monsters – Page 4 – Daisy Hirst

Sneakery peekery

Here is first smidgen of the screenprints for my second book for Walker: it’s about some monsters called Natalie and Alphonse, and will hopefully be published in 2015.

Natalie won’t always look this concerned, but, like The Girl with the Parrot on her Head, this book does sort-of feature an angry little girl – and a cardboard box. Hum. So, next book: cheerful little boy and the gelatinous dessert. Or, peaceable giant squid and the macrame lampshade.

Natalie and Alphonse grew out of these red and blue monsters, or shrank out of them in fact as they have got quite a bit younger. I am only just beginning to make the pictures and there is an awful lot to work out. When I last made a lot of simple monster-on-white prints, I found I was getting quite obsessed with their few bits of furniture or fruit: now it’s the same with Alphonse’s pushchair – he’s got five upholstery options. Oh but, I do very much like to draw monsters. NYAHAHA!

Napkin Bolognese II

Following on from last year’s snakes and skates, here is what a heap of illustrators, in Bologna for the bookfair, got up to during dinner at Trattoria Rosso (Bar 51 now has cloth napkins – pah!). First a shape game that turned into a story:
Then some shape-game people:

Then just some folks:

And some weirdery:

I don’t know why the class of 2012 (Zack, Trudi, Becky) are being so possessive of that second-to-last one – they were surely outnumbered by 2013 (Vic, Suzanne, Steve, Elena, Emily, Hannah, me), if not by staff and very welcome outlanders (Paula, Ariana, Saskia).

It was lovely to see Cambridge illustrators’ books – just published and not quite published – all over the fair, two graduates in the Illustrators Exhibition, and too many hundreds of other beautiful books to get excited about. And it is Quite Grand to see your own book there for the first time too. It is sometimes a bit intense though, and you worry that maybe someone has gotten hold of your squeegee and you better go home and see.

Monsters again

Eeshk, because I finished a book, I now have to make a new one – this is like actual work with my brain, or should be. It is quite scary to be back in the early development stages again, after over a year, although (with a lot of help from most excellent people at Walker) it is just beginning to feel like it might possibly be possible in the end.

These monsters were originally invented for our MA show catalogue, but now they need another book to live in. For one thing, a brand new mountain of amazing graduates is about to take over the world: their London show is at Candid Arts, Islington, from 11th-15th February.

Napkin Bolognese

Further to my recent post on napkins, I have just returned from the Bologna bookfair, where collaborative drawing happened in a grand number of ways, including this three-napkin bonanza by Elena, Becky, Caroline, Emily and me in Bar 51 (click to see it bigger).
We also drew on placemats and on giant paper on the side of our stand at the fair, and we played a stunning game of telephone pictionary which I hope to share at some point.

In other news, I met hundreds of beautiful books and several beautiful ice creams; I also had an altercation with a wheelie-suitcase on the way to meet a publisher, which resulted in a split lip and an afternoon spent in hospital on a sugar drip. Many lovely Cambridge people looked after me and I am getting less scabby every day.

Oh and here is the suitcase I took (and didn’t trip anyone up with):

Napkins

Sometimes I draw on a napkin during Christmas dinner and then my dad puts the napkin away in a drawer:

And sometimes I draw on napkins with Darrel in the Hebrides (the blissful sleeping seal is his, and then there was the kite):
Other times I draw on napkins with Becky in Paris:
All those times are good times.