A cosmic egg, the power of teaspoons, and thoughts on quitting

Story Street #29

Welcome to Story Street – a monthly newsletter from children’s author and illustrator Jane Porter. Read on for ramblings about my life as a picture book maker, community artist, comic diarist, under-confident fiddle player and failed luthier.

February has whizzed past: I’ve been drawing Tudors for Hampton Court Palace, planning workshops, dreaming up new stories - and even took part in a seal rescue! March is shaping up to be busy too: keep reading to find out about an online event I am doing with the Association of Illustrators and Maria Tunney from Walker Books on Thursday March 20th especially for aspiring picture book makers.

How the earth was made

I got a chance to get messy with ink and paint in a project for the British Library Learning team. The brief was to make a ‘Pourquoi Story’ in the form of a little hand-made book. I was given a Chinese creation myth to work with - it starts with a Cosmic Egg. It’s been great fun working out how to put all the elements of the story together in a concertina format. Below is my initial experiments - at this point I was wondering how much nudity is acceptable, as you can see from the strategically placed collage leaves…

I’ll show you the finished book when it goes live on the BL site, but in the meantime do look at their fantastic free resources about children’s books on YouTube:

Hourly comics catch up

Exactly four weeks ago it was Hourly Comics Day – so what did I get up to? After a very tough January it was a joy to spend the day walking on the beach,

swimming (yes it was cold),

seeing friends – and DANCING at a ceilidh!

If you’d like to see more of my diaries, I am making that tenth anniversary video soon - it’s just taking a while to pick what to feature.

Meanwhile it’s that time of year when my doormat fills up with delightful bundles from around the world - it’s zine swap time! Each term in my online comics class, we do a postal zine swap and it’s always a treat to get such lovely post. Next term’s comics class starts on Wednesday April 16th, and I’ll be opening enrolments to new students from Monday March 17th. All the info is via the link below: do let me know if you’re interested in joining.

Out and about with Bob

February was a busy month for me and my small corduroy elephant. I’ve read Be Bold Bob to schools and families up and down the country, and illustrator Jenni Desmond and I held a little celebratory event at Paper Cat Bookshop in Herne Hill. Here we are with the wonderful Walker Books team (l-r: me, Jenni, Denise (and Bob), Louise and Nic)…

… and below is the most delightful surprise on the night - illustrator/author/musician Alex Barrow just happened to have his accordion in the back of the car and treated us to tunes all evening! Bob is keen to learn how to play now.

Later in the month I had a great day at The Straw Yard - a new theatre/arts space in Berwick upon Tweed. I had a mini-exhibition:

and really enjoyed chatting to visitors, as well as meeting families for two collage workshops. After reading Be Bold Bob, I set the children the challenge of creating a new performing character - and just look at these beauties that emerged. There was also a penguin who covers himself in oil to slip through a tiny tyre, and many other wonders…

If you’d like to buy a copy of Be Bold Bob, or any of my other books, do support your local independent bookshop and place an order there. Or there’s a handy link here with all my books in one place:

The power of teaspoons

Last month in this newsletter, I mentioned the UK government’s plans to allow AI training on any artwork posted online - unless its creator ‘opts out’ of every individual piece, each time it’s used anywhere. Painstaking and time-consuming beyond all rationality, not to mention highly unjust.

Copyright should ALWAYS remain with the creator by default.

The campaign against this change was started by four fellow illustrators: Simona Ciraolo, Momoko Abe, Ged Adamson and Chris Haughton, who between them have worked very hard to get the word out. When Simona was just starting the campaign, she told me she was worried that a few small voices couldn’t make enough difference. At the time, I’d just been to see Complete Unknown, the film about Bob Dylan. And I described the scene where Pete Seeger says this:

“The world is like a seesaw out of balance: on one side is a box of big rocks, tilting it its way. On the other side is a box, and a bunch of us with teaspoons, adding a little sand at a time. One day, all of our teaspoons will add up, and the whole thing will tip, and people will say, 'How did it happen so fast?’”

