Books are too expensive, or so I’ve been told

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What can you do? You hear something like, I really love your books but this one is too expensive. Why is so pricey?

You explain; all the expertise, time and hours that have gone in to making the book, the production in China, the… You realise that your fan has glazed over, dipped out, you’ve lost him or her.

16 illustrations later, many other hands involved in the process, the publisher’s cut, the bookstore’s cut, the distributor’s cut, everyone has a cut of your £7.99 book. I sometimes think it’s hard to be published these days because so many people have to get paid. We don’t seem to have found a better way to do this publishing thing.

On the other hand people will spend £30 on a poster, which is one piece of paper.  I found that out when I offered the Nursery rhymes by hand as A3 prints. A larger profit margin than a book and less effort. Cheaper to print, store and ship.

I haven’t seen many successful attempts at combining posters and books, i.e., one page books. I like the idea a lot.

I’m going to give it a try. Hold on for Design Tribe Books, coming your way soon. I’ll be posting more information over the coming weeks.

K

Teams

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Publishing is a team effort with each person playing a specific and vital role in the development of a book. It is also a space where one person with one idea can change everything.

Take diversity in Western publishing organisations. It has been discussed and argued for decades that a more diverse industry will be a more profitable one. But it hasn’t happened. On the other hand, is publishing in the huge markets like China or India as diverse as Europe or the US? Perhaps the timing of the idea and the practical need for action are not yet in sync.

Back to my main theme; to team or not to team. I have had the honour to work with a wide range of children’s publishing professionals, have taken my own ideas to them, or brainstormed ideas together and most of them turned out very well. On reflection it seems that ideas are the spark that activate certain people, while other people are the ones who activate ideas and teams into action. It’s always a great time to be a catalyst, or a troubleshooter. It is also important to be the doer, the closer, the support.With the right combination of roles in one team there can be magic.

Writing and illustrating means working alone most of the time, talking to yourself, fighting to stay disciplined and focused. Furthermore, I have witnessed teams dwindle or disappear or change as children’s publishing tries to find its new way forward. May author illustrators are despondent. Gone are the days of the shy writer living in a faraway place, afraid of the spotlight. Gone with them are potential masterpieces and best sellers. Gone are the reclusive but brilliant editors too.

Everyone has to be social media ready, loud(er), bigger, faster…

… but not necessarily better.

As publishing sheds its skin it is hard to know what will emerge. Hopefully something shiny and lightweight and full of energy.Teams will still be there, though, leaner perhaps, but still there.

K

“Cowboy Come home”

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Working with text and pictures.

The text is written and the layouts are nearly done. The working tittle is above. Here are sketches showing the treatment of the text which, to me, should be almost illustrated. The final exploration will be to bring type and image much closer together.

Recently, agents and publishers have asked for more finished presentation of book ideas. I have to admit to refusing to do this. It takes blood, sweat and tears! The reward is often a rejection with little or no explanation. It is an understandable development, though. Many people want to be published and there are not enough publishing lists is one reason.

Self publishing has opened a door of opportunity for the brave ones. It will take a little while longer to find the best way to do this with kids books, in my view, as they are still more expensive to produce.

K

 

We like cowboys- sketches

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I worked up some sketches and colour test pictures and am quite happy with the results. I normally do things in waves  (if I have the time), preferring to let things sit for a few days before deciding if they work or not. Here are the two main characters from the story. It was a surprise that the text came together so quickly and so well.

A note about colour tests. While I paint with acrylics, my graphic design background  means that Photoshop skills are included.  The software is used to work out colours before painting. It would be interesting to do a book this way; painted line and digital colour- and that might happen one day. Enjoy!

What about other cultures?

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I spent time in book shops over the festive season.  I realised it is still a better experience than being online.

I also noticed the lack of contemporary stories for children about other cultures. Most, if not all publishers have an anthology of folk tales from ‘the world’. Then, most publishers have the obligatory ‘multicultural’ collections, or a series about a character from somewhere else. But there aren’t many of these and they are so similar that they can be mistaken for being the same.

Children that don’t have access to cultural stories will grow up to be adults that don’t have access to cultural stories. What will they pass on to their children? Flights of fantasy for young children don’t have to all be dragons and giants and talking animals that are candy coloured, or warm and fuzzy. In this age where more respect is being given to a person’s background celebrating cultures could go a long way.

Youth culture is current and ever-changing and really quite exciting. We cannot look at it like a sub culture. It has its own language and code of behaviour which comes out of the your person’s experience as a child.

African culture is all but forgotten by publishers. Traditional culture is crammed in to the one volume I mentioned earlier and modern African culture is simply not present. 54 countries and the cradle of human life is not seen as interesting enough…

If you ever have the opportunity to sit with a book seller our buyer you will hear that these stories simply don’t sell, it’s a sales and marketing issue. I believe it is one of misunderstanding and slight fear. As the world looks to Africa and the East it is only a matter of time before that will change.

So, this year, I will be focusing on cultures of all kinds: How to make them fun, how to turn them into stories. What’s more, I’ll let you know how the year progresses.

K

Fingerstration

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Here’s something for you. A book to download or view that you can take as a present from me. All I ask is that you let me (and your friends) know what you think. Merry Christmas!

The Grand Old Duke of York

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The Grand Old Duke of York (final sketch)
In 1460, Richard, The Duke of York and his army marched to his castle at Sandal to defend it against the Lancastrian army. Sandal Castle was built on top of a man-made hill 33 feet (10m) above the ground. In a moment of madness he decided to attack the Lancastrians (“ he marched them down again”). His army was overwhelmed and Richard the Duke of York was killed. A similar Nursery rhyme is The King of France went up the hill.

Txt me- a collection of hand lettered text messages between friends and family.

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There was a time before texting, you know. While the world has become enchanted by the mobile phone and its unchallenged convenience and up-to-the-minute-ness, we’ve lost the charm of the hand-made message. Following on from the land lettered nursery rhymes project which is now underway, here is something a little more grown up. Here is a request too; send me your bet, funniest, saddest, memorable text message and I’ll try to give it the respect it deserves.

