After about two days of travel, a short bout in Canada in which I got lost in the airport and a not so pleasant London experience, I finally made it to Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. I had part of a day to poke about town yesterday and get a feel for the area and this morning we began the course. The morning began with a lecture by Pam Smy about "What is a Picturebook?" and another lecture by Birgitta Sif about "Developing a Character". The other instructors also spoke about their work and their process (Marta Altes, Dave Barrow, and Natalie Elred). It was wonderful to see the behind the scenes of their work and how things evolved as they went.
After lecture, we went to lunch and then met back in the studios to begin working on developing our characters. The studios are wonderful, we are slit between three and there is something a little different in each room.
The first studio, which I am in, has an array of children's books borrowed from the Heffer's Children's Bookshop here in Cambridge.
The second studio, has process work by many of the instructors, as well as, a huge collection of sketchbooks by Pam Smy.
The third studio, has a collection of children's books and illustration books from Pam Smy's personal collection.
Today I worked on further developing Clarence the Hedgehog and moving him about a bit. I also took the opportunity to tear apart my story, which after listening to lecture, I deemed to be much too long and detailed. Some work began on the rabbit character for my story and I intend to work a bit on the little girl tonight as well. Here's a bit of what I worked on today: