"Into the night of his very own room"

Anyone else feel impressed but somehow slightly injured by the Where the Wild Things Are movie trailer? I expected them to get a million things wrong (look at those telly-movie family scenes!), but not to feel so tender about the things they might get right. I still say the kid is too old, and am not surprised that he came off "bratty and "mean-spirited" in early versions.

The book made me feel like the rumpus was mine. The trailer makes me feel like it's being stolen. How mean-spirited and brattish of me...

Think I'll go and draw on the walls...

Patterns

Gah, I always feel creepingly guilty when I whine about publishing things on here...

Look, I think Dexter 2 will have lots of patterned cloth...

Off Colour

I've found that a project of mine will likely go to print with pretty inaccurate colour. I shan't go into the whole thing more here, since the project in general has already been enough to literally bring me out in a rash. Really, I like to learn things as I go, but I'd rather they didn't see print until they were ready. I'm fairly convinced it wasn't my fault, (in other circumstances I have much more say in the proofing process), though perhaps I have been distracted by the big TV show project (which is up in front of the money people today...)

Here we have some colouring in (early) process, for an entirely different project.



Pete! I finally filled a book with bagpipes...

Oh and I received this beautiful book yesterday, from the Chihiro Art museum in Japan, where some of my work is being exhibited currently.

2D Character Animators required!

As I've mentioned (so far as non-disclosure-agreements will allow) I've been developing a TV-show over the last six months or so. The show so far is quite me-ish, in terms of story, visual style (though similar in feel rather than technique to my book illustration), and even sound (for demos I've played all the instruments). Much more I'm not at liberty to describe, (suffice to say the style is unusual, not as 2D as 2D would imply, and I think pretty interesting to work with).

Now we are looking for animators to join the team!

Above all we need people with the ability to tell story and emotion through movement (read: good animators). People able to interpret and understand a style that references the hand-made, but with the ability to use/learn after effects and similar software.

Gah, my bluetooth keyboard is running out of battery... excuse me...

Yes, anyway, if you think you might fit the bill please click the link for application details.

Animation Recruitment

There's also a place for a similar animator on another (really fantastic) show, for which this application applies simultaneously.

I've been cowering a little, since the tv-show go-ahead (or extended-development at the very least), in a mixture of fear of the task ahead, and a slump of exhaustion at what went behind. I've also been finding the return to solitary book illustration a strange mixture of emotions and distractions (will post new Dexter Bexley pics soon).

Anyway, I was reminded yesterday (in a visit to the studio) of how much the team know what they're doing, and how very nice they are to work with, and how exciting the whole project is.

In other news: In the post yesterday I got a clipping of a review of Tree Soup, my second novel for young readers (available in hardback now). It was a very nice piece and shared the page with reviews of Neil Gaiman's Newberry winning The Graveyard Book, Chris Priestley (and David Roberts') brilliant Tales of Terror from the Black Ship, and books (I haven't read) by Jonathon Stroud and Daren King.

Here is the extract that I could find online:

"Beautifully atmospheric, the trees whispering and waving in the golden and green light, with lively, eccentric illustrations of a cheeky-looking, rotund Stanley and the bizarre Dr Moon, this has the feel of a classic children's tale, whilst having its own ebullient originality."
- Literary Review

And oh yeah, I'm in Yo's band this sunday:



And the record (tape) is on the radio! here, (at 41.25mins in).

Published today!

Here's one of the first reviews.