I’ll hand letter it and you can have it back as a download or a postcard or some other printed form for a small fee. I’m working out the prices but really what you pay for a priceless memory?

Ring a ring o’ roses sketch

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Complete with spelling mistakes, here is the solution for the Ring a ring o’ roses rhyme. I decided at the beginning of the project to show everything, or as close to everything as possible. Painting will start on Thursday. It would be great to get this one right because I know from seeing them that children love to sing this rhyme and play the game.

Zimbabwe Signs

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As a Zimbabwean, like any Zimbabwean, I’ve watched and waited to hear he outcome of the current negotiations taking place in Harare to end the political deadlock. Deep down all of us have been hoping that the outcome would be positive, but few have dared to speak this out loud. We all know our president, and it seems hard to comprehend that he would actually give up power after a meeting or two. As someone who has lived outside Zimbabwe for a long time and travelled back and forth periodically I have seen signs that this day or something like it was looming. Perhaps being away for a year at a time allowed me to have a different perspective.  Or perhaps those who didn’t or couldn’t travel were too busy trying to survive to see how their lives and surroundings had changed. 

I started taking pictures of little things that I noticed since 2000. ‘Signs of things to come’, I thought at the time, even though I didn’t really believe it. And in the last eighteen months I have watched and read about the situation, unable to travel because of work or life, while these events have unfolded. A selection of these pictures can be seen here
There are millions like me who thought that the current situation in Zimbabwe was a possibility, but never actually believed it. 
I’ve added a few more links with information about Zimbabwe and the current situation below, including photographs by Alex Joe, a Zimbabwean, who has been working as a photojournalist in Africa, and Chaz Maviyane, a Zimbabwean graphic designer internationally known and respected.
www.zimbabwesituation.com/
swradioafrica.com/

iPhone illustrations

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picture of waiting at a cafe

While I waited for a friend

The task: once a week make a painting on iPhone of a ten minute speaker at a breakfast meeting. The results will be posted each week. This first picture is a test.

iPhone illustrations

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I’m slowly getting the hang of using my fingers to paint. A couple o people sitting opposite me on a train. The fact that these can be done in a short time (10-30 minutes) and look convincing is great, but the search for a style, a look, will take a while.

Christmas eve on London underground

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Last day, last-minute shopping is never a good idea. But we all do it anyway.The media reported that people in the UK were spending a million pounds a minute on December 24. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Probably the best soundbite of the yearlady on the tube

Christmas eve shopping image

Christmas eve morning

Out and about on public transport; Finsbury Park Station

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picture of Finsbury Park Station

It was a typical Sunday. Slow and quiet, at least in my direction. I suppose it was quite different for all the shoppers chasing bargains at the sales all over London.
I had time to observe and a few people and things caught my eye.  And then at the end of the light part of the day I looked back at the station exit and decided to try to capture it. In the cold weather it wasn’t all that pleasant, but an itch is an itch…

Waiting for a bus – 210 from Archway to Finsbury Park

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image- "waiting for the bus"

Waiting for the 210 bus to Archway

On a very cold but sunny London day, when nothing works particularly well the 210 bus took longer than usual to arrive. Passenger were patient, pacing blowing into their gloves, smoking… Anything to not feel the freeze. It wasn’t the right time to start making a painting with a forefinger.

Winter in the UK, though not as cold as other parts of Europe, always seems much worse. People aren’t often ready for a cold snap! No amount of discussion about the weather in the UK transfers to a state of preparedness. Strange.

Urban Chronicles; Volume one, No.2

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slang word visualised

Breaking the recent stream of iPhone paintings, I’m on a quest to visualise as many slang words as possible, from as many countries as possible.  The criteria are that they must be either funny, common enough to be recognised, or particularly clever. I’ve established a small basic list which will keep me busy for a short while, but I need help finding new words. And just like the great actors, “I’ll only do nudity if it’s absolutely integral to the  story”, so don’t expect many offensive pictures. Word No. 2 is “Innit!”, used all over the UK. This sketch will hopefully become a finished illustration at some stage, so expect to see it again soon.

Enjoy.

The last January snow… or did I speak too soon?

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The last of the January snow.

Pitfield St, Hackney, London,England was all covered in snow and ice a couple of days after the snow stopped falling. While it wasn’t the worst or heaviest snowfall in the world, it was an unusual couple of weeks, weather-wise, for most people in the United Kingdom.

The back end of January

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image of a person from the back

I was on a bus behind this man. The bus broke down. Nobody wanted to get off because it was quite cold outside but it was inevitable.

Someone muttered, “Bloody January!”

As I concentrated on the drawing, my subject got up and left.

Besides this image, I was left with the muttered comment replaying itself in my head, layered with the other sounds of that episode, questions and clips of images.

It’s safe to say that, so far, 2010 isn’t turning out the way we all hoped.

Bus 153 from Finsbury Park To Liverpool Street

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picture of a man dressed for winter

Bus 153 Finsbury Park to Islington

It wasn’t that cold. Not really. No one had clouds of breath coming out of their noses when they breathed. No one blew into their clenched fists. For winter, it was actually a fair morning. Why doesn’t every person have the same tolerance of cold, or hot temperatures? No one else noticed and I’d thought myself into a dead-end long before the journey was over.

Urbanation: Words and phrases from the world of Hip-hop

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picture of a cool looking characterI’m always looking out for interesting slang words and phrases from all over the world. So I’ll be happy to accept comments containing new ones for me to illustrate. Keep it clean, though, this is a family blog.

The conversation

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illustration of three people talking

They were talking when I arrived. I didn’t know how long they had been there but the conversation seemed intense. Iraq? Haiti? Her new coat? I couldn’t tell and didn’t really need to know.

Out of time

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picture of a woman sitting on a train

I was sitting on a train when a striking woman walked and sat down.  I started a to draw, picking up the obvious things first. Two stops later she got off. I should have finished the picture off later as I had made enough of a mental note. but for some reason that didn’t happen and I suspected that I had captured enough of this woman’ presence. My question: Is it enough to capture the essential first impression of a subject?  Weeks later when I look at the image I can clearly remember the details I wanted to add to finish the image and strangely enough it feels satisfying because of that. I’ve tried to do this with photography for a several years. It’s quite ‘easy’ to achieve with a drawing, which ultimately has more possible outcomes, but I am struggling with the camera.