It has been extraordinary how a few voices have snowballed. I made a post on Instagram which went a little bit viral (316K views, wait, what?!) and it was exciting to see how this message has been shared far and wide, with many artists filling in the government consultation who had not previously been aware of it - just in time for the Feb 25th deadline - and signing an open letter, which you can read more about here. And on the day of the consultation deadline, just LOOK at the front pages of ALL the newspapers! I have never seen the like - the campaign graphics by the Association of Illustrators could not possibly be more prominent.

If you’d like to keep up to date on developments, the best way is by checking out Against the Box where all the latest news can be found.

On quitting

Regular readers of this newsletter might have found themselves thinking, we haven’t had an update on that violin-making project for a while, what’s going on? Isn’t it finished yet? Well: I have sad news to report. I have GIVEN UP.

It turns out that making a violin is very, very, very difficult. I’m not sure why I didn’t work this out before I started. It should have been obvious that extremely accurate measuring would be crucial – and that’s something I’ve really struggled with.

I suspect it’s because all my creative work is the complete opposite – I follow my instincts, listen to my gut, and tend to cheerfully EYEBALL anything that vaguely touches on ratios or proportions.

It’s not the first time I’ve given up on a course after more than a year. Way back in the early 90s, I started studying landscape architecture at Thames Polytechnic (shortly to become Greenwich University). I was studying part-time while working on a magazine about…landscape architecture! After 18 months I feared that all I would ever get to do was detail car parks, and realised it wasn’t for me.

This time around was a little different – I never had any illusions about becoming a luthier (a professional violin-maker). I just wanted to make something I could play. And I have really enjoyed the journey, loved the workshop atmosphere and learned some useful transferrable skills (there’s no door I won’t plane to make it fit better these days). But my complete lack of aptitude was getting me down, and as I watched in admiration as other students completed superb scrolls and perfect purfling, the words ‘Quit while you’re behind’ started to fill my thoughts.

Sometimes giving up is the right thing to do.

And so I have come to a very amicable arrangement with my tutor to finish fettling Fen’s fiddle, then dip into some delightfully free-form wood carving or other simple woodwork project until the end of summer term. Any suggestions for what I should make?

Here's a glimpse into my violin-making notebook – at least I made something nice!

(and by the way I DO still fear the belt sander).

Are you a prospective picture book maker?

On Thursday March 20th I’m taking part in an online event with the Association of Illustrators (AOI). I’m going to be chatting to Maria Tunney, Editorial Director at Walker Books, and sharing tips about how to most effectively pitch your ideas.

If you’d like to attend, here’s the link to book your place:

And if there’s anything you’d like me to cover, do let me know.

Shiny buttons and spruced up whiskers

I went to a brilliant book launch for excellent illustrator Claire Powell’s debut as author too. Marty Moose is the sort of book I would have devoured as a child - it’s a really funny story about a hapless post-mouse, but what makes it really special are the illustrations - just wait till you see the heath Robinson-style booby trap in the Carbuncles’ Yard. And the endpaper MAP. There’s SO much humorous detail to enjoy - this one is highly recommended. Congratulations Claire on a smasher! Marty Moose is out now with Walker Books, and I believe books 2 and 3 will be coming soon too…

A sad river story

Something tragic happened in February - a big spill of diesel on my beloved river Wandle. For 20 years I volunteered on this urban chalk-stream, getting into a pair of waders and pulling out all the things that weren’t supposed to be there, from tyres to shopping trolleys, and traffic cones to false teeth (the experience inspired my graphic novel-in-progress, The Ghost Carp). About 15 years ago there was an accidental release of bleach into the water, killing thousands of fish. And now it’s happened again, with a different pollutant - it’s heartbreaking. The South East Rivers Trust is raising funds to help the river recover: if you’d like to chip in, here’s the link:

I’m now about to disappear down a World Book Week hole, which will take me into schools from Nuneaton to Eastbourne via Mortlake. I’ll be meeting hundreds of children: it’s going to be fun but exhausting - wish me luck! If you’re curious about school visits, there’s no better introduction to the highs and lows than these comics by Candy Gourlay - do take a look.

Bye bye from me and Bob, and see you on April Fool’s Day.

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