Thursday 19 February 2015

Happy Chinese New Year - China beckons!

I've changed the look of my blog and header for the Chinese New Year -  of the Sheep.
I'm excited and honoured to have been invited to China by the Bookworm Festival.
I arrive in Beijing on March 24, 2015 and will be giving workshops  and talks for children, and adults in Beijing, Suzhou, and return from Shanghai on April 1.

So now for some sheep.  I had to hunt in my archives. I did these two pictures in 2005 for Bayard's Popi magazine and they were reprinted in my first big 64-page doodle book, Les Petites Mains Dessinent..

  
The cow wants more patches, the sheep wants more curls, the dog wants more spots
from Les Petites Mains Dessinent © M-P Cocagne and Bridget Strevens-Marzo


Draw some more curly wool on the back of Mother Sheep and her baby.
from Les Petites Mains Dessinent © M-P Cocagne and Bridget Strevens-Marzo

Bayard reprinted the book in France paperback late last year with a new cover:
Les Petites Mains Dessinent © Bridget and M-P Cocagne Bayard reprinted 2014
For each of the 64 page, Marie-Pascale Cocagne and I came up with a simple visual story for  kids to play their role in the white spaces.  We avoided telling the kids to 'draw'.
The point is to invite them into 'making their mark' on the story.
At that time the only other doodle books around were for older kids - wonderful black and white conceptual drawing books - by Taro Gomi who is still going strong with Chronicle books.

The book and its sequel The Big Book of Shapes travelled with co-editions including Tate Publishing UK (Abrams US) who published it in 2006 as The Big Book for Little Hands and it was shortlisted for a British Book Design award. 

Talking of books travelling reminds me...just before China I am giving a masterclass at the House of Illustration.  It is on Saturday afternoon March 21 - and run by SCBWI British Isles but open to all to sign up here.