Further Advent-yures

UPDATE: unfortunately this year’s advent comic has been cancelled due to non-availability of Becky, as they say on the Piccadilly Line. Very sorry, here is an elf by way of apology/distraction:
Elf
Original post: Mm, dubious title. Anyway, it’s the second of December! The traditional day for Becky and me to start late on our Advent comic! Howzat? Mm, middling. Previous years’ comics are here and also soon to be available as actual paper objects in the olde physical world (see below).


adventrus

We will be selling 2014 and 2015 editions (plus variegated other stuff) on the Brolly Lolly table at House of Illustration’s Illustrator’s Christmas Fair on December 10th. 2013’s pie-based comic has to wait because we cannit find the proper files, curses!

Monster puppets and adventure drawing

Last Saturday I had an amazing afternoon at House of Illustration, running a family workshop based on ALPHONSE, THAT IS NOT OK TO DO! After a quick reading, we did some giant collaborative adventure drawing – just like Natalie and Alphonse do in the book. Highlights included Natalie and Alphonse on their five-wheeled motorbike:
Motorbike drawingSquirrel and treehouse worlds joined by ladders, and a majestic giant bee
Children drawing an adventure
featuring cup-holder, chips-holder, sound system, umbrella and MANY SHOES.Giant bee
Next it was time for monster puppets: here are just a few of one family’s horde.Some of the puppets made by one family
We started with corrugated paper finger puppets, with all manner of multiple heads, horns, tongues, wings and other appendages.
Two-headed monster puppet Monster puppets on plinthsMany puppets
There was even one with eyes on accordion stalks.
Monster with eyes on stalks
It’s interesting running events at House of Illustration because the great facilities and unusually long workshops mean you can plan more extended, open-ended activities, so I’d prepared various kinds of puppets to experiment with. There were accordion-beasts inspired by Chinese dragon stick-puppets, of which this was definitely the longest.
Longest monster puppet
And this one has a wonderful expression.
Dragon puppetThere were also puppets with moving wings, mouths, arms or eyebrows made using split pins, but I seem to have no pictures of those. At least I can show you this brilliant new thing: a box-mouth monster with a monster baby inside, operated by hidden lolly stick!Monster puppet made of boxSome people even got around to building theatres – I bet some ace plays were staged once they got them home…
Theatre

Family workshops at House of Illustration

House of Illustration have just published a guest blogpost I wrote for them about a workshop I ran there in May, based on The Girl with the Parrot on her Head. AND, I’ve been invited back to run another family workshop on 5th August with Becky Palmer, this time linked to their summer exhibition of Ladybird books, Ladybird by Design.
Ladybird BookWe’ll be asking: what if ladybirds had Ladybird books of their own? What would they be about? Heraldry? Leaves? Aphids? Microcomputers? How small would they be? Book online now and come and help us find out.

Bunnies with lipstick, antiques

Yesterday at House of Illustration, in a workshop I’d been scheming about for months, a group of children created a whole new system based on Isabel’s cardboard boxes in The Girl with the Parrot on her Head. I’ll post more about this workshop but just wanted to share the giant mural right away, as it made me so happy to see the system so brilliantly reinvented (to enlarge, click on the image above and click again when it reappears).System composite