is much happier on the editorial side of things.
In this lecture Alice will take you through the process of making a book in detail from the tiniest spark of an idea right through to publication and beyond. She will use the format of two case studies – one an author-illustrator book and the other with a separate author and illustrator – including all the different elements and people involved in this process.
LECTURE WITH ALICE CORRIE
Making a Book – beginning to middle to end
Date/TIME uk GMT
Saturday 25th September
10-4PM
Venue
Online, Zoom
FEE
£45 (INCLUDES booking fee)
A very good Saturday!
This online event is a day of talks from a brilliant mix of illustrators and authors. We will hear from each about their process, experiences and career highlights. There will also be chance to ask each speaker questions after their talk.
It is a day to inspire, delight, motivate and energise you, which is why it will be . . . a very good Saturday!
The speakers are:
Emily Gravett - Author/Illustrator
Emily sprang into the limelight with the ground-breaking Wolves in 2005, which won her the Macmillan Prize for Illustration, followed by a book deal and the first of her Kate Greenaway Medals. Wolves was followed by such brilliant modern classics as Orange Pear Apple Bear, Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears, Again! and the exquisite Tidy.
Mariesa was born in Yorkshire of dual heritage (Barbadian/English). A love of bookish things led to a degree in English literature, an MA in Children's Literature and a decade long career in publishing. In 2020 she won the FAB writing prize with her debut picture book text, There’s a Tiger on the Train!, a cautionary tale about mobile phones, which publishes with Faber in August 2022. Mariesa writes picture books and young fiction about identity and family life.
Christopher Corr - Artist/Illustrator
Chris has illustrated a wide range children's books for adults and children which include Don't Spill the Milk and The Goggle Eyed Goats amongst others.
Chris's work is based on drawing and painting and he works a lot on location, many of his books are set all around the world. His work is known for its distinctive approach to colour, material and the playful characters and worlds he creates. Alongside his book work Chris currently teaches part-time at Goldsmiths in London.
Jayde Perkin is a freelance illustrator based in Bristol, UK. She creates hand-painted illustrations for a wide range of clients, as well as writing and making comics. Jayde has garnered praise for her critically acclaimed self-published comics. Her first long form graphic memoir I'm Not Ready made its debut at 2019's East London Comic Arts Fair, after winning the ELCAF X WeTransfer prize in 2018.
Jake Alexander - Author/Illustrator
Jake Alexander is an award winning illustrator and author from the South of England. His work focuses primarily on contemporary social issues, representation, identity and memory. His debut picture book, We Want Our Books is published by Two Hoots.
Júlia Sardà - Author/Illustrator
Júlia Sardà is a freelance illustrator from Barcelona. She worked as a colourist making editorial merchandise for Disney and Disney Pixar. She then began working on concept art for video games and she now works mostly in children’s illustration. Jùlia has had the pleasure of illustrating some of her favourite classics including Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Nick Sharratt
Author/illustrator
Nick has illustrated around 300 books, for all ages from babies to young teens. He’s worked with authors including Julia Donaldson, Jeremy Strong, Michael Rosen, Giles Andreae, Pippa Goodhart, Kes Gray and most notably Dame Jacqueline Wilson. He’s also written around 40 of his own books including the Shark in the Park series, Ketchup on Your Cornflakes, The Foggy Foggy Forest and Don't Put Your Finger in the Jelly, Nelly!
Nick's books have won many awards and he has been the official World Book Day Illustrator. Two of his most popular books, Shark in the Park and You Choose, have been adapted for the stage.
Nick is also the proud recipient of a gold Blue Peter badge!
Join us to hear Nick talk about his career so far. The talk will focus on his picture books, inspirations and process. After Nick's talk there will be a Q&A and a live workshop.