Frances McKay Illustration

Spy Pets adventure exclusive

 

James De La Rue gets to finally meet the author of Spy Dog, Andy Cope.

Spy Dog: brainwashed!

 

James De La Rue has some canine espionage excitement to share with us.

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.

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 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.

A Girl Called Dog

 
This is a working version of a cover for a new book for Random House, plus a rough for one of the interior pages.

The story features a destitute young girl – downtrodden, beaten, neglected, but surely destined for greater things – and further convinces me I’m carving my little niche in depicting such pathos-inducing characters. I rejoice that there’s always plenty of room for more pathos in this game.

The World Beneath ‘First Class’

Just imagine: it’s still early in Queen Victoria’s reign; you’re a young northern girl of respectable stock; you’re stuck on a strange ship bound for Australia with typical Victorian upper-middle class parents; and you miss your Gran. What should a posh girl do other than steal down to steerage and check out the lad with the rat in his waistcoat? Only then do you get passed the baby to hold and you wonder if crossing the white line into the world beneath ‘First Class’ was the brightest move you ever made. Illustration ‘Emily holds Annie’ for Emily’s Surprising Voyage, commissioned by Jacky Paynter of Walker Books and due to be published later this year.

James de la Rue

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Here are some working drawings for another trio of Gladiator Boy editions (13-15), written by David Grimstone. Decimus and his beleaguered friends just can’t leave evil to do its thing, as they embark on another hideously dangerous journey, battling blood imbibed doppelgangers, effete psychopaths, ogrish subterraneans and an amputee who doesn’t let what’s lacking get in the way of a violent streak wider than the Tiber. These are currently due for release 1st July 2010.

www.jamesdelarue.co.uk