Im an Irish designer and illustrator. I was listed in Time Magazine's DESIGN 100 for the work I've been doing for fair trade company People Tree. My book 'A Bit Lost' is in 8 languages and won many awards including Dutch Picture Book of the Year. 'Oh No George!' comes out in March 2012
FINALLY...! this book has been two years in the making...! This post is just to show where the idea came from, and how the book took shape. its also quite useful for me to put together this post because its always such a long process that i kind of forget where the ideas came from to begin with.
My first idea for this book was a cause and effect sequence called Oh No!... it was an idea for a sort of elaborate circular accident... i may come back to that idea in future in fact...
I was toying with that but was reluctant to settle on it. Another idea was 'Bad duck' about a duck who was bad at being a duck.. swimming and quacking etc... its was a bit like a version of the Ugly Duckling and was sparked by seeing a worried looking duck in London who seemed to be swimming about 2 inches below the water level of his friends
A third idea featured 'clown man and clown dog' which i think also could be quite good in the future...
i didnt realise it at the time but all these ideas revolved around the idea of characters somehow messing up (which i thought would make entertaining drawings) I realised its a lot funnier if there is intention from the character to not mess up, so in the end i scrapped clown man and sort of fused all three ideas to make the dog the comic lead character.
One part of the picture book i try to make use of are the page-turns.. they can be great fun when reading aloud if there is bit of a build up so i decided to build up to a page-turn where the dog messes up somehow... that was how the basic idea came about ... i jotted it down on 3 pieces of A4 which it turned out hardly changed at all from this first sketch.
I usually draw from my head without using much reference but i found myself googling 'guilty dogs' to see if i could find some good material. It turns out there's a lot about this on the internet. the video below is really worth watching if you havent seen it.
most of this work was done while i was in kathmandu. I went over to get more involved in my fair trade work and ended up staying between there and India for more than 8 months in 2010. I was lucky to work on some super projects there which was the main reason i was very late for my book deadlines. In fact this book was 9 months late and was supposed to have been out last august (!)
I did most of the sketches for george from this room..
and i sent the bologna draft from this internet cafe (the monks were on facebook)
this is me trying to finish it off the last images in the airport on my way home, i had to meet my editors deirdre and lucy the following week and i hadn't done half as much as i had said i had... (!)
This is the part of the book im most proud of.. the first page builds up in three images to a large close up of george with the text 'what will george do?' When the page turns the following double page spread tells us exactly what george has done.. OH NO!!!
as you can see george does some pretty terrible things, but all is forgiven in the end
the end-papers are a kind of before and after
i quite liked having a little quote on the title page for A Bit Lost. i decided to go with this one from the stoic philosopher epictetus for George.
the final proofs and tweaks were all done in a very intensive few weeks with the help from deirdre and dan when i got back to the UK (my room was being lived in so i did all this from my next door neighbour's place!)
Oh No George is out on the 1st March 2012 or available for pre-order in these countries, im told there are more to follow soon
Oh No, GEORGE! IRE/UK here Oh No, GEORGE! USA/CANADA here Stoute Hond Netherlands here Oh Non, GEORGE! France here Oh Nein, PAUL! Germanyhere Voi Sinua SULO! Finland here
Im a big fan of the late scottish poet and comedian Ivor Cutler. I had read an interview with David Shrigley ages ago and he mentioned him as his biggest influence and since managed to get hold of some of his amazing recordings... he has a wonderful surreal and skewed view of the world. This BBC4 documentary is really really worth watching if you dont know his work..
I was absolutely in AWE when my editors Deirdre and Lucy mentioned they worked together with him at Walker. I didnt even know he had done books... they were big fans of his and david lloyd who i work with now was his publisher and editor. WOW! Apparently Ivor had a thing for printing his own stickers and then sticking them all over the office, this is david's old typewriter...
I also discovered at Walker recently that not only has my old editor Lucy studied as a clown (amongst many other fascinating things) but that my new editor David worked for 12 years as a clown and successfully taught a goose how to dance (!)
What a magical place Walker books is....!
this is david, maria and deirdre (taking the photo) and me editing our new book 'dont worry, i have a plan' recently..
I will be sure to keep you up to date with any new stories i hear from the office. In the meantime you can follow them on twitter. they meet very interesting people and eat a lot of cake
I will be doing 3 different events. see my events page here. It includes a DRAWING DUEL with Joëlle Jolivet .... Im not exactly sure what is involved but im sharpening all my best pencils in preparation (owl is sharpening his beak just in case it gets nasty)
PS if you look on the website you might see a stray owl has accidentally fallen in there. we are very sorry about that. myself and owl are working on our professionalism over the next month to make sure this wont happen again.
While i was making my book in Korea I was extremely fortunate to meet the picture book artist Cho Sunkyung. I was introduced to him through our publisher Borim press and ended up staying on his sofa for an incredible 5 and a half months. Fairly cheeky even by my standards!
