Visits from authors and illustrators inspire young learners

This past week Radford College has had the privilege to have two popular children's book authors and illustrators, Jess Racklyeft and Remi Lai, visit the Junior School.

These interactive sessions gave the students the opportunity to ask questions of the authors, learn clever ways of drawing anything from a little girl's ear to a dog's tail, and then practicing those new skills under the watchful eyes of the illustrators.

During Jess Racklyeft's session the children not only learned about the emotions associated with the different colours on the colour wheel, but also got the opportunity to draw some of the colourful and unusual animals she illustrated for her book Australia: Country of Colour. These included a green ringtail possum, a Christmas Island blue crab, a purple-crowned fairywren, a red Mount Kaputar slug, a yellow crucifix toad and - a favourite among the children - an orange dingo.

Brisbane author and illustrator, Remy Lai, taught the students about the process she follows from getting the initial idea for a book, writing the text, drawing the pictures, going through the rigorous process of editing it, and finally holding it in her hands.
The children thoroughly enjoyed her stories about the inspiration behind the dog in her book Pawcasso, her own spaniel. She also shared handy tips on how she draws the faces of her characters and her dog.