Scribblemania 120

Christmas in September

Following on from last year's big festive hit 'A Boy Called Christmas', Matt Haig has gone and done it again with a follow on story, 'The Girl Who Saved Christmas.' 

Needless to say I feel really lucky to be continuing working on this series with Matt and Canongate. We had an early celebration with book sellers and reviewers last week in the form of a Christmas party. Well why not !? 

We had snow, Christmas trees, a crackling fire ( on a screen), goody bags filled with allsorts of treats and some fruity colourful festive drinks.

 I'm adding a few pictures to put us in the mood...Aww come on, it'll be the beginning of October in no time at all. 

Extra special thanks to Jaz Lacy Campbell for her amazing efforts. 

Cheers folks. 

Scribblemania 119

Having tidied the studio I wanted to preserve the moment forever so it made sense to blog the pics before it descends into a mess once again. Let's all enjoy the moment....

Scribblemania 118

Pocket Pirates - Book 3

The Great Flytrap Disaster 

Today, that's July 14th 2016 if you're reading this in the distant future, sees the publication of the third title in the Pockets Pirate series - The Great Flytrap Disaster. Here they are in all their gory green glory. 

And so, to kick start the celebration of more mini buccaneer antics I have been window dressing at the Waterstones store in Doncaster, courtesy of notable bookseller, Leilah Skelton.

Here are a few pics of the progress from the day. Excuse the reflections - there's  lots of dazzle and sparkle in the fancy Frenchgate centre because it's in Yorkshire (where glitter was invented). 

  

Also - check out these super cool badges made by Leilah. 

Book 4 is out in November. That's four books to get your teeth into. So get on with it then. Happy reading, shipmates. 

Scribblemania 117

Leeds Library Residency & The British Book Industry Awards

I've spent the last two weeks with my good friend and very talented sidekick, Mr Matt Howarth (formerly head of animation & special effects at Granada TV, BAFTA nominated, and now a freelance animator and filmmaker). Run along here to see his website.

We were asked by the very lovely people at Leeds Central Library to occupy their art space known as Room 700 to create some visual wonderment. We decided it would be fun to turn the walls into sketchbook pages that, courtesy of Matt, could also move, using a projected animation technique.

So, for two weeks, I filled the walls with large scale drawings based loosely on archive material from the library and Matt created a show reel of animated clips as we went along.

TIMELAPSE: Check the timelapse film here to see our coffee cups going down and our biscuit packets being reduced to crumbs.

ANIMATION: Check the animation showreel here, completed onsite by Matt during the residency.

In the middle of our attack on the library walls I had a little trip down to the big city to attend the British Book Industry Awards where I managed to catch up with some of those delightful publishing folk and spend a very pleasant evening at the Canongate table. We came away empty handed but it was a brilliant evening and well worth the trip.

Here's a pic or two from the posh party.

And now it's back to normal and the buildings at Dean Clough Mills are basking in the sunshine whilst I consider continuing where I left off which is bang in the middle of Matt Haig's fantastic follow up to A Boy Called Christmas. Yes, I know,  that's ANOTHER very lovely and talented Matt. I'm collecting them. More on the Christmas scene as soon as it's the right moment to release something.

And last but not least, here's a pic from my weekend. A little bit of Vitamin Sea !

Thanks to Leeds Libraries and their brilliant team of staff, to both Matts, and other people called Matt, and to Canongate Books.

Goodbye for now

Scribblemania 116

The Loom Lounge - Halifax 

& Room 700 - Leeds 

Here is the newly installed clock in

The Loom Lounge at Dean Clough Mills 

( Halifax HX3 5AX ) alongside the wall decor that I created for proprietors Stuart and Karon Townsend. By the way the food and drinks are top quality. Well worth a visit if you're hungry. 

Do pop along if you get a chance but please don't come over the bank holiday as the Loom Lounge is closed until 13th May whilst the posh new kitchen floor is put into place. 

When you DO Pop along be sure to pick up a batch of coasters for your own coffee table. Available at the counter.

Huge thanks are due to the brilliant Richard and Abi at Print Out for all the printed material ( including the walltex decor). Also based at Dean Clough Mills and a great team who have looked after me recently. 

In the meantime I'm now heading to the very cool new space that is ROOM 700 @ the awe inspiring Leeds City Library.

Here I will be dressing up the, (currently blank), walls with my good friend, fellow Dean Clough studio artist and creative side kick, animator Matt Howarth. 

Watch this space, and the Twittersphere from the 3rd May 

( @chrismouldink @matthowarth  #room700 ) 

More to come on the above as and when it progresses but feel free to come along from the 3rd to the 13th May and see what we are doing. Drawing workshops are in place for the 7th and 8th. More details flagged up through the week on the Twitter. Come and have a go if you think you're art enough. 

Scribblemania 115

Hello screen junkies, just a quick catch up on my many adventures and current projects.

Pocket Pirates 

Book 2 The Great Drain Escape is now available and arrives just as I have some good news about the little Buccaneers travelling to foreign lands. Thanks due here to the amazing Rights team at Hodder. More of that lovely and welcome news as and when I'm allowed to tell you. In the meantime, order your mini Buccaneers here. Book 3 is poised to go to the printing palace and the manuscript for Book 4 awaits my ridiculously silly scribbles.

The Girl Who Saved Christmas

The follow up to the hugely successful A Boy Called Christmas is now a first draft manuscript in my hands and I am VERY excited and pleased to be working with Matt Haig and the lovely team at Canongate again. I can't show anything just yet so here's one VERY tiny corner from the sketchbook to whet your appetite. The first book will publish in over twenty other countries at Christmas this year and that will coincide with the U.K. Paperback release at the same time as book two is released in hardback. Check out book one here if you haven't seen it already.

Spangles McNasty and the Fish of Gold
Shortly to be released through Andersen Press I have been working on a new series devised by the crazy cool and whacky, all round nice guy, Steve Webb. These books involve Bitterly Bay's mischievous camper van driving pirate- Spangles Mc Nasty and his trusty sidekick Sausage Faced Pete. The first book involves, of course, a goldfish robbery and should not be missed as it's a laugh out loud read. Take a squint here.

And as a full stop to add to the bottom of the page, I'm currently working on dressing up my favourite cafe - The Loom Lounge @ Dean Clough Mills in Halifax where Stuart and Karrin have shown a huge interest in my work and in particular my Alice drawings. So I'll very shortly be showing you the decorated walls. In the meantime here is some of the wallpaper and the coasters we've designed for the tables, (available in the cafe to buy or pinch from the table tops)

Scribblemania 114

A few sketchbook pages to start the new year. Nuff said ...