Hello! It’s been a while.
I haven’t posted anything for about 6 months (v naughty of me) so I thought I’d do a mother-of-all-updates update now to make up for it. Here’s everything that’s happened since (just before) Christmas…
*deep breath*
Packed-lunch Post-its
You’ll be relieved to hear that my youngest daughter Poppy’s Packed-Lunch Post-its are still going strong. In the build up to Christmas (I know, it’s seems like a lifetime ago) we had an advent theme. Here they all are…
Odd Dog Out
January was spent artworking my third picture book, Odd Dog Out. This is my favourite bit of the book-making process. Just me in my little studio for a month painting away. Such fun. Here’s the cover…
and here are a few teasers…
HarperCollins also released the blurb for the interweb:
It’s a dog’s life in the big city…
For busy dogs
A busy day
Of busy work
And busy play…
But one dog doesn’t quite fit in. It’s lonely being the odd dog out, when all she wants to do is find her place in the world. She’s willing to go to the other side of the world to look for it… but it might take a different kind of journey for her to discover that maybe where she’s meant to be is right back where she started…
A gloriously illustrated story about leaving home and finding yourself, from the bestselling and award-winning Rob Biddulph, author of Blown Away and GRRRRR!
I will post some more teasers and updates as we get closer to publication day (August 24).
Sad goodbyes
We lost a couple of my musical heroes early on in the year and as such I was moved to draw a couple of tribute sketches. First David Bowie…
and then Prince…
Star Wars
After Christmas, Poppy’s Packed-lunch Post-its took on a Star Wars theme (’cos we loved The Force Awakens so much)…
GRRRRR! in paperback
On January 29 my second picture book GRRRRR! was published in paperback. Here’s the cover complete with a sticker saying how ace I am (!)
And here’s the fab window display at Waterstones Darlington…
Blown Away board book
A couple of days later Blown Away was published as a board book. Perfect for little ones with sticky fingers. I am so pleased with this version - it looks so cute. As does my nephew Lewis in this picture…
World Book Day 2016
The beginning of March saw another World Book Day. Here’s Fred from GRRRRR! doing his bit…
And here are Alex Tucker and Pearl MacMurray in their Fred Bear and Penguin Blue costumes…
IBW Book Award
March also saw GRRRRR! shortlisted for the Independent Book Week Book Award which is, obviously, very exciting.
It is, however, up against some extremely stiff competition so am certain it won’t win, but what an honour to be selected alongside the likes of Julia Donaldson, David Walliams and Judith Kerr…
Four more books with HarperCollins
In March I signed a new four book deal with HarperCollins. I really love working with the team who are the best in the business (they have just been named Children’s Publisher of the Year for the third year in a row to prove this point) so was absolutely thrilled to put pen to paper. Here’s the story in the Bookseller.
Leaving the Observer
March also saw me leave my job as art director of the Observer Magazine to become a full-time author. It was a very bitter/sweet moment for me as I will really miss the people that I’ve worked with for the last nine years. On the other hand I’m hugely excited about my new adventure in the world of books. I feel very lucky to have this opportunity.
Bangalore
In April I read Blown Away and GRRRRR! via Skype to a group of children who live in Bangalore, India. My cousin Fran and her family are currently living out there (she has her own blog actually, click here to give it a read. It’s SO good) and she set the whole thing up. It worked really well and the kids were amazingly talented. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable experience that I hope to repeat very soon. Maybe next time I can actually go out there in person! Here are a few pics…
International editions
Several international editions of my books have been published so far this year including the Norwegian version of Blown Away, and the Greek, Spanish, Catalan and French versions of GRRRRR!
More greetings cards with Roger la Borde
I’ve made a couple of GRRRRR! birthday cards with the lovely people at Roger la Borde. Here they are. They’re foil-blocked too although you can’t see that in these pics. Available from all nice card shpps, garden centres, museums etc. There’s also a Father’s Day one but I’ll post that next week nearer the big day itself. I have also just finished a huge Odd Dog Out range for them. More of that later too…
Game of Bones
My favourite show, Game of Thrones, returned to TV screens in April so I did some drawings of the penguins from Blown Away dressed as the characters. Couldn’t resist…
More Packed-lunch Post-its
Meanwhile, I was still drawing a picture on a post-it note every day for Poppy. The current them is Disney films in chronological order. Here are the first 50…
3000 chairs project
I was very pleased to support the brilliant 3000 chairs project set up by Nicola Davies in response to the government’s decision not to allow lone refugee children a safe haven in the uk. Click here to learn more about the project. Here is my contribution…
Other stuff
I’ve also been eventing…
…getting some amazing letters from my readers…
…proofing Odd Dog Out…
….practising with my new water-colours…
….getting exciting about the upcoming theatrical adaptation of Blown Away…
…and doing several secret projects that I’m not allowed to tell you about yet…
So all in all, it’s been an extremely busy year so far. Hence no blog posts until now. Sorry that this one is such a monster, but at least I now feel up to date. Well done if you’ve made it this far!
You can always follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for slightly shorter updates in real time.
For now though… BYEEEEEE