Bucknall
Robot-loving Stoke-on-Trent artist illustrates children's book on BattleBots
175 copies of the book were sold on its first day
Fahad Tariq
Artist Caleb Kempson has illustrated a new book called B is for BattleBots (Image: Pete Stonier / Stoke Sentinel)
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Illustrator Caleb Kempson has seen his work come to life in a new book by an American writer.
Caleb Kempson couldn't believe it when he was approached by Andrea Gellatly's team and asked to create illustrations for 'B is for BattleBots'.
The book is inspired by the TV series, BattleBots. It teaches children about robots, engineering and battlebots. The 22-year-old was approached by Andrea after she found his drawings on his Instagram account, @caleb_robot_art.
He said: "I posted my arts and drawing on there and it was just little bits and pieces. In May somebody from the team reached out to me and said "I'm writing a book, would you mind doing an illustration for the cover?
"And we eventually decided that I would do all of the illustrations.
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"It has been a backward and forwards process of me sending them my drawings and going through the ideas until eventually, a few weeks ago, they finally finished it and announced it."
Caleb's passion for Robot Wars began when he was just 18-months old. He recalls creating a robot arena using toy cars and a fruit box.
He has been drawing different models and robots since he was a child and has always been interested in comic books and superheroes.
Caleb Kempson (Image: Pete Stonier / Stoke Sentinel)
The illustrations in the book are a mixture of comic book styles of the robots. Caleb added: "It felt pretty amazing when they approached me. I was surprised that Andrea wanted me to do something like this. It's so many hours and they are busy so I have to just get on with it.
"Sometimes I can spend whole days on it but there is one illustration that took me nearly a week.
"I like the process where I can just zone out and forget about everything else. I'm always happy when I am illustrating."
Caleb began studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Manchester in September 2017 but began to lose interest during lectures.
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He said: "In the second year, I was sitting there in lectures thinking what am I doing here? It was over that period that Andrea emailed me. I thought this is actually working and I can make something out of this."
A year and a half later he took a gamble and dropped out of university to pursue his passion and focus on his illustrations.
His dad Philip Kempson says Caleb has been drawing since he can remember and has never lost his love for Robot Wars.
The 54-year-old filmmaker from Bucknall said: "Art runs in the family. With all the children, it's never been work digitally, it has always been a pen and paper and then scanning afterwards, we keep the old ways going."
B is for BattleBots is being sold on the battlebots store's website.
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