Jane Hissey

Author-illustrator Jane Hissey studied illustration and design in Brighton, where she met her husband, Ivan, who is also an illustrator. She begins a picture book by first sketching with pencil and then uses colored pencils to create layers of color, adding details around each one. Each drawing requires many hours of work, and illustrating a book can take up to a year. The great success and acceptance of her books led to Jane being asked to write a television series about these toys. All the characters in her books were crafted with great care to resemble the designs in the books. Each ten-minute episode took about five weeks to film, and the stories of Old Bear won numerous awards, including the BAFTA award for Best Children's Fiction Entertainment Program. Forty episodes have been produced and aired in 90 different countries.