NEW BOOK CROPS

I'm not reeeeally sure if I'm allowed to show work from my new book at this stage... so if this post suddenly disappears, it means I've been told off by Hodder (eek).

Aaanyway, here's a few crops from the first spread of my second picture book...

WRONG TURN

Here's another 'unfriendly Alaskan animals in a Caldecott style frame' illustration! I've been just a weeeeny bit TERRIFIED of wolves, since watching The Box of Delights BBC series in the 80s (see opening here)... so if you find this picture a bit creepy, think how I feel when I look at it!

I CAN'T WAIT to see The Box of Delights film... due out next year (I think) and directed by Mike Newell.

A FREE LUNCH (for the Illustration Friday word of the week - 'adapt')

For this week's Illustration Friday, I had a bit of a play around with an old(ish) illustration which never got used for anything... so now it has. Bonus! :-)

HAIRY BEAR

It's been a tricky old book to work on, with about a million rewrites, a 10 foot pile of sketches and layouts and even the odd scary bear dream... but I'm THRILLED to be finally fully engrossed in the artwork for my second picture book with Hodder. I'm having a lot of fun with it and am getting myself nice and grubby with my pastels and pencils again. It's been tooooo long!

Here's Hairy Bear. This is quite a new hair rendering technique for me, so I'd welcome any feedback with open arms.
After today's hairy marathon, I'm gonna treat meself to a few pints of bitter and a curry now.... Mmmmmm! :-)

CONTAGIOUS!

Haven't done Illustration Friday for a while now, so I thought I'd submit this. I produced it at college about seven years ago for a children's story (which I never finished) about Nellie the Elephant, who returns home from the circus to find that she's allergic to her best friends, The Three Blind Mice!

Hmmmm... I wonder why I never bothered finishing the story?!

JUST BECAUSE...

BOUNCY BOUNCY

No new illustrations to post right now, but I didn't want to break the blogging habit - so in the meantime I thought I'd let this shapely old roo of mine bounce across the page!

INSTINCT

'Instinct' is the topic for this week's Illustration Friday and the first thing that popped into my head was 'salmon'.

The homing instinct of a salmon blows my tiny mind... after years spent in the ocean migrating for thousands of miles, they return to the very stream they were born in to spawn! This single-minded salmon is on his long and arduous journey home, and has just encountered a peckish grizzly... hence the alarmed expression! I do hope the little guy makes it!

SHAKE IT! (for the Illustration Friday word of the week - 'celebrate')

I produced these funny looking folk for a phonics book by Julia Donaldson a few years back. They're called the Upside-down Browns and I'm not quite sure what they're celebrating here..... but who needs a reason when you're an Upside-down Brown?!

ELECTRO ROBOT VS NODDY TOY: CIRCA 1955 (my response to the word 'flawed' for Illustration Friday)

I had a lot of fun with this! Working as a kid's book illustrator, it's not unusual that I'm asked to make some of my characters more appealing, less sinister etc, etc..... so I guess having a deranged toy robot decapitate one of Britain's most loved children's book characters is my reaction!

I think I'm going to hell!

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY - 'CLIMBING'

I've reworked my 'Hey Diddle Diddle' illo for my first ever bash at Illustration Friday. The topic for this week is 'climbing'. I've wanted to do Illustration Friday for aaaages and I hope it will inspire some fresh new work in the future. It also gives me a good excuse to experiment..... without the pressure of having to satisfy a scary client!

I DECLARE MY ETSY SHOP OPEN!

There was no red tape or z-list celeb to cut it, but nonetheless, my Etsy shop is now well and truly open for business! ‘Ding!’ (that’s my imaginary shop door…ahem)

I’m selling high quality giclée reproductions printed on lovely Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper, so get yourself down there while stocks last! :-)

CHARLOTTE COW

Four years on, my feisty Friesian, Charlotte Cow is proving to be as popular as ever as mascot for The School Milk Project. Check out the photos below....though she seems to be licking a girl's head in one of them! Oh Charlotte!

HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE

I produced these illustrations (and the doggy lineups below) for a series of rhyme books by Darakwon Publishing, Korea. I think they're due out in Summer '09.

MORE DOGGIES

DOGGIES

FROM THE VAULTS...

BROWN BATS

I produced this illo for American kids magazine, 'Highlights'.

THE BIG PICTURE

The results of ‘The Big Picture - Best New Illustrators Award’ were announced by Michael Rosen at the Bologna Book Fair yesterday. 10 winners were chosen from a longlist of 27 illustrators including Mini Grey, Alexis Deacon, Joel Stewart, Emily Gravett, Oliver Jeffers and........moi! I wasn’t one of the 10 winners, but I’m thrilled to say that my friend Lisa Evans was! Check out her amazing work here.

The Big Picture (an initiative set up by Booktrust) is a national campaign to promote picture books and illustrators. Visit the website here.

THE SANDFAMILY

This is a poster I illustrated to advertise 'Gunwharf Quays' in Portsmouth. Look out for it if you find yourself in Poole, Bournemouth, Brighton, Hove, Worthing, Lewes, Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells, Horsham, Eastbourne, Chichester, Salisbury, Hastings, Winchester, Southampton, Wealden, Fareham, or of course, Portsmouth.

Also, my three scary animal posters were finalists in the 'London International Advertising Awards' last week. W'hooooo! :-D Check out the work here.

BILLY PAPERBACK

Jeez, has it really been over 8 months since I posted here?! Sorry about that to those of you who haven't given up on me! My first picture book, 'Billy Back-To-Front' is out in paperback on 18th October (order from Amazon) and I'm currently working on my second picture book.

Here's a few characters...

SOME ILLUSTRATIONS TO GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES!

These freaky illustrations were commissioned by ad agency, 'Leo Burnett' for a poster campaign to promote the awareness of childhood blindness. The posters appeared all over the Hong Kong subway, undoubtedly scaring the crap out of any kiddies who ventured down there! The posters picked up a Silver, Bronze and Merit in the 'Kam Fan Awards' (HK4As Creative Awards) last year.

BILLY BACK-TO-FRONT

THE MIDNIGHT FOLK

To get things started, here's my latest illo, which I produced for The Radio Times. It was used to illustrate a feature on John Masefield's 'The Midnight Folk', which was dramatised for Radio 4 over Christmas.