Sunkyung is one of the most interesting people ive met and as it was his work that made me appreciate the craft of book-making i thought i should do a post about him. He is an incredible illustrator and artist. His very interesting career path includes working for the ny times amongst many others as well as designing film sets and several best-selling picturebooks. Underground garden has been translated into 6+ languages. Ive posted some of his work here....
He also single handedly runs the SOME Institute, which is an independent post-graduate course specifically for picture-book making, the likes of which there is really no equivalent in the UK. He has brought the most inspiring people working in picture books worldwide to Korea to teach at SOME including Beatrice Alemagna, Martin Salisbury, Chloe Poizat and Katsumi Komagata... he even brought Marshall Arisman (the legendary co-founder of the School of Visual Arts in NY) over to Korea to do a workshop. Below are some images from his workshops and some shots of the end of year show... the standard of the students work is incredible.
Sunkyung collects picture books from all over the world and his studio is sort of operating as a library to the students. SO many incredible books... better than any bookshop ive ever been in...
Some of the stories i have heard about him are just completely nuts. He was so inspired by the film the sandman (the film that inspired tim burtons nightmare before christmas) he flew to London looking for the studio that made it. This was the early 90s and pre-internet and he had no address for the studio, only the name 'Batty Berry Mackinnon Productions'. He asked at the heathrow information stand where was 'aardman animation' because he knew they could tell him the address. He went by train to Bristol only to be told that he wasnt allowed into the studio uninvited so he waited around until lunchtime when a few animators came out and told him they were based in manchester. By the next day he arrived at their doorstep, he explained his story and they (understandably) allowed him to work with them for the next 2 months. !!!?!!!! and I thought I was passionate about animation...?
I stayed with Sunkyung in his studio and I worked on my book while he worked on his own book 'Blue Bird' and we spent most evenings in the local restaurant drinking soju. These are some photos of the studio. He worked downstairs and me on the mezzanine. The last photo is a shot at dawn of the scene of me finishing A Bit Lost (....i wasnt to know i would then drag it on for another 2 months ....aagh! )
During the time i stayed with Sunkyung he was working on 'Blue Bird'. Its an incredibly beautiful and personal art book based around the death of Sunkyung's mother. 'Blue Bird' (Palang Sae) in Korean means hope. It is a wordless book about the story of a a blue bird who is selflessly looked after by its guardian who is a sow (the pig has a special symbolism in Korea) The mother teaches the bird to fly knowing that she herself cannot fly and that one day the bird will fly away without her. The bird flies away as its mother is left behind in a flock of birds.
As Sunkyung worked on Blue Bird, I worked on A Bit Lost and in fact we had almost exactly the same publishing date. I came to the end of my stay in Korea I began looking for a quote for my book about 'loss' and we realised the same quote would suit both A Bit Lost and Blue Bird. It dawned on us that we had both spent the last year working beside each other on a story about the loss of a guardian.
We have been close friends since and in fact sunkyung came over to visit me in Nepal and even gave a lecture at Kathmandu University when i was doing a workshop there.
Sunkyung has also set up his own publishing company SOME books (i dont know how he has the time!!!) I HIGHLY recommend visiting SOME picture book website
You can see SOME institute and if you click the top left link you can also see the books they are publishing, their books have been bought by the V&A/ Roma Museum and many other institutions
As you can imagine A Bit Lost owes Sunkyung a huge debt. Im very grateful for all his advice and input. Gansamida!
I have been nominated as one of Booktrust's 10 'Best New Illustrators'!!!!
There is some really really amazing illustrators on the list and i'm extremely proud to be in there. Take a look at the site at all the amazing work ...Salvatore Rubino / Sara Ogilvie / Kevin Waldron/ Levi Pinfold... some really amazing books. Really gutted i wasnt at the award ceremony. Im here in Nepal ... currently looking for electricity.
Also take a look at the excellent Guardian audio slideshow of Children's Laureate Antony Browne who was one of the judges of the award. (my images are fuzzy though!!! argh!!)
Have a look out for Thierry Magnier's stand in the Paris Book Fair: 18-21 March. I adapted the last spread of 'Un Peu Perdu' as a 6 metre banner! wow!
Sadly I cant make it over as Ill still be in Nepal. Im very proud to be published with Thierry Magnier. I thought their stand and range of books was one of the most eye catching and inspiring in the whole of the Bologna Fair, so i am really extremely proud to be included in their stand this year in Paris.
Also I'd like to thank them very much for buying my fair trade owl toys from Mahaguthi. They were the first publisher to do this. Im really happy they were so excited about this project, i hope we can do more with this!
Check out Thierry Magnier's website. They publish some of my favourite illustrators and books.... some really stunning work in there. univers > petite enfance is especially good
Wow!!! I LOVE this. So lovely to get this in the mail this morning.
The shapes and expressions are great. Poor little owl is having a bad day yet again..! Especially in that last fall. OUCH!!! Poor owl ...will he ever learn?!
This is all from first graders in Zamorano Arts. Check out their blog. Really beautiful artwork and great project ideas in there. Thanks Don!
