I could fill the rest of the time with travel and freelance work. I'm not sure. It must have been in some way. I think I am better organized than I would have been if I hadn't been a teacher. As far as the content of my work goes, people think that it must be possible to get ideas from the kids you teach or meet when visiting schools, but I generally don't find it so.
Children tend to think about the same things at the same age while growing up.
Occasionally one child will come up with something fresh and extraordinary but that doesn't happen often. I think that I have got to know children pretty well. Probably my time at the Canterbury School of Fines Arts studying painting has had the biggest impact on my approach to making art works. The most important lecturer I had there was Rudi Gopas whose approach to painting has stayed with me since that time. A general training in fine arts, rather than just in illustration, has been the foundation of all my book work.