Frances McKay Illustration

Jane Eccle's Little Fidgets

To kick in March with some hopes of Spring and sunshine, Jane has provided us with some bright and fun illustrations she did for a company called Little fidgets.

Images 35

It's that time of the year again when the great and good in British Illustration pop up in the A.O.I's 'IMAGES' annual. Judgement on number 36 is out soon, while IMAGES 35 recently had it's private view in London, where the various awards in different categories were dished out. Work to appear in the annual is jury selected, so not every Tom Dick and Harry can get in, and subsequently the standard is always high.

Well we are happy here at team FMI to say that we have had not just one, nor two, but three people manage to get into the hefty tome. And if that wasn't enough, some of them even got a number of illustrations into it.

Small Change for Stuart

Last February I finished illustrating a book by author Lissa Evans called Small Change for Stuart. I drew on A4 drawing paper, a pad of which I bought from Trago Mills (a department shop in Falmouth) about 4 years ago. It was going slightly yellow, and I spilt Ribena on it a while back. I used a pen also bought from the same shop – I stockpiled, as they were going really cheap at the time.

I'm 9 and I've Farted 46,021 Times!

 

My two latest books were published on 3rd June by Macmillan Children's Books and are pleasantly titled 'I'm 8 and I've Burped 40,908 times!: Terrific Trivia about kids your age' and 'I'm 9 and I've Farted 46,021 times!: Terrific Trivia about Kids Your Age' by Mitchell Symons.

Andy Cope

World Book Day
 
It’s my blog so I’m allowed to brag. For those who know me, you’ll appreciate that I have a bizarre double life. I run ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ courses by day and masquerade as a children’s author at night. ‘Spy Dog’ has sold almost a million copies worldwide and, I’m delighted to say, has been chosen to be the featured book for this year’s ‘World Book Day’. Pretty cool stuff, at least it is from where I’m sitting. So I’ve written a brand new title called ‘Spy Dog’s Got Talent’, that has a decent shot at being number 1 in the book charts in March.

Great Expectations

 
Published late Spring 2011 – I’m very excited to have contributed to Puffin’s Classics series with a cover illustration.

It’s different having to illustrate a scene (namely the opening graveyard scene in which the convict Magwitch confronts the terrified Pip) which is so well known in people’s minds. But the trick, I soon found, is to forget all that and just draw what they ask, as usual.

The Northern Lights

 
Strangely enough, it is actually easier to see the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis from the northern parts of Norway, than it is to see it from the North Pole. This is because the polar lights fall roughly in a circle around the planet’s poles. So when I was in the arctic, the northern lights that I actually saw were far south of me. But it did not make them any less spectacular. These are 3 sketchbook drawings that I did of the Aurora Borealis during my time on the boat in the arctic. What they miss out most of all is just how bright the stars were - incomparable, and shining all the way across the sky until constellations meet the horizon, and drop off the edge of the world. I hope to get the chance in the following months to look through my photographs and video footage to make new drawings and films.

The Independent - Books of the Year: Children's books

 
It's been quite a year for James de la Rue. He's been in huge demand and flat out working for Walker ('Emily's Surprising Voyage'), Puffin (four 'Spy Dog' and 'Spy Pups' books), Penguin ('Great Expectations'), Hodder ('Gladiator Boy' editions 13 - 15) and Random House ('A Girl Called Dog'). To top if off he scooped the AOI Best of British Illustration - Images 34 Children's Books Bronze Award 2010 in September, and earlier this month featured in The Independent's 'Books of the Year: Children's books - Bears, rabbits, tigers, flies (and snot-caked bullies)' By Inbali Iserles.