Laura Darling | United Kingdom
Look Out for Dinosaurs is a book-within-a-book, double-narrative farce full of comic peril and hilarious characters.
The story begins when a girl and her dog, Hector find a book in the park. The book describes different prehistoric animals and what action to take if you should encounter them. As they walk, the delighted girl proceeds to read the book out loud. So absorbed in reading, she doesn’t notice the real-life dinosaurs that appear at every turn. The hapless Hector, however, is made acutely aware of their presence, and is drawn into a sequence of slapstick situations as he tries to avoid and outrun the beasts.
Inspired by walking with my dog, where we each enjoy our daily excursions for different reasons, this story is also a parody of society’s addiction to phones and the reluctance to be present in the moment and notice our surroundings. The little girl spends almost the whole story engrossed in a book, completely oblivious to the incredible creatures all around her, and the peril in which poor Hector finds himself.
I wrote and illustrated this book with support and advice from the inimitable Chris Haughton, whom I was extremely grateful to be paired with through the Picturehooks mentorship scheme. I created the artwork using watercolour pencils to draw separate layers of lines and colour, combining these in Photoshop. I loved researching dinosaurs for this project and developing the characters and settings from observational drawing.
Education:
Edinburgh College of Art
Illustration
Graduation: 2014