Poshley Manor

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Picture of two dogs and a catPoshley Manor

I normally steer clear of animals dressed up as humans, but trying something new is part of every creative’s life. The challenge is to come up with animal characters that are strong enough to drive a story. Poshley Manor is the latest attempt and is the ongoing story of three animals who inherit a fortune from their eccentric owner, Lady Dashford, after she dies. They miss human companionship and decide to find a butler by placing an ad in the classified section of the newspaper. While it’s all very grown up at the moment, I find it’s always necessary to make the world as real as possible first, then strip out the bits that will be used in stories for young children.

They beat me to it!

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picture of a a young man

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/feb/26/south-africa-world-cup-slang#start-of-comments

Eish! I must be in a dwaal, ekse! These ouns got there first. But lekker! The more the merrier.

Quick sketch; Old Street Station

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I made a decision to leave this as it was. The train stopped for about 6-7 minutes and then I continue working the picture trying to fill in all I could remember fro another two stops before I had to change to another line. It seemed a shame to clean it up afterwards…

Rowan’s 10 pin bowling

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Rowan’s 10 pin bowling is just outside the main entrance of Finsbury Park Station in North London. This started as a live painting and was finished using photos as reference and walking by several days later. During these busy days I have several images that are unfinished on the iPhone waiting for the right time and mood to finish them. The low pixel count of the phone’s camera is very useful as it mirrors the level of detail one can put into a finger painting. The quick, blurry photos that are sometimes taken (by mistake or lack of concentration or plain shutter lag) capture the mood perfectly and work really well for me as reminders of  the moment.  I don’t trace the images, though.

Early morning on the Northern Line

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Its surprising how full the Underground can be at 6:00 am! Some days there aren’t any seats available. Every Thursday I get up at 5:00 am to make a meeting that starts at 6:45 am. Some weeks I go by bicycle but lately I’ve been using public transport as it allows me to make paintings. This person was half awake. He didn’t move a muscle the whole time I was on the train.

The Ides of March

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Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry “Caesar!” Speak, Caesar is turn’d to hear.

Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.

Caesar:
What man is that?

Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–1

Urbanation: words from the streets

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“Wattagwaan” or “wha gwan” is patois ( Jamaican slang) for ‘what’s going on?’ or ‘whats up!’

Fashion

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picture of a fashionable woman

During the recent fashion weeks I couldn’t resist trying to capture a few images on my phone. I scoured websites and magazines looking for suitable candidates. I also tried to illustrate tracing from a photograph. As far as fashion goes this doesn’t work for me as well as it might for others as I can’t use my skills – the photo dictates where and how I paint. I ended up looking at the photos and making a drawing or painting from that. Most of the images on the iPhone are sketches, quick recordings of moments. It is all about observation. I hope to one day make large paintings based on these images… We can all hope, can’t we?

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

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This sketch always reminds me of the first rap song I ever heard, The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious five (1982). Zimbabwe had just been born a year earlier and we were all getting used to a new felt freedom and optimism. Hip Hop was a great conduit for our teenage rebelliousness. In other words, we rapped  so much that we didn’t get into trouble. Not that there was much trouble to get in to in Harare in the early days of ‘Independence’.

“Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head, ah huh-huh-huh”

- The Message, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (Sugar Hill Records, 1982)

Something new

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I don’t often work with vectors for illustrations. It seems quite difficult to make them behave and so they then to be used for charts and diagrams. THere are some illustrators who use this medium very effectively for anything from business to children’s illustration. THe files are small and scalable with no loss of quality. This ‘style ‘ has come out of a current project although it is not being used for the project.

Its promising…

Welcome summer?

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“One swallow does not make a summer.”

Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC – 322 BC)

Finally, something to smile about

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After months of practising something is, at last, beginning to happen. The iPhone paintings are beginning to turn into a style. It’s very exciting! This portrait evolved right before my eyes, the result of having seen a couple of wonderful art exhibitions, as well as reading the newspapers more than usual, flicking through picture books and being immersed in the task at hand.

The rise of the mobile device

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‘On average there are now 60 mobile subscriptions for every 100 people in the world. In developing countries, the figure stands at 48 – more than eight times the level of penetration in 2000.’

from The guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/22/africa-mobile-phones-usage-rise

Remember the phones, or weapons that also rang, from the 1980′s?

Using watercolours. Or, is it watercolors?

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I have always admired ‘watercolourists’! I also always thought, deep down, that it is a classical medium and that there are only so many ways to use it. But after seeing a few ‘modern’ ways to use watercolour I was inspired, or courageous enough to use them for the sketches stage of  a new book project. I must admit to being very nervous when I sent the water-coloured roughs to the publisher but am happy to report they went down well. With a bit of practise and luck it might help me widen my appeal as a children’s book illustrator.

Don’t forget the day job

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It just occurred to me that I can show pieces from books I have worked on…

The first book  to show is ‘Red Light, Green Light’, written by Anastasia Suen and published by Harcourt a few years ago.

A fun rhyming text and easy to illustrate, I tried to experiment with different coloured outlines as well as trying to capture views of traffic and landscape that children wouldn’t normally see, or they might see on TV. Up to that point It was difficult for me to change my style of painting which had become very recognisable. The difficulty was in persuading publishers to allow me to change.
I believe this book was only published in the US. One of the first ideas for an image in this book is the one below. I’ve never been in a helicopter but the bird’s eye view of  a city seems to be one of the most used in cinema and television and we all take it for granted.  I’m sure this secondary experience will be easily surpassed by the real thing. One day…

Urbanation; Words from the street

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Aikona = Never, Not on your life.

