The Cat Wants Custard
Written by P Crumble, published by Scholastic 2016
** Shortlisted, 2017 West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award for Picture Books
** Notable Book, 2017 Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards
“In this hilarious picture book — that will appeal to adults just as much as kids — we meet a cat who just can’t get his human to understand what he wants, no matter how hard he tries.”
“This is Kevin the cat’s story, and he communicates in thought bubbles which are spread across each page, accompanied by fantastic illustrations which really capture Kevin’s emotions through his facial expressions and body language … the story is genuinely funny and is just the thing for an end-of-the-day story session which will send students home with a smile on their dial!”
Ah Kevin – this is his first book, and loads of fun it turned out to be. Here are some early studies (I’m not very tidy with pencil).
And part of the early storyboard. The pages were looking a bit crowded, and the colours weren’t quite working for me.
So I took a bit of inspiration from Bluey. Here’s Bluey on my chair, and keyboard. She’s not my cat. She’s our neighbours’ cat. And that’s not her desk.
The colours were starting to come together. And I had Kevin at last. Here are a couple of final images:
FROM THE CAT WANTS CUSTARD BY P CRUMBLE AND LUCINDA GIFFORD
FIRST PUBLISHED BY SCHOLASTIC AUSTRALIA, A DIVISION OF SCHOLASTIC AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED, 2016
REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF SCHOLASTIC AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED