New book!

My newest book, 'The Gingerbread Man' is now out!
You can grab a copy in time for Xmas by following this link;

http://www.thecepress.com/product/the-gingerbread-man/

YAY!

Just heard that my book - 'Little Red Riding Hood....' Has made it through to the finals of the People's Book Prize!
Very many thanks to anyone who voted for it.

NEWS!

Sorry for the scarcity of posts of late - have been extremely busy with lots of exciting new projects - more news to follow.
The big news is that my book 'Little Red Riding Hood...' has been shortlisted for an award! I would really appreciate it if you would consider voting for it.







http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.php?id=1437




Many thanks.

recent work

Managed to find some time to explore variations on a theme. Instead of full colour paintings/drawings, I tried to strip them back to a bare minimum, using colour for the backgrounds only. Particularly like the skateboarder.

masks & swimmers

Long time no post - it's report writing and end of year assessment time!
A couple of recent projects.
'African' masks with our y2's - simple symmetrical card cutouts.

And automaton swimmers with y4's.

When you blow through a straw along its back, the arms 'flail' around! (the head acts as a turbine).

new ebook

https://www.amazon.co.uk/P-U-nC-S-Deletors-return-John-Fidler-ebook/dp/B01GYU9HJY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1465845304&sr=8-4&keywords=john+fidler

Have just 'published' the 2nd book in the series. 

Still waiting for those Hollywood agents to option the film rights!

another peg

Managed to find time, using another vintage peg, to create an automaton! As the handle is turned the figure goes up and down - he's supposed to be a swimmer. Not sure whether to add paint or just leave alone.

dolls and books

A couple of weeks ago I managed to find some vintage wooden pegs at a flea market.
Have just got round to making one up as a peg doll. The arms are jointed using vintage buttons and hand-made string. The wooden heart covers a hole but thinking about it now I could have left it and called this a 'broken-hearted' doll.

The reason it's taken a couple of weeks to whittle this is because I've been busy publishing again!
This time I've gone all ebook and have put a children's book into the kindle store on Amazon. It only went live yesterday but already has begun to sell. Its the first in what I intend to be a series that can stand alone as fiction books or be used in a classroom to spark an interest and enthusiasm for grammar and punctuation! Please feel free to check it out;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/P-U-nC-S-Saviours-punctuation-John-Fidler-ebook/dp/B01FPLZK8K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1463412374&sr=8-2&keywords=john+fidler

long time no post!

In y2 the other day we had a go at painting without drawing in pencil first. We drew elephants last week in our sketchbooks so just made the same marks but with a paintbrush. We added a bit of texture by scratching with a cocktail stick.

shed

Over the Easter hols I managed, in between the rain showers, to not only put a base down but also to erect a shed on it!

Feeling quite pleased - especially as the shed came as a kit of a million parts!

recent

Our y1's have been studying the Queen - so we created new palaces for her! We made them in the form of a pop-up with the possible idea of posting them off to her!

 Our y6's have been studying the Shang Dynasty (Ancient China) and have carefully, over a number of weeks(!), made full-size replicas of bronze ceremonial vessels out of papier mache over card armatures. We tried to add an authentic patination using pastels. (nb. bronze contains copper and so over time goes a greeny colour).

knit one

Our y3's are currently knitting! Most of them, having mastered the basics are flying along. As their current study theme is to do with cold places I had the brilliant idea (!) of getting them to knit a bobble hat! It's been a struggle but I think we may be getting there.

Meanwhile on my painting board - 'A Close Finish'. Acrylics on paper, roughly A4 size.
Playing around with my 'new', extremely pared down and simplistic style, to see if I could do more than footy players and folk diving! I would more than welcome any feedback.

steady as she goes

Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma...(etc) is continuing to sell steadily. The publisher has recently sent out some review copies so hopefully we might get one or two positive responses.


If you still haven't got your copy yet, head on over to;


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Riding-Hood-Grandma-Woodcutter/dp/0993200095/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1455205926&sr=8-15&keywords=Little+red+riding+hood

book day & maths

Today, as it was World Book Day, I got our y4's to combine their love of books and Maths(!!). They used the shapes from a tangram to create book characters. They came up with lots of really inventive ones like these - Peter Rabbit & The Ugly Duckling.

pugilists

A bit of spare time - so painted up a quick pic of boxers (based on the previous sketches).
18x20cm, acrylics + ink, on paper.

recent

Some more sketches in the 'new' style. Boxers this time! Am liking the semi-abstract nature of this style and really fancy doing some large (1m+) paintings just to see how they turn out.

the Vikings are coming!

