Saturday 17 October 2015

Character sketches for a story by Rachel Braverman - 100,000 Jumpers

Becca and Oscar rough character sketch by Amanda Lillywhite
Rachel has asked me to create chapter header illustrations for her story for 8-11 year olds. It's about a 10 year old girl called Becca who has just been placed for adoption and is finding it difficult to settle in and trust her new family. Mummy Mo is Becca's adoptive mother, Fallon is her new big sister and Oscar the cat is her new best friend.

At the moment I'm just getting to know the characters by sketching them, my next step will be to start working on ideas for the book illustrations.
Fallon and Mummy Mo character sketches by Amanda Lillywhite

Friday 16 October 2015

BIG CATS! Comic making workshop at TOMS community outpost in London


As part of TOMS community outpost's big cat initiative I will be running a big cat comic making workshop for children of all ages 3-5pm on October 25 at 5-7 Foubert's Place, London W1F 7PY. All materials are supplied and no booking is required – just turn up and make comics!

Find out about the partnership between TOMS and National Geographic to raise awareness of the decline of big cats in the wild at www.toms.co.uk or on the National Geographic website.

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Half term workshop at CYW for 9-13 year olds: Make your own comic!


On October 27 I'll be leading 3 hour workshop for 9-13 year olds that goes through the basics of the comic making process: how to develop a character, a synopsis, a script and then make a comic. I'll be taking along some character examples and story starters to help get the participants going and I'll give them some illustrator tips to help with their drawings. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

"Make your own comic" is part of a series of half term workshops organized by Chelsea Young Writers, book a place for your child here. The venue for my workshop is St John's Church in Notting Hill W11 it starts at 1.30pm and finishes at 4.30pm. All materials will be provided. It'll be great fun!
Workshop description: 
Would you like to make comics but don’t know where to start? Have you ever tried to make a comic and then got stuck after the first few panels? Are you curious about how comics are made? Whether you are already an avid fan of comics or have just started to become interested this will be an exciting workshop for you. 
Illustrator, writer and comics maker Amanda Lillywhite will take you through the steps of creating a strong storyline. You’ll learn the basics of developing a main character, a synopsis and a script then you’ll make your own comic.
The skills you’ll learn in this workshop are suitable for any genre of comic and can be adapted for other forms of illustrated writing. 
It’s fun to make comics, come along and join in!

Character work for "Rosie" by Amanda Lillywhite

Tuesday 6 October 2015

Duck and Bear: a webcomic about an illustrator and a writer


Duck and Bear originally appeared in SCBWI's online newsletter Words and Pictures. I'm grateful for the support and input I received from the editors at the time - John Shelley and Jan Carr.

The webcomic had been hosted on a website I was running that has now been shut down. I've found a new home for it and put it back online at Authorville.

Bear is a picture book illustrator and Duck is a middle grade fiction writer. This is the story of their creative process and journey to publication.


Sunday 4 October 2015

10m long collaborative comic at Carnegie Library for Fun Palaces (in pictures)

One of the first contributors to the comic.

Mishi Morath wrote a poem.
A local horse riding centre got a mention.
Illustrator Katy Hudson added a duck.
The US army dinosaur squad turned up.
Things started to get very busy in the library, but some took time out to contemplate the comic.
Mark Panton added the views of our dog.
Good to see families drawing together.
Toddlers were very keen to have a go.
After they reached the end of the roll, I had to flip a section over to create more drawing space.
There were lots of activities elsewhere in the library. Co-creator of Fun Palaces and writer, Stella Duffy, kicked off the kickboxing.

You can find out more about Fun Palaces at funpalaces.co.uk Carnegie Library is in London SE24.