Imagine that you are out on the town in Capetown and you get to a posh club in you jeans and T-shirt. The bouncer, known as ‘The Pope’  stands between you and heaven, if he give you his blessing. He looks you up and down and says “Aikona.”  Night over


Readers

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“An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart’s blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do.”
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965), The Razor’s Edge, 1943

Life size

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On Wednesday, 30th June, I ‘ll be painting a Giraffe with school children from Drayton Park School in North London. Nothing unusual about that other than the fact that we’ll be painting a(3m tall) giraffe on a canvas that’s 3 x 2.7 m (around 10ft each way)in size! Including this one I have done a total of one paintings with these proportions.  A fully grown adult is between 4-6m tall…

The Life-Size project  shows children scale and size in real terms, teaching them about measurements, helping them to work together on a project and most of all have fun doing it. I hope they are as excited as I am nervous!

More about the project in a separate post, together with some pics from the day.

Here’s the sketch that we’ll working form, together with many photos, facts and figures.

Life size

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We did it!

The Life Size project is under way. About 100 children from Drayton Park School and myself painted a three metre tall giraffe in one school day. It was tight and I wish there had been more time, but it went smoothly. Life Size is all about showing children size and scale in real terms. We talked about African animals, ways of measuring, what giraffes are like in the wild and they seemed genuinely interested. I got a great big box of chocolates and a thank you card from just about everyone so it was well worth it. The next workshops are at the end of July throughout Brent Council Libraries. I’ll try to remember to give a better heads up to those interested in coming along if you’re in London.
For more about Life Size, visit my website  and look up the events & appearances pages.

Arthur Wharton

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Arthur Wharton (1865 – 1930)
The World’s first Black Professional Footballer – and also the world’s first 100 Yard record holder (10 seconds in 1886).

Arthur Wharton, the son of the Rev. Henry Wharton, a Wesleyan Methodist missionary from the West Indies, was born in Accra, Ghana on 28th October, 1865.
Arthur was brought to England and was educated at Dr Cheyne’s School in London between 1875 and 1879.
Wharton trained as a missionary teacher in 1882 at Shoal Hill College before moving to Cleveland College in 1884. He was a very good athlete and began competing in sprint races in Darlington. Manny Harbon, a local coach, was impressed with Wharton and suggested he entered the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) championships at Stamford Bridge. In July, 1886, he set a new world record when he ran the 100 yards in 10 seconds and became the first black athlete to win an AAA championship.
This performance brought him to the attention of Football club Preston North End which he joined. Despite his tremendous speed he played in goal.  Arthur played so well during this period that one football writer suggested he would win an international cap for England. In 1889 he signed for Rotherham United.

As well as playing for the club he became licencee of the Albert Tavern in Rotherham. Later he ran the Plough Inn public house in the town. In September 1893 he married a local girl, Emma Lister. The couple had two daughters, Minnie and Nora. In the late 1890s Wharton also coached Stalybridge Rovers. In 1896 he signed Herbert Chapman who was later to become a highly successful manager of Huddersfield Town and Arsenal. After five years at Rotherham United he moved on to Sheffield United. In 1895 he returned to Rotherham United where he played another 15 league games before joining Stockport County in 1901.

He developed a drink problem and in 1902 he was forced to retire from football. He found employment as a colliery haulage worker at the Yorkshire Main Colliery, Edlington, joined the Miners Federation of Great Britain and took part in the 1926 General Strike.

Arthur Wharton died as a penniless alcoholic on 12th December 1930 at Springhill House Sanatorium in Doncaster. Two causes of death were recorded on his death certificate: epithelioma and syphilis.

So far there is no information about his Ghanaian mother and that side of his family to be found but I am still looking so watch this space.

More information about Arthur Wharton can be found at www.arthurwharton.com as well as on wikipedia, to mention a couple of sources.


Grace Jones

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Grace Jones burst into my life in the early 1980′s with her singles ‘My Jamaican Guy’, ‘Pull Up to My bumper’ and subsequently the albums ‘Warm Leatherette’ and ‘Nightclubbing’. Then there was her iconic look and style. Talk about Girl Power! She still has it at the age of 62…
More importantly, for a black teenager growing up in a very new country she showed us that we are in charge of our own destiny. I will go so far as to say she really personifies the word unique. Grace Jones and Jean Paul Goude were a particularly brave couple who pushed boundaries in popular music and culture. They created Grace Jones the performer without a color or gender label, much like Michael Jackson or Prince, for instance at a time when skin colour defined the type of artist.

Corruption

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“The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.”
Georges Bernanos, “Why Freedom?” The Last Essays of Georges Bernanos, 1955 (1888 – 1948)

Political illustration

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I never thought I was political. As a teen it didn’t matter until the country changed (was liberated). It went from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe Rhodesia and then finally to Zimbabwe. Even as a not too bothered teen the birth of Zimbabwe was a euphoric experience. The last couple of posts have a political feel to them. My first published illustration was a political one, a cover for a magazine called Moto (Fire) which had found evidence of a massacre by the new Zimbabwe government. Around 20 000 people were terrorised and killed in the run  up to the country’s first elections and buried in shallow graves. The event was covered up for many years due to the all-seeing eye and iron grip of the new government, but eventually more evidence surfaced and for the first time people saw what their new government was capable of. I remember waiting for the door of our studio (The Maviyane Project) to be kicked down but it never came.  Some years later press freedom in Zimbabwe was, and still is, severely restricted meaning that if such an article came out again doors would definitely be knocked down, people dragged away, their futures immediately uncertain.

Other happy subjects I illustrated; corruption, rape and poverty. I was 17 but I felt the emotional burden of someone much older.

I’m ready to make these illustrations again almost 30 years later.

You can read about Moto magazine here, and about the Maviyane Project’s Chaz Maviyane Davies here.

Freedom of Speech

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Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, states that:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Hasn’t this simple concept has caused so much debate and so many problems?

The struggle continues

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The look of the blog struggle continues! We’ve changed again this month and are still looking for the theme that best works for us until there is enough spare time to design one ourselves. This coming week Ken is at a number of libraries in Brent doing Life Size workshops with children as part of their summer programme. There will be five-hour long sessions over three or four days and he’s aiming to finish a full-sized lion painting in the this time!

