TESTIMONIALS

“Bridget delivered a fantastic workshop for years 2 and 3. She was engaging throughout and interacted with all the children. The children loved reading her book Mo’s Best Friend and it was a great way to consolidate the learning that year 3 had done on the topic. She was incredibly generous with her time!”

Saina ( teacher, Thomas Buxton Primary,  London,  2024)

“I really liked Bridget’s talk and seeing her books of doodles and stories. I went home and made my own paper book of words and pictures all about believing in yourself.”

Maia (Age 8)

“I would thoroughly recommend Bridget in joining you for any Reading Festival or World Book Day.  She is delightful, engaging and fun to have in school.”

Helen O’Donahue,  headmistress, CET Primary School, Bow, London

“Our boys and girls were so inspired to create their own stories and characters, after meeting Bridget and seeing her beautiful books!  As teachers, we were impressed with how her work encourages the children to express themselves creatively and how excitement about creating characters can develop into story ideas and vice versa!” 

Natalie, Year 3 Class Teacher, The Garden House School, London

Bridget offers some exciting Stone Age talks and activities for school visits, bookshops and libraries for her new picture book,  MO’S BEST FRIEND, A STONE AGE STORY  – paperback due out in 2025  – buy it here!  

Bridget says:  I offer talks, full and half day school visits, mentoring and creative workshops.  I like to use my picture books as a springboard for some fun activities.

With long experience of teaching 4-6 year olds and also picture book making for a decade at Parsons Paris School of Design,  Bridget offers family workshops and inspiring sessions with children for schools,  galleries, bookstores and associations such as the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators,  across the world.   She also gives talks to students about illustrating children’s books  and offers mentoring on a one-to-one basis.

You Me and the Whole Wide World (Walker Books paperback UK 2023) about growing together, is  perfect pretext for children to make and draw lots of different people and link them together in a paper chain. 

We use colour mixing to create many different skin tones, and hair colours.  It helps  open up conversations about what makes us unique and what we all have in common.

 Tiz & Ott’s Big Draw  (Tate UK, Abrams US) is a springboard for  drawing and making characters connect  through eye direction and expression as well as for all kinds of  mark-making.   This is a great way to inspire children’s own stories.

Here is a  video of a drop-in event  at Tate Britain where Bridget  worked with families of all ages.  After loosening up everyone got drawing.  See the amazing art gallery they made!

 

I’ve participated in many book festivals in the UK and elsewhere, and I can work on longer-term projects too.

I am happy  to help select and refine the ideal session for your school, gallery, museum, association or festival activity, in the UK – or elsewhere, if you can contribute to my travel expenses.

For school visits I can provide an introductory slideshow showing what I do and how I work as an author and illustrator,  adapting it to the age of the audience.  I like to get children involved, asking them questions and getting them doing hands-on activities as much as possible.

‘Bridget’s quick character drawing recipe’ is all about  encouraging everyone (including adults who say they can’t draw) to draw expressive characters that can connect to each other and prompt ideas for stories.

 

helsea.

For ASPIRING and published illustrators and students

With over 20 years experience teaching illustration,  2D design and visual narrative at Parsons Paris School of Design,   I give talks and workshops about picture book writing and illustrating in other art schools including the  Pratt Institute NY and organisations including the the AoI and SCBWI in a number of countries. I have also written about contemporary children’s book illustration in the AoI magazine Varoom.

Sharing my own international experience in the  children’s book industry,  I mentor upcoming illustrators, run dummy doctoring workshops and talk about subjects such as ‘Does Style Matter?’ and how ‘Mice, Mothers and Others’ are represented in children’s books.

TESTIMONIALS
“Her stories and thoughts were great to hear plus her references were interesting.”  Illustration student Parsons New School, New York

“I wanted to thank you again for an inspirational and motivational weekend.”
SCBWI picture book workshop attendee, Munich, Germany.