Frances McKay Illustration

Ben's Box

Ben’s Box’ is a book I have been working on with Frances. It focuses on a little bear named Ben who just wants to play. He spends his day trying to catch Florence, a bird who is hiding in his box. She flies out and he tries to follow her. Its text consists of mostly onamaterpiac words which are simply joyous. There’s not much else to be said about this lovely little story really. All I need do now is make sure all the drawings are as strong as they can be!

New Noses

 
These spot illustrations are for my book with Orchard Press called Where's Violet; The project is going slowly, which as you all know can be frustrating. However, I am concentrating my efforts on drawing children with their pets. I have always enjoyed the idea of a child with an animal side-kick and this book is right up my street. 

Iceberg Ahead!

I’m travelling on a cruise ship at the moment, and just as we were approaching China, we hit ice! You can imagine passengers’ faces as the announcement came though over dinner. Many references to the Titanic as you’d expect. It turned out not to be so serious, though it probably sounded worse to those who heard us scraping through the ice from their cabins at the waterline! Crisis averted. I’m also in the process of story boarding for a book for Orchard, and am looking on my travels for weird and wonderful doors… I’ll let you know what I find!

I’ve realised while travelling, that there are so many different traditional costumes and fashion styles that I can draw inspiration from (pardon the pun). Watching the Chinese art of ‘Face Changing’, was one such inspiring occasion. For those who don’t know, the performers wear elaborate costumes and move to quick, dramatic music. They also wear coloured masks, which they change in the blink of an eye! As well as illustrations of characters in wonderful costumes, I’m looking out for animals of all shapes and sizes when we pass from Japan through to Australia… Tigers and Pandas, maybe even a Kangaroo!

Rachel Boulton

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