This weekend we had the privilege of welcoming Chris Riddell to Seven Stories. Chris has won the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal a mere three times and is the current Children’s Laureate, so he knows a thing or two about drawing.

What fun we all had! Chris took over our Studio on Level 1 and doodled a Great Snowdog; created a wall of story starters and even drew the portraits of visitors as they arrived to see what the illustrator was up to.

Our very special Artist Residency with Chris came to an end on Monday with a workshop especially for 8-12year olds where he helped the budding doodlers Navigate Maps and Fantasy Worlds. Who doesn’t love opening a book to find an intricate map or exploring the four corners of a fantasy world?

We asked one of the children, Stan to share his doodles from the workshop.

Stan, aged 9 is no stranger to doodling and regularly lets his imagination take his pen for a walk across the pages of his notebook. “I draw hundreds of pictures and at least three a day,” says Stan, “so this was the perfect workshop for me. I like to draw whatever pops into my mind.”

Here is Stan’s guest blog all about his morning with Chris Riddell…

“We all went into the Studio at Seven Stories where we met Chris Riddell. I knew his books and like reading them.  I felt excited when I first went into the room and it was amazing to be part of the workshop. Although I had come on my own, I made friends with some boys I sat next to who were very funny.

Chris sat at the front of the room and was talking to us while he drew pictures. We could see what he was drawing because he used a visualiser.  As soon as I sat down, I started drawing too! Chris did a picture of Ugly Bunny on Ugly Bunny Island.

I learnt about drawing floating islands and have drawn my own with cities on it. There is a West, South and East Isle but no North Isle because it crashed into the top of the island. I drew some weird people to live in Weird City on my floating island. They include Mr Boing Boing and Mr Million Legs! 

I also drew a picture of Food Land I drew another island which has Milkshake Sea to the west because they used to transport lots of milkshake to the island. There is a Haribo Island and Tik Tak Mountain here too.

This is a picture of goblins who live deep underground in a cave. They are angry because they live underneath a city which is very noisy and always has parties and events. Even the pipes that run under the city make too much noise.

Chris uses pens to draw. I like using pen and ink as well but if I run out of ink, I am happy to use pencil.

Chris told us that he thinks teachers should be replaced by robots so I drew a Robot Teacher during the workshop. I wanted to call my little brother after a character from one of Chris’ books. When my mum was pregnant, I said I didn’t want a brother or a sister; I wanted a robot called Cronker. So now the nickname has stuck! 

Some of the boys sat next to me drew pictures of atomic strawberries and a map with Coca-Cola Canal running through it.

I would tell other children who were going to do a workshop like this, that they need to sit down the front of the room, that way they will see all the pictures that Chris draws much more clearly.

I would recommend doing a workshop like this to other children. I would give it 1 billion out of 10!"

Thanks very much Stan for showing us your brilliant doodles and telling us all about your workshop with Chris Riddell at Seven Stories.

Seven Stories have more workshops and events for children this Summer:

Seriously Silly Stuff with Andy Seed, Thursday 28 July, 2pm: Join Blue Peter Book Award winner Andy Seed for an hour of sensational stories, funny facts, wacky jokes and entertaining challenges.

Animation Workshop, Wednesday 3 and 10 August, 10.30am-1.30pm: Paul Miller leads an animation workshops for children 8+. Produce your own stop motion animation using clay and flip-books and get to grips with the techniques used by professionals.

Email our reception team to sign up to the Seven Stories mailing list and receive regular up to date information about what’s on.