European Non-Rabbits

It is a well known fact that I have a bit of thing for rabbits. What is lesser known is that I actually love animals of all kinds. All picture books I write feature animals, usually as the main characters. In fact, recently I have begun working on my first picture book featuring kids, but even then they are all dressed as animals.

A few posts back I did a photo diary about all the rabbits I encountered during a recent trip across Europe. As rabbits feature a lot on this blog, I thought I owed it to all the other animals to give them a bit of blog time. So here are some of the non-rabbits that crossed my path in Europe:

These suspicious geese on a Scottish loch:

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This dog (dug) at an Edinburgh pub:

Dogs could go anywhere in Europe. In pubs, banks, on buses and the underground. I wish Australia was more like this.

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This grumpy bird (eyeing all the Geordies in Newcastle):

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This graffiti pig in Venice:

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This bizarre bronze zoo in the misty hills of Eze (France):

Over 50 animals. Can’t imagine how they got them all the way up the mountain.

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This snarly lion:

Roar

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This Scottish house for elephants:

Actually, this is an obligatory children’s author shot (the cafe where J.K.Rowling penned her Harry Potter series)

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This most enchanting stray dog on the drive from Barcelona:

He so stole my heart I spent several days trying to figure out how to adopt him & get him back to Australia. But he was well looked after by the town & had made his home in a fuel station, greeting all passers by.

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These fish in a Berlin blizzard:

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This delightful stray cat in Niguelas, Spain:

We fed her and loved her and called her Peppi.

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These noble once-dogs at Edinburgh Castle:

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These hungry goats and sheeps in a Spanish village:

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These wild-eyed things:

You can be sure there will be picture books to come inspired by these animals. They were all quite unique characters in their own ways.

Especially the cranky bird. He had spunk.

 

European Rabbits

I promised you some European rabbits, and here they are. I didn’t have to look very hard while overseas. Everywhere I turned there were rabbits. Big ones, titchy ones, blue ones, fashionista ones, paranoid ones, even chocolate ones. I was starting to think Europe was particularly bunny obsessed, until I clued onto the fact that it was nearly easter (the chocolate bunnies gave me my first hint – I know, I’m a genius).

Either way, Squish Rabbit was proud that his European brethren were so prolific. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

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Berlin Bunny:

Luckily this big guy was friendly (I wouldn’t have taken him in a fight, even in that flowy shirt)

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Bookstore Bunnies:

Can you spot them?

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St Andrews, Scotland:

Who would have guessed it was nearly Easter?

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Big Brother bunny, Venice:

Yes, Winston is watching you. Ignore at your own risk.

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Frightened Rabbit, Edinburgh:

The lead singer from Frightened Rabbit played a solo set at a poetry type gig we went to. Intimate and awesome.

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I might have also been given a Frightened Rabbit album:

Photo-bombed by the gift giver…

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Austrian bunnies:

I kinda wanted to be friends with these guys. They look like they’d make polite conversation.

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Old etching bunny, St Andrews:

I thought it was a good omen to have found this bunny in our St Andrews room, but it didn’t stave off the strange dreams we had (we were overlooking the scores where the ‘witches’ were drowned).

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Surprised bunnies:

I think he was in more shock that I was

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Real bunny! In the Tiergarten, Berlin:

Can you see it? Neither can I. The single live bunny I saw on the entire trip scooted under the tree to the right the moment it heard us.

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And my favourites, graffiti bunnies. These were all found in central Berlin:

Demon bunny

Love this guy

Shy blue bunny

If you want to see the bunnies I spotted on my last trip, hop on over to my post on the Year of the Rabbit.

I’m Back!

Yes, indeedy I am. I arrived home a few weeks ago and after a short detour (hopping off to Alice Springs for their writers festival) I have caught up on sleep, unpacked and am back into the swing of things. After two months away, ‘back into the swing of things’ really means that I have had to remember what it is to be a responsible adult, pay bills and relearn how to operate my vacuum cleaner.

I had such an amazing time overseas and I have a million things to blog about (Bologna! Seven Stories! European rabbits! New projects!) all of which I will do soon.

Oh, and I may have had a change of hair colour…

Someone pointed out that it’s kind of carrot coloured. I think Squish would be proud.

Squish Does Japan (part 2)

Last post I revealed that Squish had snuck into a travelling suitcase and headed off to the land of sushi and Hello Kitty. Find the rest of his photos and scribblings below…

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Luckily, Brave Squish Rabbit managed to escape the scary city of Nara.

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He was so excited to visit Miyajima that he climbed up and danced on top of one of Japan’s most sacred Torii gates. Fortunately, he managed to elude police when he finally came down. Naughty Squish Rabbit!

