#THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON COPYRIGHT PAGE FREE#

First, they were such beautiful pictures. The editors peeled back the sheets, and IВ was stunned. I added a forest and a snowstorm.ДЄbout 18 months later, I was taken into a darkened room and in the middle was a table, and on the table a pile of large homemade sheets of thick paper divided by coloured tissue. So IВ invented some words for the sounds of going through grass ('swishy-swashy'), or mud ('squelch-squerch'). So I did.Д«ut the way I performed it didn't work, and it wasn't long enough. The editor of Walker Books, David Lloyd, saw me perform it and said it would make a great book. I heard it first inВ the late 1970s and started to put it into my one-man poetry show. The story seems to have been a folk song that circulated around American summer camps, sometimes with a lionВ instead of a bear. By permission of Walker Books, Ltd Michael Rosen, writer He actually recognised himself and the original now hangs on his wall.ДЄnother of OxenburyвЂ™s illustrations for WeвЂ™re Going on a Bear Hunt. IВ modelled his posture on the final pageВ on a friend who had depressionВ and whose shoulders dropped when he walked. It occurred to me three-quarters ofВ the way through that the bear wasВ all on his own in the cave, and might have wanted some company rather than to eat the children. The great challenge of illustration is how toВ convey emotion economically. I go toВ a cafe every day, and sit and watch passers-by, and I draw on this remembered gallery of postures and expressions when I'm working. The rocky beach where the bear's caveВ is was inspired by a holiday in Druidstone in Pembrokeshire. I modelled the muddy scenes on the Suffolk mudflats where we have a boathouse. Finally, I came upВ with the idea of having black-and-white drawings when the children were contemplating an action, andВ colour when they were actuallyВ doing it. The structure of the story was quiteВ challenging.

I got so involved I didn't want to break off toВ show anyone. Usually I submit preliminary sketches that are made up into dummies, but forВ this book I did it all in one go.

#THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON COPYRIGHT PAGE FREE#

He is theВ last person to inflict ideas on people: he gave me a free hand. Michael and I didn't meet until afterВ the project was finished. I modelled them on my own children.В I didn't want adults around because they tend to stilt the imagination. Everyone thinks the eldest one is the father in fact he's the older brother. Michael had said heВ envisioned it as a king and queen and jester setting off to hunt a bear, butВ I immediately saw it as a group of children. What's wonderful about it is that nothing is described in a way that restricts you. By coincidence, Michael Rosen and his editor knew the song, too, realised it would make a good children's story and, without knowing about my record cover, asked if I'd do the illustrations. I first heard the story when the Scottish folk singer Alison McMorland recorded a traditional song about a bear hunt and asked me to design theВ record cover.

The bear and the dragon copyright page