David Melling
David was born in Oxford and grew up in London. His father, a sculptor, encouraged him to draw from an early age.
Whilst studying a Foundation Art course at 17, his tutor, in response to David’s enquiry about book illustration, warned him against it – ‘you’ll never make a living doing that!’ (David likes to believe it was due to the tutor’s rather jaundiced view of publishing rather than his ability). So followed a journey where he studied Graphic Design, Photography (to degree level), before moving into general illustration in the mid 80’s.
‘In between’ jobs, a friend suggested he work at a London based animation studio where they were looking for illustrators to paint backgrounds. He spent the next four years moving from studio to studio, working as an animator’s assistant and rendering more animation cells than he’d care to remember for TV commercials and films such as Raymond Brigg’s Father Christmas and Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
This experience reignited his love of story telling and he decided, at last, to take a closer look at book illustration.
His first book, in 1994, was shortlisted for the Smarties Book Award. For eight years he worked solely as an illustrator but in 2002 wrote and illustrated his first picture book, The Kiss That Missed which was shortlisted for The Kate Greenaway Award.
In 2004, his picture book The Tale of Jack Frost was made into a BBC TV film. It was shortlisted for the 2004 Children’s TV Film BAFTA.
David’s books continue to be nominated for awards, most recently Tree Goblins for the 2009 Sheffield Book Award.
He lives near Oxford with his wife and 2 children.