Then I would draw and paint my different layers separately: the back wall, boxes and cabinets, unleashed creatures like octopuses and tigers, the curtain, the bunnies and their props, – and then sometimes the front curtains and even the audience too. Then I’d scan all these layers and put them all together floating on top of each other in Photoshop. I tried to keep the colours quite minimal so the drawing was doing most of the work – mostly just black, white, aqua and splashes of red.
Of course, when Brenda gets sawn in half there is no blood. She’s a magician’s assistant, she knows how to do these things. Her sawn up box-middle is empty. Don’t ask me how. The amazing thing about picture books is we can all accept the most impossible of happenings in them.
I did quite a lot of research into how magic really happens, and I did find out a few ways of sawing ladies in half. Of course I can’t give away any secrets, but with magic the answer to how it’s done is often either wildly more complicated or simple than you’d ever imagine.
Just getting a flap to be shut when the page opens is trickier than you might think.
Nearly every spread in the Bad Bunnies’ Magic Show happens onstage. To work out the picture space I made a quick cardboard Bunny Theatre so I definitely knew what was where backstage.
After the sawing, the two halves of Brenda go wandering about and eventually the top half manages to free the Great Hypno. I made sure I showed Brenda fitting herself back together again, so the reader is sure that no Brendas were hurt in the making of this book.
Theatres are very multi-layered. I absolutely love the Pollocks Toy Theatres where you can build up layers of scenery like a fabulous peepshow. To make my pictures, first I’d have to work out what on earth was going on in each scene, and tracing paper was brilliant for working out all my props and scenery and moving characters about.
The Bad Bunnies Magic Show is published by Simon and Schuster, 978-1471157608, £6.99 pbk.
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