Author & Illustrator Our little chat with Rob, Enjoy the read. What do you love most about kids books? They are an unbelievable creative medium. I equate making a picture book to making a film. I get to direct it, light it, cast the characters and even write the script. It’s such fun. I also love the fact that most people's first ever experience of stories comes through reading a piucture book. As such, I feel like we, as picture book makers, have a responsibility to try and get people hooked on reading for pleasure. If you can get them early, you’ll have them for life! Did you have a favourite childhood book? I loved anything and everything by Richard Scarry. The detail! I spent hours poring over the illustrations trying to find all of my favourite characters. I also loved Dogger by Shirley Hughes and How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr Seuss. Does it take long to complete a book? It does. The text alone can take six months to a year, which seems unbelievable given that the stories only take about ten minutes to read. The rhymes have to be absolutely perfect you see, and to make that happen whilst maintaining the pace and rhythm of the story is very hard. The illustration part is the really fun bit for me. One book usually takes me about two months to draw. How many books have you done? I have written and illustrated nine picture books, seven of which have been published at the time of writing. The other two come out in the next few months. I have illustrated quite a few others for various authors too. You can see them all here robbiddulph.com/books Whats your favourite food? Ooh, that’s tough. I’m a big steak fan. I’m a big egg fan. I’m a big sushi fan. I’m a big lobster fan. I’m a big chocolate fan. In fact there isn’t much I’m not a big fan of! If I had to choose one meal it would probably be a full English breakfast. No baked beans though. That’s just wrong. When did you start drawing? My mum says I was drawing as soon as I could physically hold a pen. So for as long as I can remember, basically. Did you take any art classes growing up? Well, I studied art at school, then I went to university for four years to read fine art and graphic design. I also did lots of life-drawing classes. Where do you live? In London. What do you do on the weekends? Most of my weekend is spent driving my daughters to and from their dance classes! Occasionally I get to go to an Arsenal match though. Football is a big passion of mine. What type of music do you like? All sorts, but mainly guitar based stuff. I’m a Beatles buff - there’s not much I don’t know about them! If you could do anything, what would you do? Play football for Arsenal and score the winning goal in the Champions Legaue final. What inspires you to write/draw? My children. The children I meet at my events. Art galleries. Fantastic films. Great TV shows. Anything and everything really. Do you have a favourite thing to draw? My go-to warm-up drawing is always an apple. I have no idea why! Any new up coming titles coming out soon, that we should be looking out for? The third book in my Dinosaur Juniors series is out on April 4. It’s called Wide Awake and is all about a little dinosaur who can’t get to sleep. I have another book coming out in August too, but I’m not allowed to tell you about it yet. All I can say is that I’m very pleased with it. I can’t wait to show it to people and tell them all about it. That’s a clue, by the way :) Thanks Rob for chatting with us, My girl is very much into the Grinch at the moment as well (she is currently watching it while I am working on my blog. We are not bake bean fans here either. More Information on Rob. www.robbiddulph.com Books Instagram @rbiddulph Facebook @robbiddulphauthor Twitter @RobBiddulph You can also find books at: www.booktopia.com.au www.bookdepository.com www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.com.au www.dymocks.com.au www.angusrobertson.com.au www.fishpond.com.au
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