Arty Farty Half Term

Monday 26th October

11am to 1pm

Ages 8 upwards

£25 per person

In his illustration workshop, Pete, chats in a down-to-earth manner about the day-to-day life of being creative for a living, talks about how he creates

his characters, invites children to collaborate with him in creating a Stitch Head style ‘bits and pieces’ monster, and then advises them as they create their own.

Pete Williamson is a self-taught artist and award-winning children’s book illustrator. He is best known for the acclaimed ‘Stitch Head’ series,

written by Guy Bass, and the award-winning ‘The Raven Mysteries’,

written by Marcus Sedgwick. He has illustrated over 65 books written by

such acclaimed authors as Francesca Simon, Steve Cole, Matt Haig and

Charles Dickens. His work ranges from fun and wacky to strange and

beautiful and all points in between, and his books have been translated

into many languages. Before his success in children’s books he worked

as a designer in an animation company. Before that he sat around in

rooms high above London and Manchester daydreaming about being a

children’s book illustrator. Now he lives happily in Southborough with his

family.

In 2010 Pete won a Blue Peter Book Award for his illustrations for Guy

Bass’s ‘Dinkin Dings and the Frightening Things’, and in 2011 he won another Blue Peter Book Award for his illustrations for Marcus

Sedgwick’s ‘Lunatics and Luck’. ’Skeleton Keys’, his new book with Guy

Bass is out on September 5th and he will be showing exclusive artwork

from it and discussing how its characters were created.

Pete is very passionate about encouraging creativity at an early age and

instilling a confidence in a child’s personal voice that they can develop

and draw on throughout their lives, whether in an artistic way or not. He

believes that, in a world in which automation will play a far greater part,

positive, open-minded, creatively confident individuals are irreplaceable

and ‘future-proof’.