Kevin Dawson - Author
Inspired after asking my then toddler son Miles why he drags around a supermarket carrier bag full of random objects and being told 'it's my bag of everything', I immediately had the idea of creating the story of a boy who finds a magic bag that fills with whatever you wish for. For months it was just a pipe dream as I had never written before with thought of publishing, plus my art skills were mediocre at best.
It was soon after that my dear old friend Karen starting posting her artwork on Facebook and the bulb pinged to life above my head. One grovelling email later and she was onboard. Of course, life for both of us got in the way but finally after a couple of years gestating, procrastination and from my perspective, fingers in far too many pies, we finally got a release date in late 2021 for our first book.
I've always loved drawing and have doodled little animals and characters for as long as I can remember, just for fun. Then, a couple of years ago, I was given an iPad (yes I know, lucky me!) and I started messing about with drawing and painting digitally. I sketched a few of my friends’ dogs and put the pictures up on my social media pages, just so my friends and family could see them.
Soon after, Kevin contacted me to see if I could illustrate a story he had written about a magical bag and the adventure of a boy and a giant. Of course I said yes! I had never illustrated a children’s book before but we managed to find a way of working where Kev would describe what he wanted a page to incorporate or how a character might look…then I would try and bring what was in his head out onto the pages! It was great fun designing all the creatures for the book - it’s set in a magical land so I could make them quite strange!
It is all digital artwork but I worked in quite a traditional way, sketching the pages in pencil first and bringing in the colour with watercolour, ink and coloured pencil brushes. It took a while to get here but I am so happy I got to work with Kevin to bring his story to life. I hope everyone enjoys the book as much I did doing the drawings for it!
