Frances McKay Illustration

Back to Canvas.

 

Four years ago I took a break from illustrating to work for my brother and his wife at Bandito in the wonderful, not for the faint hearted, world of special effects. The experience, ranging from muttering incoherently at 3am at state-of-the-art computer technology to the dizzy Emmys, deserves a post of it's own another time. Except to say, I enjoyed it so much it's taken me until recently to drag myself away and back to painting. So in the past couple of weeks, paint brush in hand, I've been muttering incoherently at 3am in a state-of-the-artist-without-an-'Undo'-button manner to the buzz of a daylight blub. 

Biro

 
To follow in the vein of Temujin's and Allen's previous blogs, here's one of my roughs. This one is about four years old and whilst my method has changed the result is the same.

My roughs are always drawn in biro, a hang up from when roughs had to be faxed to a client and pencil wouldn't show up. I'd draw lots of elements separately, enlarge or reduce them on a photocopier, cut them out, move them round the page, tape them down, clean up with correction fluid and draw over the top until the page couldn't take any more. Then I'd photocopy the page and continue or fax it off.

Now I can do most if this in Photoshop but occasionally I still jigsaw it around by hand for the fun of it before scanning it, cleaning it up and emailing it off. Which inevitably leaves me scrubbing the correction fluid off my arm and pealing off one of the disregarded, taped, elements of the drawing stuck to the sole of my shoe.

As for the biro, the black Bic Cristal Medium Biro is the only one I use. The others have no talent at all! 

The Bic's Amazon reviews are a chuckle.

Cheery biro,

Elena Gomez

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To enlarge the illustration click on the image.

Reality

I was a serious child, and not without good reason. I must have been about five years old the first time I can remember racing through the dark forest on a unicorn, my brother to the left upon a flying dragon and my sister close behind in a golden carriage pulled by six horses. Stars poked through the leaves above and thousands of ugly, screaming, giant trolls jumped up and down through the trees, closing in on us by the second. Will we make the castle before the trolls make dinner of us?

Suddenly the energy was sucked from our magical creatures, the forest slowed down, the trolls grabbed us and threw us into the air laughing.

"Didn't you enjoy that?" enquired one of the largest trolls, looking at me through thick black eye brows.

"Uhmm, yes" I replied, blinking and frowning; a few seconds ago it was the castle or death!

"You didn't look like you enjoyed it" he continued. "Your mother and I jumped up and down, called your name, waved like mad, but you didn't wave back or smile once! All the other children on the carousel were waving to their parents".

Briefly my father looked disappointed, then in a flash it was forgotten as he growled and chased us through the fair whilst we screamed with delight. Reality is secondary to a fast pair of legs, an imaginary sword and a flying horse when you are five years old.

This illustration was rejected as a sample spread for a book, but that's part of the job. When I painted it I wanted it to be sleepy, to compliment the lullaby script, and subliminally a dream like merry-go-round; the poles becoming trees, the animals flying free. There are no trolls as they'd wake the baby.

Sweet dreams.

Elena Gomez

   

An Artist's Paradise

This illustration is the book jacket to 'A World of Prayers' written by the Rev. Jeremy Books and published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.   

Often when I look at my work it takes me back to the time when I painted it. I illustrated 'A World of Prayers' whilst living in Paris for a couple of years. It was by sheer luck and a lack of available accommodation that I wound up living in the heart of Montmartre. An artist's paradise!

The filming of Amelie (directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet) was just finishing on my door step and surrounding streets (that I had yet to walk many times) when I arrived there. After the film came out, friends who visited would often ask if it was shot in my building. It wasn't, but they'd be forgiven for mistaking the apartments that are so typical of that area and in particular, the main stairwell, which bar the odd plant is, well, the same!

I lived just a few streets away from the garden of Sacre Coeur and would often spend lunch times there on a park bench, reading a book and glancing at the circus of tourists, street sellers, buskers and children on the old fashioned merry-go-round.

 
On the hottest summer evenings the parisian air would get so still and thick that the only place to catch a breeze was at the top of the hill, at the top of the steps to Sacre Coeur. During the hottest days, I'd spend an hour or so inside the thick cool walls of the church admiring the frescos and statues.

This book jacket is the direct result of making many escapes from a very hot, old apartment with no air-conditioning.

Au revoir!

Elena Gomez

'A World of Prayers' is available from Amazon

Frances McKay Face Book Fan page

Elliot and the Big Wave

"Elliot the cat lives by the sea, a perfect place for a fish-loving cat to be. At least it would be if only he could catch one!"

"Draw cats and boats, you're good at those!" was Frances McKay's advise. The result was Elliot and The Big Wave. My first book, published by Hodder Children's Books and written by Frances McKay. I'd had cards, prints, calendars, book jackets and editorial pieces published, along with ranges of table top merchandise but breaking into picture books took a bit longer and Frances's help.

Hodder commissioned me to paint Elliot from the rough drawings with only a three week deadline for Bologna Book Fair. I was so tired by the time I got to the fair that I fell a sleep for a couple of hours, on two very uncomfortable plastic chairs in front of hundreds of books stands and even more people. I certainly did a very good job of promoting the good for nothing, lazy artist!

Better yet, there wasn't time for Elliot to be sent aboard to be printed. It had to be printed in the UK (the best printers in the world at that time) and is still today the best reproduction of my work I have seen. The pages are as good as the original art work. Unfortunately, Elliot is now out of print. However, copies do appear on Amazon from time to time See Elliot and the Big Wave

Toodle-pip!

Elena Gomez