Julia Patton's THE VERY VERY VERY LONG DOG

Y'know how sometimes you meet somebody and it feels like you've known them forever and you become immediate BFFs? That's how it was when I met author/illustrator Julia Patton. Even though she lives down in Berwick Upon Tweed and I live in Edinburgh, we get together for play dates when we can. I wrote about my first visit to her studio HERE. Meanwhile, Julia has a new book out called THE VERY VERY VERY LONG DOG. I'm thrilled to send some readerly love her way. Read on! e: What is your creative process and fave medium, can you walk us through it?
Julia: My creative process for writing a new book is becoming more established now as I've published over 30 titles and my 3rd author/illustrator book, working on my 4th for Sourcebooks USA right now. An idea for a book usually comes as an image initially. A character arrives, that looks like it has a story to tell. Immediately a title pops into my head, then i'm off... If you've followed Elizabeth and I previously, you'll have seen that we've discussed my 'Style Bible', my sketchbook, my A-Z before. (CLICK HERE to for the article.) This big book holds all the baby seedlings of characters and stories to be told. Currently there are over 30 seeds awaiting watering. They are organised there and periodically revisited when I get a moment. I then take them to full colour character sketches and begin to write. I write quickly and instinctively, knowing the pictures sometimes don't require any text and vice versa. I must admit the concept stage is the very best part of my job. I have sold stories on showing my A-Z to publishers with just one character sketch and a synopsis. I only make stories that I'd loved to have seen as a child.
      My favourite media is pencil. 6H to be exact. I carry it around with me and my knife, plus only now an inch is left of my soft grey and red coloured pencils.I always carry a small sketchbook and often scribble on anything I can get my hands on. I have always used mixed media to create my artwork as I undertook a BA Hons in Textile Design before completing my MA in Illustration at Edinburgh University. I use combination of collage, pencil and oil paint, often finished digitally in Photoshop.

My news work is very collage based which i'm very excited about. e: What do you think makes an illustration magical, what I call "Heart Art” - the sort that makes a reader want to come back to look again and again?
Julia: If I had to define Heart Art in three sentences here they are...
      I believe every child should be able to see themselves, identify with the themes and hear their voice within a picture book.
      There are just some stories that need to be told.
      I believe it's my privilege and responsibility and role as an author and illustrator is to illuminate words, suggest the magical and interpret the unspoken. e: Is there a unique or funny story behind the creation of this book?
Julia: The Very Very Very Long Dog began life as Bartleby. I was attending the International Children's Book fair in Bologna when I saw a lady walking her long-haired sausage dog, right under this graffiti.The dog was so unbelievably cute everyone who passed just stopped, fell over shopping, bumped into things staring at him...I was just captivated by the whole scene. Hence Bartelby was born.The name change happened at the very end of the creative process, a culmination of feedback from Sourcebooks and Barnes & Noble (who's New York bookstore Bartelby lives in) I really love the new title. I have Long Dog merchandise arriving daily and a new trailer for the book has ben created for him. lucky boy.

trotting your way soon from @Sourcebooks ... pic.twitter.com/dG54UxonGA

— Julia Patton (@julia_patton) September 4, 2017

A tour of some USA states is slated for early 2018 as part of a promotion and marketing plan. Exciting times ahead for Bartelby. e: And you!

e: What was your path to publication?
Julia: After I graduated from Manchester University I set up a freelance greeting card business. I have worked for M&S, Paperchase and more or less any other high street stationers and books shop you can think of. I eventually had the finances to return to University to study an MA in Illustration at Edinburgh University and was signed by an illustration agency on my graduation day. I cut my teeth through working in educational books to begin with, then moved on through non fiction, to picture books. Some career highlights were being selected as the illustrator for the No.1 Bestseller BBC Children In Need Book 2017, The CuriousTale Of Fi Rex written by a whole host of celebrities, and working with The Gruffalo legend Julia Donaldson on a book named "Don't Call Me Mum". I had the honour of working alongside Vivian French at the University who gave me the tools, confidence and metaphorical shove to write. I have just recently signed with a new agency after working almost exclusively in the USA for 4 years, and will be relaunched in the UK in November. e: What is your favorite or most challenging part of being a creator?
Julia: This question and your queries about what is Heart Art, may just have the same answer here ... I've always been a creative ever since I was a small child. Expressing myself visually gave me comfort, joy, avenues for exploration and took me on journeys to far away lands, with talking frogs and pirate space robots. I will follow this adventure until my last breath. BUT, unfortunately, I've been told I make my job look easy. It's not. I work more hours than I'll ever admit and my brain is wired 24/7. The responsibility to inspire and delight my intended audience can be overwhelming sometimes. I travel a lot to keep myself sane, visually inspired and constantly inquiring about the needs of my ever changing target market in this often challenging global climate.

e: Is there something in particular about this story you hope readers will take away with them, perhaps something that isn’t immediately obvious?
Julia: The message is that 'We love our friends not in spite of their flaws, but because of them'. e: What are you working on next or what would be your dream project?
Julia: My dream job would be to create a wordless book. The ultimate challenge for any illustrator. Here is the interview from Tiny Owl about my thoughts on the subject...