In August we’ll be away and are not likely to post, although you never know! But on our return in September we should have a great deal of new material that we’ll be experimenting ono for a few weeks.

Building Site

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This is from a project for Peaceable Kingdom Press. Its part of ‘My Toolbox – A memory concentration game plus a challenging puzzle’. It was fun to work on something like this with many components, especially after working on picture books solely for the last couple of years.  I could do another one, (hint).

Back to the Future

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“Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.”
-Truman Capote (1924 – 1984)

This is an experiment with watercolour. I have a new text to play with and am making the visuals in watercolour, in the hope that I can find my own way of using this medium.

Finsbury Park to Highgate by bike

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“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
- Plato (427 BC – 347 BC)

I went for a bicycle ride with my six-year-old daughter on Parkland Walk, a trail that used to be a train track. She’s new to riding and this was the longest journey she had made. At the end of the track, as it were, we found a cafe and I promised her a treat for being so brave. While we drank and ate I watched the only other people in the place as they talked and talked. I couldn’t resist as they were so engrossed.

See the light

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I noticed a man enjoying his book on the Underground the other day.

“From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.”
– Groucho Marx (1890 – 1977)

Once you have travelled…

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“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers, that the mind can never break off from the journey”.
Pat ConroyThe Prince of Tides
US novelist (1945 -

Life in a modern city

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Many of us are familiar with this image. If you commute, you’ll have seen it countless times; maybe not this image exactly, it could be a man, or a different coloured paper, or a book or an electronic device. Its that ‘Don’t bother me!’  image. People guarding their personal space on their way to and from work. Life in a modern city anywhere in the world is tough. I often wonder how we do it, how we keep doing it, and whether we’ll know when enough is enough.

Repair men

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The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
John F. Kennedy
35th president of US 1961-1963 (1917 – 1963)

I have has this idea for decades! a book about repair men. Finally somebody shows some interest. I really hope it  works, excuse the pun.

London – Frankfurt

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I crossed two things of my endless list of things to do; I went tot he Frankfurt book Fair for the first time; and I went by car. Almost 600 miles separate Dover from Frankfurt. We drove through France, the Belgium, the into Germany. Seven hours later it was done. But first we had to cross the channel on a ferry. It was a  pleasant day, not wet, and the sea was calm enough to not think about.  This first picture is from one of the lounges in the ferry.

More to come soon…

Recently spotted

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In a sea of orange and yellow, recently published ‘Baby Ruby Bawled’ fights for its existence and your attention. Published by Tamarind Books (UK)

Reader

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It seems like print is on the verge of extinction,in favour of profits and technology. It’s a shocking vision; perhaps we won’t see new books printed, only ‘pdf-ed’ or whatever other platform takes hold of us.  But while there are pages in a book and words to capture the imagination, let’s make merry and pray that the future isn’t written in stone (or code). To think that in a short while I will be sketching people on a train reading from a tablet. Funny. Its just not funny ha ha…

It might be time to dust off the old sketchbook, sharpen the pencil and go old school for a few months.

Commuter

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In 2001, 37 per cent of workers in the capital (London) used rail or underground travel as their main form of transport to work, according to the Office for National Statistics. London had the highest proportion of rail commuters of any Urban Audit city in the UK

November brings a change

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I’ve wrestled with the idea that most of these posts are somehow unfinished, incomplete in some way. There is an internal struggle about how to fix this;
I like observing people and trying to record them in a few minutes as much as I like making people up in my head and really trying to bring out their imaginary characters. These are two opposing side of my creativity.
But I am stuck in the middle. Neither here nor there is a frustrating! So I thought it would be a challenge to take more creative risks. I’ve started a blog on tumblr (wisdomist.tumblr.com) that is more grown up and hopefully more risky.
Here, I’ll be trying my hardest to push whatever boundaries I can within my chosen area of children’s and family safe illustration and topics.

Never too old to learn

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Kimani N’gang’a Maruge made became the world’s oldest student in 2003. Great grandfather Kimani was a farmer in Western Kenya who inadvertently led the way in the fight for universal free education in that country.

Kimani was given a belated chance to go to school in 2003 after Kenya abolished primary school fees. In 2005, he travelled to the United Nations in New York with the Global Campaign for Education to urge world leaders to fulfill their promises of free education for all. He delivered the ‘Send My Friend to School’ messages from over 5 million campaigners, and spoke to officials about the importance of education.
Kimani said he wanted to go to school so that he could read the Bible for himself, and was two years away from completing primary school when he died. He inspired learners and campaigners for education around the world with determination and his words on education, “Liberty is Learning”.
In 2005 Maruge was elected head boy of his school. Maruge’s property was stolen during the 2007-2008 post-election violence, and he nearly left school.
Early in 2008 he lived in a refugee camp four kilometers from his school, but still attended classes every day. In June 2008 he relocated to the capital Nairobi.
In June, 2008, Maruge was forced to withdraw from school and relocate to a retirement home for senior citizens enrolling a short time later at the Marura primary school, in the Kariobangi area of Nairobi.
On Sunday May 24, 2009 Maruge was baptised at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Kariobangi and took a Christian name, Stephen.
Maruge was a widower, and a great-grandfather (two of his 30 grandchildren attend the same school). He was a combatant in the Mau Mau Uprising against the British colonizers in the 1950s.
He died on the 15th August, aged 90. A film based on his life called ‘The First Grader’ is due for release in 2010.
- From ‘The Weekly World’ (www.weeklyworldonline.com)

Winter is here.

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It’s all about warmth and comfort and hibernation. We get t to use most of our clothes and then cover them up with thick, long coats. We go to work in the dark. We get back home in the dark. In England the annual complaint season starts. The authorities know what’s coming ahead but they don’t prepare because , in their view, England doesn’t need all that ‘stuff’ that the rest of Europe has to deal with cold weather…

The problem is, it needs something more than what it has.  Grown up s could take a leaf out of student’s books; they have made their feelings known about the proposed rise in tuition fees. Every single Londoner has come to expect poor service from their council in winter, rather than pressuring them to use the money they collect in taxes to make life better.

