Everyone, hold up your coffees. I’d like to propose a toast.

Here’s to good ideas!

Now go ahead and drink all the rest of your coffee in one gulp (Warning: 100 Scope Notes is not responsible for any resulting scalding).

This year all the finalists for the Kate Greenaway and Carnegie medals (the prestigious English children’s illustration and writing awards) were interviewed on film about their books. You can see them all by clicking here.

But there was one interview that immediately jumped out to me – that of inventive picture book creator Emily Gravett. In the series of short videos below, Gravett explains the making of her book Again! In the process, we learn more about the craft of the picture book.

01 Can you introduce the book? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

02 Why did you want to draw dragons for this book? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

03 What’s the key to drawing really good dragons? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

04 Can you talk about the pages at the beginning of the book where the little dragon is getting ready for bed? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

04 Can you talk about the pages at the beginning of the book where the little dragon is getting ready for bed? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

06 How did you make the grown up dragon look more and more tired? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

07 Why does the page in the storybook get mixed up near the end? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

08 How did you illustrate the smoke coming out of the little dragon’s nose? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

09 Choose one double page spread and talk about your working methods, materials and techniques from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

10 Who is looking at who on the last page? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

11 Why does the first page look like a book cover? How did you get it to look like a real book? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

12 Can you talk about the techniques you used for the book? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

14 Do you have any advice for young artists wanting to draw their own dragons? from CILIP CKG Children’s Book Awards on Vimeo.

(Top Image: ‘David Lynch’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/10757690@N03/5083183805 Found on flickrcc.net)