Map Makers Workshop!

I’m giving a map workshop at Where the Wild Things Are bookstore in Brisbane on 3 October.  This is an illustration workshop (I am not a cartographer!) about making maps of and for stories. Details and tickets are available from the bookstore’s website: Mapmakers Workshop with Kathleen Jennings.

It’s a school holiday workshop for ages 10+, but adults are welcome!

(If you’re a little bit further north, I’m giving Marvellous Bird and Narrative Imagery workshops in Hervey Bay and Maryborough on 22 & 23 September).

Illustration and Narrative workshops!

On 22 and 23 September 2018, I am giving two sets of workshops in Hervey Bay for the Fraser Coast Regional Council (a council initiative supported by a RADF grant).

The Narrative Art Masterclasses (22 September or 23 September,1-2:30pm, $15) are for illustrations and/or writers with some experience in their field.

Join Kathleen as she demonstrates how stories can be broken down and recombined to strengthen old narratives and generate new ones, whether in writing or illustration. Participants will use writing and/or art to identify the powerful elements of great myths and play with the possibilities as they build up a story idea or illustration.

The Book of Marvellous Birds workshops (22 September or 23 September, 9-11:30am, free) are for ages 8+.

Kids and adults alike will work with professional artist Kathleen Jennings to learn how an illustrator plays with pictures and ideas to create stories. In this workshop you will learn technique, style and application of ideas, all while filling your own accordion-fold book with strange and marvellous birds.

Registration is through the links above. I’m very excited about these workshops!

(These events are proudly supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund).

Dancing Shoes

I have big giant feet, so any love I have for shoes must be limited to the fairytale variety. So the September calendar features an assortment thereof. As usual, this is brought to you by my very dear patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel — you are very welcome to join us, and get the calendar early(ish) and other things. (Also, anyone who has signed up at the $15+ supporter level before the end of August also gets an enamel pin, while stocks last).

Feet and shoes are not something I naturally find easy to draw, so I used to sit in cafes and draw people’s feet as they queued. Hot tip.

(Also, August’s deer design is now a repeating pattern on Redbubble, with Spoonflower fabric to follow).

And here are the printable files — pre-coloured or to colour yourself (for personal use only).

(for personal use only)

The Running of the Deer – Patterns

I’ve finally persuaded the deer from the August calendar into a repeating pattern. They’ll be up on Spoonflower as fabric once the test swatches arrive, but in the meantime, they are up on Redbubble (scarves, bags, shirts, phone cases, etc).

Brown background:

 

Pink background:

Bambi in the Jungle

Michael Mackenzie of ABC Radio National interviewed Kim Wilkins, Namila Benson and me about the curse of distraction. It was live (argh) but the edited podcast is now up online. The federal government leadership spill happened halfway through and I had a deer-in-the-headlights moment, but those have now been removed so you can pretend this all takes place in a calm and stable environment.

Are distractions stifling our creativity?

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/how-distracted-are-we/10113730

Cabaret of Monsters

So, a little while ago I mentioned Tansy Rayner Roberts’s Kickstarter campaign to reprint the Creature Court trilogy. It was successful, and she has launched her new novella in that world: Cabaret of Monsters. This was another fun image to play with: Flappers! Wolves! Stars!

The cover design and typography is by Cathy Larsen.

Rats!

The pins have also been produced, and look very shiny online.

I’ll show mine off as soon as Australia Post delivers the goods but in the meantime, here is Tansy’s photo:

The Patreon

Now that I’m back catching up post-jet-lag, it occurs to me I haven’t really updated you with what’s going on over on Patreon, besides the calendars! If you don’t know about Patreon, it’s a site where you can patronise artists from as little as $1/month, contributing to various projects. My primary activity there is creating the fairytale calendar, but in addition to that there are other things going on at every level of patronage:

There are sneak-peeks of secret projects and work in progress:

There is stationery based on the calendar:

There are tiny stories and snippets of tales:

And occasional original sketches travelling off to folks:

And then there are there are other oddities, updates and even occasional discounts, such as a discount code I’m just about to put up from Literary Book Gifts, a shop selling… gifts for lovers of books! Totes and tshirts etc. I haven’t got my hands on any yet, but if you like (for example) Peter Pan or Beowulf, you can check them out here: Literary Book Gifts.

I actually like that Beowulf design, which reminds me to tell you that, unrelated to Patreon but very much related to books, Maria Dahvana Headley is in Australia on book tour with The Mere Wife! Her last date is here in Brisbane at Avid Reader on 29 August.

But back to Patreon! I really value the support and freedom all my current patrons have given me to just make things and send them back out into the world. If you enjoy the calendar or would like to help ease some of the rockier passages of the freelance lifestyle, if you like looking over artists’ shoulders or being involved in making pictures happen, or want suggestions for presents for the artists in your life, I would of course welcome the support!

But it isn’t just me: I really recommend checking out Patreon and seeing which artists, folklorists, writers, musicians, inventors, etc are on there, doing things that particularly excite you. I love the community of creative folks, and patrons — no matter which creatives they support, and no matter whether it is with money or food or spatial reasoning or cups of tea in a crises — are and always have been such a vibrant part of that.