A Brave Woman

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”She was the only person to accept the position,” said the mayor’s office in Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero. The daily threat of violence in the town has claimed the lives of police officers and a former mayor.

”I took the risk because I want my son to live in a different community to the one we have today. I want people to be able to go out without fear, as it was before,” Marisol Valles said.

More than 2500 people have been killed this year in the Juarez valley region where the town is situated. The area is a high-traffic transit point for illegal drugs.

Ms Valles said her job would not be to fight drug trafficking because that responsibility fell on soldiers and federal police. Instead, she will focus on improving general security by rehabilitating public spaces and improving relationships between neighbours.

‘I’ve been well received and I know people will help me to work on solutions for security problems,” she said.

Marisol Valles is a 20 year old mother of a baby son, still a student and she is also the newest chief of police in a drug-plagued region of northern Mexico.

Dream Time for Newspaper Readers

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Its dream time for newspapers! There is so much news that is interesting for a change that book publishers must be worried about losing sales over the Christmas period. From WikiLeaks to student riots, the last part of 2010 will be long remembered for being one the most eventful ends to a tough year ever. Well, maybe not ‘ever’; There was that December in 1640 when Portugal drove the Spanish out of their garrisons and gained independence…

It is an interesting time because it points to the future. The future of news, the future of Western civilisation,  democracy and of the other (the emerging markets, the developing world). Things are changing.

One  thought is that newspapers have been in decline because their content or the way it is delivered was quite stale and formulaic; in short, boring.  They are learning fast of late. The penny has finally dropped.   The internet is power. So is Television. Newspaper companies realised that he best way to survive is to have a hand in all three platforms. This months biggest stories work well on all three platforms.

Let’s hope the momentum can be sustained.

2010 in review

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The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

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A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,400 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 83 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 92 posts. There were 197 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 33mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was February 15th with 72 views. The most popular post that day was No.4 Bus from Finsbury Park to Waterloo.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were stroudgreen.org, WordPress Dashboard, mail.live.com, en.wordpress.com, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for freedom of speech, illustrationist, freedom of opinion, london paintings, and grace jones.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

No.4 Bus from Finsbury Park to Waterloo February 2010

2

Freedom of Speech July 2010

3

About December 2009
2 comments

4

The Haircut July 2010

5

Finally, something to smile about April 2010
2 comments

Ones That Got Away

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Illustration for The Weekly world Newspaper

An illustration for a satirical comment on Tiger Woods that never made it to publication. Digital on iPad

 

 

The Mask

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© Ken Wilson-Max 2011

Masks have been worn for both ceremonial and practical purposes for as long as man has had a creative brain. They are usually worn on the face during storytelling and dancing.
A mask is a great device or prop for role-playing games and can help shy children to take part and enjoy the activity as much as everyone else. Here are fours to look at, out of an eventual six. When they are finished we’ll make them available to download. With Carnival season coming up in February they could make for a really fun lesson, or game at home.

What Matters… Libraries

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What is happening to libraries in the UK is shocking. I read this quote in the Guardian recently, from Margaret Hodge, the Culture Minister;  ”I do care passionately about libraries,” she says, “but they have to change. The footfall is down and book issues are massively down. Only 14 of 151 local authorities have libraries that offer e-books.” She said that in March, 2010.
In February,2011, 375 public libraries across the UK face closure, with dropping numbers in visits and tightening council budgets to blame.
To me the library is not only about books but about information housed in a central place freely available to all. It’s not about footfall either. It is a symbol of knowledge and hope.
As a child in Africa and I heard more stories than I read. Books were not in the front of my mind until I reached my late teens and libraries less so. Ironically, I now make my living by writing and illustrating books. I couldn’t say I saw that coming!
I’ve visited a fair number of libraries all over the United Kingdom and the United States, each with their own personality, each with dedicated and knowledgeable staff and most importantly strong and involved communities. Librarians have innovated and turned their libraries into community hubs where more than books are on offer.
My young daughter reads more than I ever did at her age and part of that is down to the local library. She reads to me at night, and just before I nod off I feel as though I am re-living a slightly different version of my own childhood. Putting that aside, books have made my daughter more imaginative, more chatty, more witty and more curious.
Meanwhile, ancient books and manuscripts are being digitized in far away places such Timbuktu, Mali. Up to 150,000 manuscripts, some of which date from the 13th century and document subjects ranging from science and the arts to social and business trends of the day are available to view on-screen in a high-tech facility. The same is happening in museums all over the world.
At a time when the battle between the digital and monologue worlds is raging the loss of a number of libraries seems to show that victory belongs to the digital world. There is a clear line between those who want to keep the printed word on paper and those who strongly believe the future of the printed word is on-screen.
I have come to see the printed and displayed word as completely separate products carrying the same content.
The modern library might turn out to be a place where books are part of the solution and the librarian is still the user or visitor’s guide. The key to the library’s survival, therefore is the librarian and the accessibility of the information.
Further information;

Octavo (www.octavo.com) use ‘the best in advanced technology to uncover and enhance the seminal ideas of the past in ways that will offer inspiration for the present and future.’
The Domino Project (http://www.thedominoproject.com/), the brainchild of American marketing expert Seth Godin seeks to reinvent “what it means to be a publisher, and along the way, spreading ideas that we’re proud to spread.”
Ken

The Wisdom Of Winnie the Pooh

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A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.

-Winnie The Pooh

 

I was on a train underground stuck between stations, sardined between commuters and tourists when this came to mind.

 

Foxie and Mash Up Truck Version 2

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© Ken Wilson-Max 2011

Developing an idea is a process.  Its full of holes and spaces into which you can fall and be lost forever, though.  For some the thrill comes from avoiding the creative pitfalls.  For others the result is the thing. Shaping an idea is not an exact science and very few come out ready to use and there is  a balance between being practical and ‘out there’ that has to be maintained.

Its great when the result works. Its great when it doesn’t (once you stop crying or destroying the studio) because you’ve learned something more about what you are capable of achieving. For me, ideas are best developed with others.

An orange truck this time…

The Best New Illustrators Award 2011

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The top ten rising stars of picture book illustration were unveiled at an exhibition in central London on Tuesday 22 March 2011.

