Divi & Frey

Research, Insights and notes for educators

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  • Monkey in Samurai vs Ninja

    It is always fun when drawing a book if you can thread some of your life long influences into the work. I had such an opportunity in the Samurai vs Ninja series.
    Monkey slide 1 small
    As a young boy growing up one of my favourite television shows was ‘Monkey’. Which was shown on ABC in the afternoon after school. Also known as ‘Monkey Magic’ and ‘Saiyūki’.

    I loved this show so much I decided that it would be a great addition to the Samurai vs Ninja book. It may seem a little odd to people, to pay homage to a traditional Chinese story (Journey to the West) in a book set in Japan. Of course, anyone who knows the series will know that it was a Japanese production.

    So each of the first 3 books has a character in it. Book 1 has Monkey, book 2 has Pigsy and book 3 has Sandy. They all turn up together in book 4 with Tripitaka.

  • Kaba Samas castle

    www.flowersink.com.au

  • School Talk images book week 2015

    Every year I am lucky enough to spend time talking at schools around the country. No time is more frantic than around Children’s Book Week. In my sessions I invite story suggestions from the children and we visually create stories and characters to populate them with.

    I thought it might be fun looking at a few of the crazy characters that I have created with students. These images are digitally enhanced ink sketches that I draw into a sketch book after talks. I keep these for my own interest and as a record of the crazy ideas that have been created.

    School Talk Octo Plata Pigypus

    This first images is the combination of an octopus, a platypus and a pig. Before I created this image I draw all three creatures and discussed what elements are iconic for each.
    School Talk Lava Dog

    The next is Lava dog. The students suggested this character as a side kick of lolly pop man. But as I just like drawing dog, I haven’t included lollypop man.

    The last image is a Mercat. The students in this instance suggested a fish and a cat. I have based the cat on my only cat ‘Daisy’.

    School talks Mercat

  • 12 top tips for public speaking and school talk

    Public speaking and school talks are a part of promoting yourself when your are involved in the Children’s publishing market. It was the subject of some discussion at a SCBWI meeting in Canberra last night. The talented Susanne Gervay was sharing some insight on the state of Australian publishing when the topic came up.

    Rosville PS 11APRIL13

    As a regular speaker at events for children, I think I might have some tips for those looking to launch a career in publishing.

    Here are 12 things I hope you find useful,

    1. Get use to talking in public. I’m sure that my first talks were terrible. I wasn’t comfortable doing it. I just forced my to go and do it. So get out an practice. You don’t need an event, try alternative, i.e Rotrum (http://www.rostrum.com.au). Am always striving to improve my public speaking. Having presented so many times with my author friend, Nick Falk, I have learnt heaps from him. Mainly about being loud!
    1. Not everyone is funny or at least not every who thinks that they are is. You don’t have to be a comedian to be a great kids book talker. If you lack the confidence to start, may consider professional help. Not a psychiatrist, but a Stand up comedy course or and acting class. If nothing else, tips on how to use a microphone would be helpful. I would personally benefit from some microphone lessons
    1. Know your audience and what they want. Unless they ask in question time. Kids generally don’t want to know about your journey to become an Author or illustrator. They want to know about your books and character. Typically they will ask you where your ideas come from, how long does it take to write (or draw) a book, What’s your favourite book (either yours or someone else), how much money do you make, are you married, how old are you…etc.
    1. Bring your books to life. Don’t just hold up the book and flash the cover to the adoring crowd. Read a section, but read with passion. If you’re an illustrator and your comfortable drawing in public, draw for them. Nothing will have the audience in the palm of your hand like a quick drawing. Don’t draw if you think it will take a long time to complete. No body wants to see your back for 1/2 an hour while you create a masterpiece. With that, practice drawing and be aware that you will block out the view from some of the audience. I try to move around a bit so people can see what is happening. It is also different drawing on whiteboards or with paper clipped vertical. Personally I normally draw on a table or desk, not leaning against the wall and not at the scale that is required to entertain an audience
    1. Engage with the audience. If you do the same talk over and over you will start to sound like a robot. Allow time for the audience to guide you on what they want to know. Ask them questions and be fearless in your answers. I generally run with the concept they can ask anything. I normally try and give a honest answer. If I am uncomfortable answering, I make up an obvious lie. i.e. how much do you earn? Answer: 5 billion dollars a drawing. I try never to do this if I can help it.
    1. Set up and prepare. Make sure that your are not hungry, not needing to go to the loo, not distracted trying to find props (if you have them) and generally relaxed as much as possible. The 5 (or 6) ‘P’, always remember that prior preparation prevents (piss) poor performance.
    1. Talk for less time than you have. In a 45minute talk, I only plan 30 minutes of talking and 15minutes of Questions and Answer.
    1. Be flexible. You may have expected to talk for an hour, but for reasons beyond anyone control; you now have ½ an hour. Or you have ½ an hour extra. If you know your stuff, you can chop and change as needed.
    1. Don’t rely technological support. Power point is boring, if using it keep it short and make it highly relevant (an excellent example I saw of this was one of Sarah Davis’s illustration talks on character design). Have a plan B, what will you do if there is a power failure, your computer is stolen or the bulb in the light pro bursts?
    1. Commit, when you read, Commit it and the audience will respond. If you are going to try for funny, commit to it or it will fall flat, if you are going to demonstrate something, Commit to the activity.
    1. It’s O.K. to make mistake, either in talking, reading, drawing juggling chainsaws (maybe not the chain saws). It shows your human that all. I spend a great amount of time explaining the benefits or getting in wrong in my talks, the working through ideas that are rubbish or sketches that a appalling. This is an important message for kids. As author and illustrators we don’t just sit down and get it right first go.
    1. Lastly, You are there to inform and engage with the audience, you are not an entertainer, a sideshow act or a circus clown. You can still have loads of fun and clown around. But you are there talking about stories and there for the benefit to the kids.

