I always look forward to the festival, and it gets better every year. This year, I’ll definitely check out Gary Northfield’s session. Laura Sheldon will be great too, and Dan Anthony’s Pirate Walk sounds cool. Also, you have to check out beatboxer Mr Phormula.
I’ll be scribbling and shouting and doodling and waving my hands about and encouraging other people to do the same, and hope that at the end of it we’ve all drawn some cool stuff. I’ll be talking a bit about my upcoming comic project – Mellten – and helping people make a start on their own awesome comics.
I think I was always an illustrator/cartoonist, just that seven years ago or so I figured out that I was…after trying a few other jobs that really didn’t work out! I just started sending some cartoons to magazines and papers and it grew from there.
I grew up in a house full of books and readers, so for me there’s nothing more comforting and homely than a bunch of people sitting in complete silence reading! I’m not sure where the drawing itch came from, but my parents tell me I drew over the walls as a toddler so I guess it was always there.
Man, I would love to have seen those Roald Dahl books in draft, manuscript form. All that magic and bubbling wonder, bald and unadorned. If they were to unearth a previously undiscovered book by Roald Dahl, I would literally give my right arm to illustrate it. And then draw with my feet. To be fair, Quentin Blake did an OK job of illustrating them, didn’t he? What a double act!
In terms of memorable villains, I really loved the Redwall series as a youngster and the heroic mice monks defending their abbey from an evil band of rats and weasels. The baddie in that was a really really bad rat called Cluny the Scourge and he put the shivers right up me.
For any budding illustrators out there, I would just advise to draw draw draw draw draw draw. Draw everything, all the time. If that sounds horrible, don’t be an illustrator.
Illustrator and cartoonist Huw Aaron created the Festival’s eye catching logo, which depicts the animals from Cardiff Castle’s wall. He has a Welsh language cartoon session on Saturday, April 23rd at Cardiff Central Library, aimed at those aged over eight.
The festival aims to create lifelong readers with tickets currently on sale via Ticketline UK (02920 230 130 or www.ticketlineuk.com ) and www.cardiff-events.com
Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival will take place from 16-24 April 2016
See www.facebook.com/CDFKidsLitFest (English) or www.facebook.com/GwylLLenPlant
or follow @CDFKidsLitFest or @GwylLlenPlant on Twitter for more information.