Day 62: Drawing a corgi with Steven Antony

Check Steven Antony's How to Draw... a corgi!

Here's Steven's bio, in his own words: 

Born in England and raised in New Mexico, I was the 'British kid' that liked to draw.

Upon my return to the UK, I studied art at Cirencester College and Swindon College, and then I worked in a call centre for nine years.

In 2010 I was made redundant, so I took a leap of faith and applied for a place on the MA Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. I studied while working part-time in Swindon College as a Support Worker. I graduated in 2013. Shortly afterwards, I signed my first book deal.

My debut, 'The Queen's Hat', was published by Hodder Children's in May '14. The response was amazing. I was invited to read at the Hay Festival, draw in the window at Foyles Grand Opening Festival and illustrate a 'How to draw a corgi' for the Guardian. More recently, 'The Queen's Hat' was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal; and it's been shortlisted for awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2015.

My second book, 'Betty Goes Bananas' (Oxford University Press) published in August 2014. Its USA edition (Schwartz & Wade) published a few months later.

My third book, 'Please Mr Panda', published in the UK (Hodder Children's) and the USA (Scholastic) simultaneously at the end of 2015. It was 'Picture Book of the Week' in The Times (here in the UK) and 'Picture Book of the Month' in Barnes & Noble (over in the States). Barnes & Noble chose 'Please Mr Panda' for their very first nationwide Story Time event, which took place on the 10th of Jan at 10AM in all of their 640+ stores.

This year, I've got three books coming out: 'Betty Goes Bananas in her Pyjamas', 'The Queen's Handbag' and  'Green Lizards Vs Red Rectangles'. I'm currently working on future book publications in my Swindon studio.

I hold events regularly and feature artwork from events on my homepage. I often hold contests on Twitter and Facebook, sometimes in conjunction with other websites. To keep up to date with future releases, contests and events, you can follow my blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed, Instagram pics and/or Tumblr.

My route to publication has been a circuitous one, and my advice to anyone with a lifelong dream is simple - never give up!

How I work:

I use graphite sticks and soft pencils for 99.9% of my illustrations, and I use Photoshop to add colour by deconstructing my drawings into layers (it's a bit like screen printing but without the mess). The style in which I render each illustration can sometimes vary from book to book. This is because I try and let the story influence the way in which I tell it.

Remember to visit Steven's Web site for more goodies!