Laurent is a children's editor and illustrator who lives in London with her husband, two cats and a rabbit. If she wasn't an editor she'd be a paleontologist, and if she wasn't a human she'd be a dinosaur. Her favourite dinosaur is Triceratops. Follow her on Twitter: @mrs_laurent
Dedicated to Tula Violet Haywood, born 7th May 2012, and Elyse Anders, immortal 7th May 2012.
Well, it’s the big day! It’s time for the Big Bang, and I have not two, not three, but FIVE pages of The Little Universe to offer today. As much as I would like to say it, this isn’t because I’m feeling extra generous or have a lot of time on my hands – the story just splits nicely this way.
Ready… Set …
I wish I could say this episode has been inspired by the beauty of the Norwegian fjords, because I have just returned from them, and it is such a beautiful and inspiring place, but alas it has not. Despite that, it has been lovingly crafted with a woozy head, partly for spending the last 7 days on a very rocky boat, partly for consuming too many cocktails on said rocky boat.
So, on with episode 3 of The Little Universe? Yes? Let's go…
It's time for episode 2 – hooray! Owing to the long Easter (zombie) weekend, I coped well finishing off this installment. But, as the story moves forward, and little Bep, Steve the rabbit, Goldie the cat and Amy the goldfish discover more about their little Universe, the artwork gets increasingly complex. I often have future visions of myself, around episode 15, up at 4am, trying to sharpen pencils in my ears and erase mistakes with my tongue. Stick with me and we'll get through the tough times together.
While my sanity is still intact, let's enjoy episide 2 after the jump…
So, I'm writing a children's book (hooray!), and I'm going to share it with you, page by page, over the course of a good many weeks, along with some background information you might find interesting. I love children's books, and I think they are important too. They are often the first means a child has of understanding the world around them – a world which they have not begun to fully get to grips with yet. Saying it like that lays a certain amount of burden on the writer and/or illustrator, and too right it should!
This is Bep. You'll be seeing quite a lot of her over the course of this project, so I hope you're not offended by curly redheads in pyjamas who insist on dragging their pets across space and time. So, this is her, and this is why I created her and sought out to tell the story of the Universe…
More after the break.
Good day, Labbers. I have a treat for you today in the form of a tantalising guest post from Stuart F Taylor. Stuart is the author of Tales from Pareidolia, an illustrated collection of original fairy tales inspired by skepticism and science. Stuart lovingly plucked two Mad Art Lab illustrators to contribute to the book, so we are very proud to hand the spotlight over to him for this post, where he will explain the idea behind the book and also showcase a few excerpts. Take it away, Stuart…
In my introductory post on Mad Art Lab, I briefly mentioned that I was training for a roller-skating marathon (that’s 26.2 miles) in August, and will be raising money for Simon’s Singh’s charity Sense About Science, specifically their Report Dodgy Science campaign that encourages the public to send in misleading claims and get involved in tackling them.
Now the time is dawning ever closer, I’d like to take advantage of my blogging powers and raise awareness of what I’m doing and why. Let’s start with the “what”.
It was recently suggested by Elyse Anders over at Skepchick to us here at Mad Art Lab the hypothesis that “the worse the design, the worse the crazy”. The website that provoked such a claim was Yvette’s Bridal Formal, a wonderland of crazy under the guise of an online store. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard legend of this website. It first came to my attention via Richard Wiseman’s The worst websites ever … Wiseman had the good sense to just link and run, but to test this claim demands a little more guts (or should I say stupidity?).
Homeopaths talk about malaria-shaped holes that only homeopathy can fill. Evangelists talk about God-shaped holes that only religion can fill. Well, recently I tried to repair a hole myself: an evolution-shaped hole. Because, let me tell you, we have one hell of an evolution-shaped hole at my publishers.
Hello, everyone. My name is Lauren. I’m a new addition to Mad Art Lab and I can’t even describe how thrilled I am to be here, squished in alongside such awesome people. Before I formally introduce myself, let me explain this accompanying picture…
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