Wordless books transcend language barriers
Our industry is lucky to be championed by publishers, educationalists and parents that understand and actively promote the importance of sharing a book with a child as early as possible. In my experience, even sharing a book with words with a very young child is often edited to reduce the vocabulary until their literary comprehension advances. I personally devoured picture books before I could read or spell, specifically Richard Scarry’s books filled with endless details to discover. I actually ate one page because I loved it so very much, behaviour I don’t condone!
      A wordless book passes on incredible gifts to whoever turns the first page… A wordless book is the ultimate visual communication tool that encourages, sometimes demands, the viewer’s interaction. One has the opportunity and creative freedom to become the narrator, and potentially the same book may never be described the same way twice. A wordless book is a springboard for personal interpretation, allowing the reader to hear their own voice and personally identify with the protagonist and themes. Wordless books transcend language barriers, breach learning gaps and plant the seeds of adventure into the youngest of hearts. They are masterclasses in beauty and narrative, expanding the visual, verbal and empathetic vocabulary of any child. I’ve witnessed a wordless book being absorbed silently by individuals, and conversely being utilised as a powerful platform for sharing excited questions, taking whole classrooms on unforgettable journeys of wonder.
      A wordless book is simply a legacy of enchantment.

e: Lovely!
If you'd like to learn more about Julia, visit her on Instagram, Twitter, or her website at JuliaPatton.co.uk. Thanks for sharing, Julia!

Dunbars Close Garden

There are secret gardens tucked in and around the city of Edinburgh. I've been trying to slowly find them. While walking down the Royal Mile from the Tour of Britain bike race, I happened to look left and saw the sign of "Dunbars Close." Somehow, my mind remembered to stick the word "Garden" onto the end of it. "We have to check something," I said to Stan and pulled him in. And I was right! This is what we found. The website says it best.
     Dunbar’s Close on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh’s Old Town is a hidden gem. The garden has been laid out in the style and character of a 17th century garden.To enter you travel along a narrow, cobbled close.It opens out into a surprisingly tranquil and elegant parterre of clipped shrubs under a cosy green canopy of trees.Beyond the entrance are further parterres, each with different atmospheres and all are sheltered thanks to high church walls on the west side and clipped hedging on the others...It has such an authentic sense of place that you feel like you are one of the few to have discovered it. It is hard to believe that somewhere so peaceful, so city centre, was a building site until 1976 when The Mushroom Trust funded the creation of a new garden by Seamus Filor, landscape architect.The Mushroom Trust handed the garden over to the City of Edinburgh on completion and is still involved in its management.I like to think that finding this sweet little garden, hosted by The Mushroom Trust was a reward for what happened on the Royal Mile just before we found the garden... A grocer was delivering fresh produce to a storefront. A box of tomatoes and a box of mushrooms somehow overturned and began rolling down the street. Stan and I had the same reaction as all of those around us...We gasped, "Oh no!" and began chasing down the tomatoes and mushrooms. Dozens of hands returned the produce to their boxes over the shoulders of the very surprised and very grateful grocer. But y'know, that's just how we roll here. (Sorry!) Hehe.

Coloring Page Tuesday - Dr Fox

     I hope you don't need a doctor any time soon. But if you do, I hope they're as friendly as Dr. Fox! CLICK HERE for more coloring pages!
     CLICK HERE to sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and... Please check out my books! Especially...
my debut novel, A BIRD ON WATER STREET - winner of over a dozen literary awards, including Georgia Author of the Year. Click the cover to learn more!
     When the birds return to Water Street, will anyone be left to hear them sing? A miner's strike allows green and growing things to return to the Red Hills, but that same strike may force residents to seek new homes and livelihoods elsewhere. Follow the story of Jack Hicks as he struggles to hold onto everything he loves most.
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