    I hope that these are useful tips and that I will see you around talking about your books soon.

    If your interested in me coming at talking at your school (to see a demonstration of the above mentioned tips). I am represented in Sydney by The Children’s Bookshop Speakers Agency, http://thechildrensbookshopspeakersagency.com.au

    and in Brisbane and other parts of Australia by Speakers Ink

    http://www.speakers-ink.com.au

    General enquires can be emailed directly to me at tony@flowersink.com.au

  • Madam Boar

    This character appears in” Samurai vs Ninja book 3: Day if the Dreadful Undead”.This is Madam Boar.

    I thought it would interest some people to see the basic steps to get get this image ready for print.

    Madam boar layers smf

    This image appear (as at stage 3) on page 62 of the book. I have spent a little extra time creating stage 4 (above) to demonstrate the difference black and white and colour.

    For the technical minded readers, this image was coloured in photoshop. I created a layer for all on the black line work. The line work was originally hand inked and then scanned. This layer had a clear background. Then by creating a second layer underneath this, I digitally painted the colour where it was needed. The reason I apply the colour in this way, is if you try and colour the layer with the line work you will end up with white pixel specks where lines join or your ink work is a bit rough. Not such an issue if you create the line work digitally. In the past I would have added the colour by guiding the cursor with my mouse. I have recently brought a wacom Intuos pro, pen and touch tablet. I have used these for this image.

    If you have any question please put in the comment section or email me.

  • Samurai vs Ninja Kamizumo Game

    When looking for extra activities for Samurai vs Ninja, I came across the game Kamizumo.

    Kamizumo is a Japanese ‘paper wrestling’ game. Paper figures are place them on the Kamizumo paper ring. You tap your figures on the edge of the paper ring, the first figure knock over of out looses the round.

    I have been hard at work on my first ever Kamizumo game. But before I start work on characters from the stories. I thought it would be fun to battle it out with Nick Falk. So the first characters are Nick and myself. If this proves popular, I plan to add other characters (Buta-sama, Kingyo-Sama, Skinny fish, Little pig, Sumo san, Mighty Fish).

    Below is the character sheet, Print in landscape and set the scale to auto adjust to the page size.

    Kamizumo character sheet Tony and Nick 200 dpi

    and here is the ring. When you print it, it should automatically print in the centre of the paper. Just fold the paper edge under the ring to give a little extra spring. You can also place the ring on to a large book to add bounce.

    Kamizumo Board 200dpi

    Have fun!

  • The Totoro’s branch

    From woodblock prints to anime. Japanese inspiration for ‘Samurai vs Ninja’, my series with Nick Falk, is everywhere. One of my favourite anime artists the master himself, Hayao Miyazaki.my-neighbor-totoro-branch

    In this illustration (right) from the Curse of the Oni (page 71), you can see how I have borrowed from Miyazaki to give Kaba –sama a branch to sit on. The image on the left, as you will see is from “My Neighbour Totoro”. One of the movies I have watched many times with my son. I thought doing this is a nice way to pay homage to Miyazaki, as true master.

    For more information on Miyazaki see:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki

  • Visual research for Samurai vs Ninja

    When considering how to create and sustain the Edo period world of “Samurai vs Ninja”. It was important to undertake a lot of research. One of my favorite forms of art is the Ukiyo-e woodblock period of Japanese art. I love colour saturation, the strong line work and the masterful compositions.

    The work of artist such as Katsushika Hokusai are synonymous with the art form. His ‘wave’ (The great wave off Kanagawa, from the 36 views of Mount Fuji series) image being one of the recognized images of Japanese Artist.

    From the Edo period of Ukiyo-e woodblock artist, my favorite character artist is Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Kuniyoshi work from the early to mid 1800’s. One of his most recognize series being the images of the 47 Ronin. His distinctive black and white patterned sleves on the characters in this series was the inspiration of Buta-sama’s own clothes.

    Buta sama and Utagawa Kuniyoshi

    In Samurai vs Ninja (book3) Day of the Dreadful Undead (June 2015), The story required an image to over state the actions of the Mighty Kingyo-sama, Lord Goldfish of the Samurai. When asked by the ghost of a long dead relative “’Tell me, Master Goldfish,’ rumbled Fuka-Sama,’how many victories have YOU had in battle?’” (p41)

    Kingyo’s assistant then tell of an epic battle against a mosquito. I thought it would be funny to have the battle commemorated in a woodblock print.

    Know that Utagawa Kuniyoshi used to portray narrative based conflicts. I started to research into his battle images. I quickly found one of his more interesting compositional device was to place the conflict in the bottom 3rd of the image, suggesting the character on top had the upper hand and was overpowering his opponent.

    Utagawa woodblock inspiration 2

    I decided that this would be a dynamic/over the top way to portray such and under stated conflict.

    Utagawa woodblock inspiration

    I love it when my illustration work allows me to draw inspiration from and pay homage to such an amazing artist as Utagawa Kuniyoshi. I would certainly encourage anyone who love Ukiyo-e woodblock prints to have a look at his work on line.

  • Dinazor Sokağı

    Turkish Saurus Street Books April 2015

    The Dinosaurs of Saurus Street have landed in Istanbul. Turkish publishers ‘Final’ have released ‘Dinazor Sokağı’. So if your looking for Turkish editions of Saurus Street, check out http://www.idefix.com/kitap/dinazor-sokagi-bahceye-tiranozor-girmis-nick-falk/tanim.asp?sid=YNL5HG6W6S3SK1ZM5VLH

  • Staedtler Pens

    Samurai vs Ninja image 2