Chosen by a stellar panel of judges, Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne; Director of Literature Strategy at Arts Council England, Antonia Byatt; author/illustrator Lauren Child; founder of the Illustration Cupboard John Huddy and author/illustrator Ken Wilson-Max, the winners have been crowned the Booktrust Best New Illustrators 2011.

http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/show/feature/Home/Best-New-Illustrators-2011-winners

Anthony Browne gave a great interview about the picture books and children’s illustration in general to the Guardian.

http://gu.com/p/2zva8

Origins

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We have a few t-shirts for sale at http://www.mysoti.com/mysoti/designer/DesignTribe. This is one of our best ones designed by Chaz Maviyane-Davies.

Zimbabwean born GRaphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies lives and teaches in the US. He challenges his students to avoid being proponents of “homogenized blandness” – the practice of embracing technology to the detriment of our idiosyncratic visual languages. The result being uniform mediocrity. He extends this challenge in particular, to his fellow Africans:

“It’s about breaking down and finding the inherited, mythically infused iconography and then rebuilding it in order to fit the feeling and nature of where we are now. The tone, rhythm and depth of our identity is special and can be used to talk to each other today. And we have to use that visual language to slowly try to bring some of our personality and presence into the design arena.”

(sources: www.afri-love.com & AIGA.org)

You can find out more about his work on his website;

From The Sketchbook: Babies

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It took quite a while to simplify drawings of babies. Their features are already very simple so it was always a question of giving the images the qualities that one feels when interacting with babies.

K

From the sketchbooks: Six foot, seven foot, eight foot, bunch!

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West Indian culture and folklore is often forgotten in favour of African. Maybe forgotten is the wrong word; more like pushed aside. But it is a rich and lyrical source of material for children to learn from and enjoy. Its educational value is not in question as it indirectly chronicles the days of slavery when different cultures (African, European, Creole and Native American) were thrown into a melting pot and allowed to bubble away. That period of the world’s history was both exciting and dark. That’s how I see it, anyway.

As a child in the 60′s I watched Harry Belafonte sing the Banana Boat Song with absolutely no understanding of its meaning, but an addictive curiosity  about why its rhythm made me want to move…

I get it now and the story it tells is rich and deceptively simple. I’ve started to research more songs and stories in the hope of making books about them in my own way. Post a comment if you want to see more.

Ken

The Little Plant Doctor

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Published by Holiday house this spring (2011), written by Jean Marzollo. It was a great project to work on and gave my work a new freshness.

From sketch to final art

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This is a typical illustrator/editorial collaboration for an educational illustration project, even though we were continents apart…

The brief comes in; mostly written with a few examples of what has been done already. In this case it was for one illustration for an educational publication.You sketch and send back the first draft of ideas. They are almost always sent back with notes, like a positional guide. You make another round of sketches, this time following the brief more tightly and accurately. For me the second or third round of sketches is the last one and I make the sketches more finished In this case I pointed out where I had placed the required  features. If there is time (often there isn’t) I’ll add some colour or my signature black line in the hope of giving some extra assurance that I have got it right (finally). A couple of days later you get the go-ahead to do the colour art (I prefer to sketch and sketch but to paint less). I will have already decided how I  would tackle the colour, or been asked to work in a certain way.

The joys of parenting

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In Baby Ruby Bawled, published by Tamarind books in the UK, baby Ruby will not stop crying. All the grown ups try every remedy they can think of with no success. It is left to her slightly older brother to come to the rescue. The task, as I saw it, was to try to convey the super control being practised by the adults, giving them expressionless faces, or slight frowns. If you are a parent you might know what I mean. This was opposed to the total abandonment of baby Ruby’s bawling which had to be over the top and piercingly loud. A third factor to convey was the eager-to-help expression of Ruby’s brother, ignored by the grown ups (probably because they were too busy trying to stay calm).

Can you dig it?

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I first came across black American (was it Afro-American those days?) entertainment as a child in the 70s. It was enlightening ti say the least. People like me on the TV! We started mimicking the accents, the walk, the dress sense where we could. The power of the media was at its purest; people like me saw that our lives had another possibility, perhaps just like our parents came to realise a decade or two earlier when they also became mesmerised by America’s black culture. We needed to be mesmerised. Life in southern Africa at that time was mapped out  for us. There was limited opportunity for people who were not white.

I think the authorities underestimated the power of media. In the 70s many more young people managed to win scholarships to study abroad than ever before  and I think they had to have had that idea from somewhere else than school…

MY book always have a bit of the 70′s in them. I try very hard to include the showmanship, flair and slight excess that captivated me as a child. It doesn’t always translate to this new century where media power is much more understood.

I thought of including, for a little while, some of the phrases that made the 1970′s in this blog. Enjoy.

Image; How you like me now, sucka?

What’s your story?

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Kimane Maruge was the world’s oldest student, starting in his eighties because he wanted to be able to read the bible. His story has inspired millions from his humble existence in Kenya. He showed that when the spirit is will ing the  mind and body will comply.

If you live in Europe or the US but don’t come from there, chances are that you will be buying and reading stories to your children that won’t always reflect their background. Publishers in these areas will naturally be targeting the market that will bring them the largest profit so smaller communities, or should I say less financially strong are going to be left out to a certain extent. I don’t believe its a conspiracy or anything, just business.

Business is changing though, especially the business of publishing, and there is a shift towards companies servicing a communities that they have nurtured with the products they want. The communities, aren’t fixed. They they have a multitude of interests and stories that define them so can belong to several communities through the internet and in real life.

What do you if you can’t see yourself in the stories? The answer is simple. Make you own. Share your stories with your friends. Let your community tell its own stories. It’s not always about money, but it should be about how you measure success and how high you set the standard for your project.

Think about the tools available to you; your brain, your work experience, the home computer, video camera, pencil and paper. Make your own definition of a story, and then a book so you know exactly what you are aiming for.

 

Everyone has a story to tell and a particular way to tell it

 

The daily grind

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“The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.”

- Peter Ustinov, actor.