Portobello Art Walk

I told you we headed to the beach recently. Well, just like we did two years ago on another wonderful sunny day, we stumbled upon the Portobello Art Walk. This is a delightful event where many of the myriad of artists who live in Portobello open up their studios for a walking tour. It's such a delightful little town, this can be managed in a few hours of happy meandering.That said, when we bagan the tour after a lovely lunch with friends Penelope and (her son) James, the tide was in and I wondered how an artist had managed to affix this enormous metal octopus onto the tide marker.No matter, we had studios to explore... Each is charming in its own way, from stand alone studios behind houses to flats with barely enough room to move. But they are all the homes of massive creativity, both inside and out. Some are quite business-like and stream-lines, some are just explosions of stuff. The average skill level is fairly high, from better-than-average to full-on professionals. I loved this view out a studio window into the garden...where I found this installation.And this installation of cut-outs and wall shapes. (I believe these were in the studios of Jane Rutherford and Mark Haddon.) And this sculpture of "Feral Boys" spilling down Teresa Gordon's entrance way staircase was fantastic!And I adored Paul MacPhail's photographs. What I really enjoyed were the bits and bobs the artists had decorating their spaces for inspiration. Like these found objects on a metal beam.Or this bird-feeding station with a ceramic bird.Or this amazing glass and ceramic studio that housed some impressive equipment.Stan enjoyed the artists' assistants that we often came across, like this tom cat.It would seem that the ArtWalk happens on the most beautiful day of the year, each year, as it's now pulled us to Portobello twice. By the time we reached the end of the day, the tide had rolled out revealing how that octopus had been affixed to the tide marker. Lovely!Perhaps next year, we'll just plan to go on purpose!

Portobello Beach

I've been working away in my studio, going a wee bit stir crazy. So when we awoke to a gorgeous day on Saturday, we just had to go to Portobello (a.k.a. Porty) Beach! It's only 20 minutes away by bus, yet light-years away mentally. I emailed some friends who live there to meet us for lunch at the Espy (with their dogs) and off we went! (Hi Penelope and James!)It was immediately obvious that we weren't the only ones with the idea of a day at the beach. No worries, being surrounded by people eager to have a good time fills the air with positive and healing vibes.
We also happened across the Portobello Art Walk - more on that in tomorrow's post. Meanwhile, the beach was gorgeous and made us happy.We watched sailboats,children playing and dogs. OH, the dogs! I've said it before and I'll say it again. If reincarnation is real, I don't want to come back as a human. No. I want to come back as a doggie on Porty Beach!You have never seen so many happy dogs in one place. They bounce and run and chase and sniff and get along with each other and their humans wonderfully (many without leashes). They also dig. Heck, so do the children. So you have to watch for holes as you walk on the sand. Truly, dogs on Porty are the happiest creatures I have ever seen in my life and it does my heart such good.After a long day of enjoying artists studios, walking on the beach, lunch with friends, and soaking up the loveliness, we stopped for tea at The Beach House.I had sand in my shoes and a smile on my face, just the way I like it. Ahhhhhh.

Tour of Britain!

This year's Tour of Britain bicycle race began in Edinburgh! Stan and I have long been fans of the Tour de France, although we've never seen it in person. So this was an absolute treat to see the Tour of Britain!
     I have to share it with you backwards as we experienced it for it to make sense. But these guys are fast, so we had to choose at which point we wanted to see them - which was a little further along in the race. It began up on the Royal Mile at the grandstand in front of St. Giles Cathedral.The course was marked with bollards, flags, and gates all along the Royal Mile.
Not a bad place to start a race.Stan and I set ourselves up at the bottom of Johnston's Terrace. This is a road that winds around the castle fairly steeply, so Stan knew we'd get to see a length of the peleton moving at a pretty high speed. Boy was he right, and what a view! (Yes, that's the castle.) I was able to stand on a bollard to get these shots for your.
This was looking the other direction as they wound around the corner to Lady Lawson Street - the same street I took to walk to Uni almost every day through my MFA. They went around the course twice for the opening, so I got these pictures during one lap and this video during the next lap. (Click the image to watch on YouTube.) My only conundrum was on what to yell. For the Tour de France, you yell "Allez! Allez! Allez!" For this one... "Ah, gae on ya, then?" HA! I don't know. At any rate, it was a lovely way to start a Sunday morning in Edinburgh!

VIDEO: MA Illustration Features

This year's MA Illustration graduating students from the University of Edinburgh College of Art put together a video compilation of their creations and creative processes. Very cool and very fun! Click the image to go watch online.

Friday Links List - 1 September 2017

From The Guardian: Children's Book Roundup: The Best New Picture Books and Novels

The Georgia Center for the Book has announced this years 10s lists! Click the image to learn more.
From CBC: 10 picture books you'll want to check out this fall

From Nathan Bransford: What if B&N went bankrupt? (They're NOT! But what if...This is a fascinating look at the current publishing model.)

From The Washington Post: How to get kids to look away from their screens and take pleasure in books

From Brightly: 25 of the Most Exciting Picture Books of Fall 2017

From The Scottish Book Trust: 5 Reasons Why Myths, Folktales and Fairytales Stand the Test of Time