We joined author/illustrator Fred Blunt to talk about the creative journey of the hilarious new book All You Need To Know about Dogs, published by Quarto.

In your own words, what is All You Need To Know About Dogs about?

I’ve been wanting to make a dog book for such a long time. I’m completely nuts about dogs and I just love to draw them too, but sadly no dog texts had come my way. The only thing to do was to write one myself! Actually I’ve been trying to write one for years and little snippets have come out in little throw away comic strips and things, as far back as 2013.

Here’s a little comic thing from 2013 that made it into the book in a slightly different way

I wanted to write a book about how great dogs are and why they are so great and how many different types of dogs there are in a funny way. I’d tried this so many times but I just couldn’t get it going, and then one day I did a drawing of a cat saying dogs are stupid and then it all clicked and fell into place. Instead of saying how great dogs are it will be a cat saying why they are rubbish and then it just sort of wrote itself. In saying that, there are piles of different ideas and different drafts floating about, so it must have been harder work than I remember - although fun work never feels too hard :)

Tell me about your illustrative process, what inspired you?

This book was done using pencil line scanned and crayon colour scribbled and scanned and all overlayed and arranged on screen. It’s a method I’ve used in quite a few books now. I like it because you get the happy accidents of working traditionally but with the editing capacity of digital. It’s a bit like making a digital silkscreen with a bit of collage thrown in.

Here you can see the artwork in comparison drawn in layers of pencil line and scribbled crayon colours, scanned and arranged in Photoshop.

What was your favourite part of working on All You Need To Know About Dogs?

I just love drawing dogs, so that was all super fun. Trying to capture the exuberance and movement of a bouncy dog and caricaturing the different types and breeds of dogs is kind of my comfort zone to be honest. Cat was a fun character to draw too - so sarcastic and snooty.

Why is the book important to you?

It’s important to me in that I think it’s a really fun book and I’m proud to have written this one and I’ve dedicated it to my past four legged friends, Ben, Rusty and Olive - three of the best friends I ever knew.

Is there anything specific you hope readers take away from reading All You Need To Know About Dogs?

The only thing I want readers to take from this book is a little fun. There is a message of sorts and a warm fuzzy ending, but really fun is the key.

I really hope you enjoy it…

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Buy your copy of All You Need To Know About Dogs here.

To work with Fred, get in contact with his agent Susan Penny here.