 

 

Chillax

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I had terrible problems with email for a few days this week. I couldn’t send or receive any messages and couldn’t see where the problem was. Remaining calm took some effort. I tried to think if there was ever this much frustration with letters and the postal service and realised it seems like ancient history…

And yet, receiving a letter in the post is still a very special occasion, isn’t it? Anyway, I decided to take the time to write more, on paper, with a fountain pen.

 

 

 

 

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

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Detail from Lenny has Lunch, published by Frances Lincoln, UK

Row, row, row the boat
gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily merrily
Life is but a dream.

Booklist Review: The Little Plant Doctor

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Booklist review

The Little Plant Doctor: A Story about George Washington Carver.

Marzollo, Jean (Author) , Wilson-Max, Ken (Illustrator) Apr 2011. 32 p. Holiday, hardcover, $16.95. (9780823423255). 630.92.

Told from the viewpoint of a talking tree on the plantation where George Washington Carver spent his young childhood, this handsome picture-book biography tells how the famous African American scientist always nurtured plants and studied them, but the law did not allow black children to go to school. Finally, at age 12, Carver tells his beloved tree the exciting news that he is leaving for school. Today, the tree is part of the national historic site where crowds come to see for themselves where Carver grew up. The fantasy elements distract from the amazing details of Carver’s life. It is Wilson-Max’s beautiful, unframed acrylic paintings that will grab readers with images of the boy with his beloved plants and delighting in books, as well as the clearly labeled images of the peanut plant on the end pages. Extensive final notes with questions and answers for young children and for older readers fill in more fascinating facts about science and history, including the note that Carver discovered more than 300 uses for the peanut.

— Hazel Rochman

 

 

 

 

Splash Joshua Splash

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Splash Joshua Splash by Malachy Doyle and Ken Wilson-Max

Joshua and his grandmother spend a day experiencing H2O in its many forms. The delighted boy feeds ducks on the river, runs through puddles, plays at a drinking fountain, swims in a pool, and snuggles up for a rainy “cosy, dozy” bus ride home. The child speaks only three words but his favorite is “splash,” which appears hand-lettered in block form. The lines of type are set at slight angles to one another to mimic flowing water. Though not a rhyming story, the words flow with easy-on-the-tongue phrases such as “Deep down, under the water,/under the water, deep down./Into the froth and the foam,/and the bubbles,/splashing and crashing,/fizzing and sparkling.” The bright, saturated illustrations are eye-catching in their colorful simplicity. One slight discrepancy: Joshua appears to change sizes, sometimes only coming up to Granny’s waist while at other times almost to her shoulders. Very young children who are fascinated with water will enjoy hearing about Joshua’s day.

-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI

Vehicle books are coming soon!

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Courtesy of Anova’s Pavilion Books for children (www.anovabooks.com), the vehicle books are making a surprise return to the bookshops this autumn (fall). First published over a decade ago, they were bright, bold and very interactive and proved to very popular with pre-schoolers and their parents. I was pleasantly surprised to see them in the new catalogue!

Ken

Mary had a little lamb

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A visual for a new nursery rhyme book. ©ken wilson-max 2011

From http://www.rhymes.org.uk

The words of the American nursery rhyme Mary had a little lamb would appeal to a small children and introduces imagery of similes (white as snow) as part of use of the English language. The words also convey the hopeful adage that love is reciprocated! The words were written by Sarah Hale, of Boston, in 1830. An interesting historical note about this rhyme – the words of Mary had a Little Lamb were the first ever recorded by Thomas Edison, on tin foil, on his phonograph.

Nursery Rhymes by hand

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Just in time for the Festive season, here are the first four of a set of twelve (yes, twelve) nursery rhymes hand painted or made by yours truly. If you live in the London area the prints can be delivered by hand, in keeping with the hand made theme. They are available unframed in A4 (£10) or A3 (£15) sizes and printed on nice heavyweight art paper with inks that won’t fade with time.

In case none of this makes sense, here’s a pdf with all the details;http://kenwilsonmax.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/nursery-rhymes-by-hand.pdf

A visual for a new nursery rhyme book. ©ken wilson-max 2011

Nursery Rhyme sketches

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An early sketch for ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ threw up several questions about the final image. Should it be 3-d somehow? Is it too scary for young children? I’m now experimenting a little more with the treatment of the artwork and it’s so much fun!

More Nursery Rhyme sketches

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This was the first sketch for this rhyme. I don’t think there was a second.

 

 

Three Blind Mice

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Three Blind Mice
The ‘farmer’s wife’ refers to the daughter of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I. She was a staunch Catholic whose violent persecution of Protestants earned her the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’. Three blind mice refers to the massive estates which she and her husband, King Philip of Spain, owned.
The ‘three blind mice’ were three Protestant noblemen who were convicted of plotting against the Queen – she did not have them dismembered and blinded as in the poem but she did have them burnt at the stake instead.

Incy Wincy Spider

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The perils of rushing. I made a mistake on this latest version… boo-hoo! It’s back to the drawing board. The sun dries, not washes, silly. This is the corrected piece.

 

Baa Baa Black Sheep

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© Ken Wilson-Max 2011

The earliest publication for the “Baa, baa black sheep” rhyme or poem was 1744. The Music that we know today was first published in the early nineteenth century. The song  makes a link between wool and sheep. Babies imitate the sounds or noises that animals make –  onomatopoeia – as part of  learning through playing.

The rhyme has had its controversial moments too but it seems unfounded. That is there is no way to prove or disprove any controversy.

Ring a Ring o’ Roses

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© Ken Wilson-Max 2011.

I think there is still some thought about the decoration of the type and the flowers that has to happen, but wanted to post it anyway as I’m fairly pleased with the progress.

Ring a Ring o’ Roses

The historical context for this rhyme dates back to around the time of the Great Plague of London (1665). The symptoms of the plague included a rosy red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin and violent sneezing. People carried sweet smelling herbs, or posies, as they believed the disease was transmitted by bad smells.

The death rate of the Great Plague was over 60% and it was eventually brought to a fiery end by the Great Fire of London in 1666 which killed the rats that carried the disease.