CHRIS RIDDELL

Chris Riddell is an illustrator, political cartoonist. The Goth Girl series, the Ottoline series and the picture books The Emperor of Absurdia and Alienography are his famous works. The first Goth Girl novel won the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2013. He received the Hay Festival Medal for Illustration at the 2015 Hay Festival. Chris works as a cartoonist in The Observer, The Literary Review and The New Statesman as well.

There was a Professional Practice lecture on 5th October 2016 by Chris Riddell. He has done a few drawings while he was giving us the talk, and those were amazing.

He mentioned the importance of the sketchbook. He suggested us to keep our sketchbook all the time. “You can do everything on it, even doing nothing”

He also said about when he got his book published for the first time. When he was looking for a publisher to publish his book in London, the man from one of the publishers said, “I like your drawings, but where are your stories?” After that he started write his own stories.

As a student who is studying illustration, and who is really interested in publishing, it gave me such a deep impression. I haven’t thought about writing my own stories. I just thought vaguely, there would be someone writing stories and I would do the illustration for the book. This lecture helped me to think deeper and further about my future.