Yesterday was somewhat different to my usual day to day business of sitting alone in a room colouring in. I was asked to illustrate a story live as it was being written for the BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words Live Lesson!
The idea was that authors Charlie Higson and Frank Cottrell-Boyce would write a 500 word story using suggestions sent in from schools and the audience. Then as they wrote it I would come up with the illustrations.
Considering it usually takes me months to illustrate a book it was an exciting, if nerve wracking, experience. There’s a few photos of the day below.
You can enter the BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition with your own 500 word story here.
As a final note, I’m very excited to have achieved a personal goal, a real triumph, possibly the pinnacle of my illustration career. I drew a passable horse*. Under time pressure. With people looking.
*It’s a widely know fact in the children’s illustration world that the hardest thing to draw are horses, specifically their legs. That’s why you so often see drawings of them stood in front of large bushes or convenient fences.