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Brave Squish Rabbit very quickly developed an addiction to Taito Station, a Japanese games arcade. In particular, he couldn’t get enough of the “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” drumming game. Best fun you can have for 400 yen!

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And now, in his bravest move yet – yes, braver than facing chickens or going back to Nara – Squish Rabbit will head to Tokyo!

[a few days later I received…]

The Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) building in Tokyo was under attack! Without thinking twice, Brave Squish Rabbit joined forces with 009 to come to the rescue…

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… but, unfortunately, he got distracted.

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Squish Rabbit’s trip to Japan had been WONDERFUL! He did NOT want to go home.

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But then he remembered the toilets. And Nara. So he crawled into his futon (“It’s on the ground, but it’s not a burrow,” he said. “It’s not a bed either, but it’s goooood!”) and got a good night’s sleep before his trip back home. “Sayonara,” he said.

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And then Brave Squish Rabbit made it all the way home before his bladder burst.

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Ah, Squish. Can I say how jealous I am? I’ve been wanting (desperately) to go to Japan for years, as I’ve had a long time love affair with all things Japanese. Their food, their culture and mindful traditions, their wonderfully finicky politeness, their clean design aesthetic, their animation (I want to live in the worlds of Miyazaki), their writings (oh to create characters like Murakami) and their art (Yoshitomo Nara does the best angry children).

And now my own character has made it over to Japan before I have. Clearly it’s time to get planning and scheming…

Squish Does Japan (part 1)

Very few know this, but Brave Squish Rabbit actually had a third launch. A secret launch. A tricksy wily sneaky launch … in Japan.

Yes, my little rabbit snuck into the suitcase of notorious children’s writer Julie Nickerson while she wasn’t looking. She was too busy preparing to set off on a long deserved holiday with her family to the land of cherry blossoms and anime. Once they were over there my clever little rabbit hacked Julie’s e-mail account and sent me the following trail of evidence as to his whereabouts. The images and words are transcribed exactly as I received them.

It seems he’s braver than I ever imagined…

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Brave Squish Rabbit packed his suitcase…

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… and went to Japan!

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Brave Squish Rabbit had to go to the toilet. “I’m not THAT brave,” he said. So he crossed his little legs and held on.

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Brave Squish Rabbit had a moment of quiet reflection in Kyoto and contemplated life. And chickens.

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Brave Squish Rabbit went to the beautiful ancient city of Nara.

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Unfortunately, there were things there that were even scarier than chickens…

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[We interrupt our regular broadcast to bring you an important community service announcement.] Squish Rabbit says “NO” to Nara.

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Brave Squish Rabbit was launched today. ‘This is WAY better than Jetstar,’ he said.

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What a cheeky little rabbit! Stay tuned, as next post I’ll put up the rest of the photos from his trip…

Inside an Illustrator’s Head

So I’ve been working on a new picture book. And for the first time in a while, this one is not about a little rabbit named Squish. The other day my mum asked me what Squish thought about being ejected from my mind for another character. I think he’s coping, but he’s definitely curious about ‘the new guy’ and is reserving judgement.

This is a bit what it all looks like…

It’s a strange thing to have a little blue pig romping around your mind. A strange and wonderful thing. I’m not sure where he will take me just yet, but I’m certainly enjoying getting to know him.

I also thought I’d better put up another photo, in response to this one from my last post:

There’s been a bit of contention as to what’s real. I labelled it as Squish Rabbit reading his own book while wearing a giraffe beanie. After all, it was a cold weekend in Brisbane. Some questioned whether I was being ridiculous (and to be honest, this does happen sometimes) and felt that this was actually just a giraffe toy pretending to be Squish. But here is photo evidence that the giraffe beanie does indeed exist:

I wore it at the Ekka yesterday. In public. And took a photo. I suppose this also serves as evidence that I am sometimes ridiculous.

Year of the Rabbit

Last week heralded in the Chinese New Year and with it came the end of a year I’d come to think of as my own: the Year of the Rabbit.

<sigh>

All good things must come to an end.

But let’s not be sad. The rabbits will live on in my mind, as well as between the covers of one small squishy book off hopping about the place. And what better way to mark the passing of such a special year than with a celebration of all things rabbit? Here’s a photo diary of all the wee bunnies I spied in the many places I travelled to over one very busy year…

Demon bunny! An amazing street art installation on the streets of New York:

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A literary bunny very close to my heart. I adored Winnie the Pooh growing up, with the stern fatherly rabbit. This is a display of the original toys owned by A.A.Milne’s son, held in the New York Public Library:

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New York pub bunny (not for the kiddies):

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An awesome graffiti mural in San Fran:

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I LOVE carousels. Don’t they make you feel ever young? This beachside San Fran one was clearly made for me:

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Let’s play spot the bunny (in the sugar made wonderland at Brisbane’s MoMA):

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Totoro! Ok, so technically he’s a Japanese forrest spirit, but he certainly looks rabbit-like. I found him in a funky bookstore in DUMBO, New York:

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A whole ocean of bunnies. A gorgeous print I discovered in a Sydney shop front by Kozyndan:

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Walking Hollywood Boulevard with the stars:

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A bunny with a bright idea (in Melbourne):

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A rabbit-like stone amongst the Living Desert Sculptures. Take a look at the fashion statement on the rabbit in front (it was cold up there and a passing poet gave me his coat):

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A Broken Hill bunny?