The y5's have completed their Viking longship sculptures. The hulls are made from terracotta clay - using the coil method, which simulates the wooden planking. The mast and spars are wood (dowel & lollipop stick) whilst the sail is a piece of cotton. They even made some crew members from short lengths of paper dowel. Size? About 15cm stem to stern.

Trying out a new style - even more blockier and abstract than before. 'Red Diver' measures 30x40cm, on canvas.

d is for...

In FS2 they are going to be looking at the story of St. George & the Dragon, so today we drew dragons using the letter 'd' as a starting point. This one reminds me of 'Pete's' Dragon!

the dizzy heights!

My Little Red Riding Hood book is now available on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Riding-Hood-Grandma-Woodcutter/dp/0993200095/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1455205926&sr=8-15&keywords=Little+red+riding+hood

fire!

The y2's have completed their mixed media 'Great Fire of London' pieces. They've painted, printed, drawn and collaged wonderful representations of the conflagration!

 In y4 today we did a bit of 'action' painting - though a little bit more controlled than Jackson Pollack would probably have been. We dripped, splattered and poured volcanic eruptions.

new

Doodles from my notebook. Trying out a new style - a bit more abstract/simplified. The first two are in 'honour' of the, shortly to kick off, '6 Nations' tournament.

LRRH

Today in FS2, by pure chance(!), they were looking at Little Red Riding Hood!
We had a go at drawing reversible images - where Granny becomes the Big, Bad Wolf if you rotate her.
Nb. she has spots and bags under her eyes 'cos she's not well, even though she's putting a brave face on! 

PUBLISHED!

It's out!!

My book is now available to buy!

Please follow the link below to check it out;

http://www.thecepress.com/product/little-red-riding-hood-the-wolf-grandma-and-the-woodcutter/

seals

Y4 have painted their clay sculptures. We used a 'splodge' technique to achieve the colouration found on grey seals!

printing

Y2's have been printing houses ready for collaging into mixed media 'Fire of London' pieces. Lots of 'woodwork' on this one!

clay

In y3, as a follow up to their pop-ups last week, we decided to sculpt some penguins (and seals) out of clay. We modelled the penguins around our thumbs! Dowels and broken lollipop sticks complete the look. We'll let them air-dry before painting.

I love the modelling and detail of these back flippers.

bears cottage

In FS2 today we continued with our 'G & 3 bears' theme. Using simple origami we made the cottage 3d so that it could stand and have both an 'outside' and an 'inside'!
The idea can be adapted for many traditional tales - 3 little pigs, Handel & Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood etc. It can even be made to pop-up! 

This is the mock-up I did.

bears & flags

In FS2 they have begun to look at traditional tales. First up is 'Goldilocks...' so we had a go at drawing bears using simple shapes.

In Y1 they are looking at Britain & the monarchy. So we created a Union flag from images of things that we considered reminded us of Britain - the different native animals, famous landmarks, flowers, people etc. You might be able to spot a London bus, the Queen and a teacup. (Nb. Some of the pics were done by the adult helpers!)

the dark side!

Have gone and done it - I've signed up to the behemoth that is Facebook. I've finally decided that it's probably the best way to promote any work that I do. Although my blog does get read (thankyou!), more people interact with FB and it's an easier platform to share and respond to the work of others.

Suffice to say, any future posts on here might be even more few and far between than previously.

EXCITED!

As I type this my book has gone to print! It should be available to buy in a couple of weeks at the most. Fingers crossed we manage to sell some! 

Don't worry. As soon as I know the link I'll post it!

the really little ones!

Today is the day I venture down amongst the little people - our 3 yr olds!
We had a go at drawing and naming shapes (using dots to guide us) and then decided what we could make from them. We added lots of detail whilst concentrating on pencil grip, language skills etc.

simple perspective

In y4 today we looked at perspective. Using the simple format of a box frame with diagonal, horizontal and vertical lines we were able to create different room, land and cityscapes.

A is for ...

Penguins, polar bears and seals! Today in y3 we drew these 'cos it's been snowing and is very cold! They are also, next week, going to be starting a 'topic' all about cold places. We looked online for pictures so we could add more detail.