Im doing a panel discussion in Dublin at the amazing OFFSET design festival. Myself, Niamh Sharkey and Childrens Books Ireland are doing a panel talk at 12pm on Sunday 3rd Oct about childrens books.
A Bit Lost won Gold at the Association of Illustrators annual awards last night in the Childrens Book category!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!! Thanks again to everyone at Borim Press and at Walker Books
My first picture book A Bit Lost was actually first published in Korean. I had met the excellent Borim Press at the Bologna Book Fair in 2007 and was blown away by their catalogue. I went over to visit them and ended up illustrating and making most of the book with them from Korea. Their set up is amazing so i thought i should post a bit about it.
The Borim Press office is in Paju Book City (above) which is a new development by the Korean government. Printing was actually invented in Korea more than two hundred years before Gutenberg 'invented' it and Korea has a long and proud history of printing and literacy. In order to promote and modernise the industry and put Korea on the worldwide publishing map they subsidised the setting up of Paju Book City. It was set up as a super high tech printing facility right next to all the top Korean Publishing houses. It is a very modern sustainable development built as a satellite town 30 mins from Seoul. It also has high tech looking wind generators (which never seem to be working? hmm...) You can read more about it here. South Korea spends more of its GDP on education than almost any other country so the shiny educational buildings are a more common sight there than in Europe or the west.
The Borim office. The spaceship looking part is a children's theatre. Inside their publishing house is a children's theatre, a childrens picture book gallery (with waist high pictures) and a little childrens bookshop (with knee high tables). You can see better pics from their site. I was very honoured to be Borim's first non-Korean author.
The lobby/reception. The 'wavin' looking pipes on the right i had originally thought were some weird Korean office communication device....but i was told it was a sculpture. You can still talk into them though if you want.
The childrens theatre. I saw a nursery rhyme gig one afternoon (in Korean) for an audience of 150 expecting mothers. It wasnt really my thing so I had to sneak out the back.
The next door office. All the big publishing offices in Seoul moved out to here to use the shared printing presses/conference hall/facilities etc.
The high tech printing facility next door.
This is where my book was printed!
Having a meal with the Borim team. Jinsuk (my Art Director) Sangon (Production Manger who i lived with for a month!) myself and Ines Yoo (my Editor and the person who first introduced me to Borim in Bologna)
Jinsuk my art director in the best jumper I've ever seen... Happy Pig!!! YAY!!!!
The CEO of Borim Mr Kwon and his wife outside their beautiful home. They have a traditional stone ondol system in their newly built home which was also built by a mixture of traditional Korean and modern sustainable methods. They are a really interesting couple, Mrs Kwon is a traditional Korean musician (drummer)
I managed to stay for week with Mr Kwon and his family. In Korea everyone sleeps directly on the floor (the underfloor heating is pretty nice in winter and makes it hard to get out of bed...) The book is taking three times as long as i thought it would. Thats probably why im not smiling in the picture. Oh dear. I blamed it on the ondol. Check out the Kimchi pots outside the window. He collects them, there were a LOT of them.
Finally finished after 10 and a half months! Woo hoo! Myself, Mr Park, Borim's editor in chief and Sang Me who did all the translation.
감사합니다 to everyone at Borim!!!!
If you are interested in seeing more of Borim Press and their outstanding books and illustrations take a look at their site. Its in Korean so its kind of hard to navigate but you could requst a PDF catalogue by email.
This is the first review of A Bit Lost in English. Its from The Bookseller. Very exciting to see a review in English, I still havent seen an actual copy of the book yet myself as Im still in India! 'A Bit Lost' should be out properly in September.
The Bookseller- 18 June 2010 -Booksellers Choice Chris Haughton's delightful picture book 'A Bit Lost' has a simlistic charm and natual voice which will be enjoyed by the youngest children. The traditional separation tale of a lost child finds wrong mummy- then eventually right mummy is lifted by unusual colours and quirky, humorous illustrations. The last page is a joy.
Publishers weekly- July 2010 By sticking to simple shapes and a bold palette, Haughton has created a debut that reads like a tattered old favorite. A single half-page shows Little Owl dozing off in his nest, then--once it’s turned--bouncing softly to the forest floor. The animals who find Little Owl are flat, stylized creatures in jewel colors, but their eyes convey a wealth of feeling. Squirrel peers at Little Owl, his paws clasped in concern, his neck stretched out quizzically. “My mommy is VERY BIG,” says Little Owl. “Yes! Yes! I know! I know!” says Squirrel. “Follow me.... Here she is. Here’s your mommy.” Squirrel points to an enormous teal bear, staring befuddled at readers. A few more cases of mistaken identity ensue before locating Little Owl’s mother (careful readers will have noticed her seeking out her progeny). With instinctive skill, Haughton uses spreads of the forest to establish atmosphere and set up jokes, then delivers punch lines with spot illustrations that zero in on the animals’ dopey but lovable expressions. A promising first outing. Ages 2–up.
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