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Finally, the rarest of them all … bunny-caninus, so fast and dastardly I hardly caught him on film:

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I hope you all have a luck-filled and prosperous Year of the Dragon.

How Not To Find My Blog (2011)

Google is a wonderful and strange thing. The term ‘to Google’ has long been a part of my vocabulary. In fact I probably use Google between 5-10 times a day. And although the search engine is pretty good at sending people where they need to go for information, it’s not always as accurate as it could be.

On this day last year I celebrated the year gone with my first ‘How Not To Find My Blog’ post, where I joyed in (and puzzled over) all the random search terms that have brought people to my blog. Inspired by a similar post over on Allen and Unwin’s blog I thought I’d mark another blogging year with a similar round up. So here is a guide of how not to find my blog using Google (even though some very disappointed people did)*:

Random Searches:

• in the name of the dog dig (ok)
• fatten up your face (really?)
• “what kind of katherine are you” (the confused kind)
• funny pancake (mmm … I do like pancakes)
• gum boots pee (um, no. But I had plenty of gumboot mud at Woodford)
• lessonful quotes (yup, I am full of those)
• peanut exclamation (sounds delicious)
• alcohol mind map (I don’t recommend this – it doesn’t make for sensible mind-mapping) 
• pippa’s embarrassment (Julie – a new title, perhaps? There’s demand!)
• aristotle poetics drama (this makes my blog appear more intelligent than it is)

Searches About Illustrating:

• hot chocolate illustration (do I have an obsession with HC? Yes. Do I illustrate them? No)
• a sketch of a rabbit held up (held up? With a gun? Who would do that to a little bunny..?)

Searches About Rabbits:

• my dreams if i become a rabbit (would be AWESOME)
• oil kathrines rabbits (now that’s just creepy)
• rabbits travel through time (brilliant!)
• squishing rabbits (so I can see how this brought them here, but I don’t condone this. At all)
• angry rabbit (maybe a direct result of the above)
• daddy cought a rabbit and thought it was a pup (well love, your daddy ain’t right)
• rabbit by jk rowling (I’ve had LOTS of hits from this. Go JK!)
• book where child eats a rabbit (ew…)

Bring on 2012. Bring on another year of random search terms. Google away my pretties!

* As irony would have it, me blogging about these search terms now actually makes it MORE likely someone will find my blog using them…

Visual Diary #6

The best thing about making the visual diary while I was travelling the US was that it re-kickstarted my daily doodling habit. It reminded me how much I enjoy drawing just for fun, rather than only when I have a project to do or a book to finish. So I’ve made sure to keep the ritual going now that I’m back. I’ve started a new part of the diary, where I’ve continued to collect images about life, people and silliness. Below are the first few drawings…

My diary mascot asserting himself:

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Doodling wigs for David after a gig one night:

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After seeing a soldier in the Queen Street Mall handing out red balloons:

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Inspired by the strange road signs along the highways of Broken Hill:

How Not to Find My Blog

Happy newest of years! To celebrate another year in the world of the Well Read Rabbit I thought I’d do a kind of ‘year in review’ – but not your typical one.

A great thing about having a WordPress blog is that you get daily stats, such as who checked out your blog, which posts were most popular and how people found your site. The last is my favourite, as the stats literally show you the search terms people typed in when they were directed to your blog. The things people google are so darn funny I’ve been collecting them. I thought I’d share some favourites from 2010, and I can guarantee you: none of these people found what they were looking for on my blog…

Random Searches:

• children’s leopard pants
• why is my mind so overactive?
• my subconscious talks to me
• how to fatten your best friends
• zen dog mug
• katherine’s long toes on a couch part 1
• battersby edition bible

Searches About Illustrating:

• peeing boy made of dots picture
• how to make a brownie in illustrator
• illustration of cats who wash her face

Searches About Rabbits:

• virgo rabbit man weakness
• story telling rabbits and carrot
• how to read a rabbit’s mind
• is rabbit a sign of pregnancy in dream
• my rabbit lost a toe nail what do i do
• rabbit painted as a leopard
• pictures of being mean to rabbits

Here’s to more random googling in 2011!