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!

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.

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. 

Tickle the Moon

This is from a picture book idea I've been playing with, called Tickle the Moon. It's about a girl and her cat who are on a mission to cheer up the moon who is all lonely in the night sky. I'm still playing with the story and characters but I do feel that there's a decent picture book lurking in there somewhere. This illustration is largely pen and ink with water colour, but there's also a bit of gouache in there give the colour a bit more body. It's painted on heavy grade water colour paper and has managed not to buckle, however I'm regretting not having used my usual water colour board as I reckon the finer details would have benefited from a smoother surface; anyhow I'll remember that for next time!

Kate Willis-Crowley

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Featured in the beautiful Ballad Of blog. Many thanks Lindsey & Claire!

Dancing Bear

I really have no idea quite how this picture came about. All I know is I sat down one afternoon with a box of new Winsor and Newton paints and started playing; always 50/50 as to whether this process will throw up anything worth hanging onto, but something about these characters reallyappeals to me.

I might play around with some story ideas for these two; maybe it's a teddy bear she imagines to be real... maybe that's a bit too much like Calvin and Hobbs. Also, there's that gorgeous Raymond Briggs book called The Bear which I'll have to avoid imitating.

Kate Willis-Crowley

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Aurora and Happi

In the last month I've been working on an exciting project at Snow Castle studios in Oslo. It's a kids franchise that will be released as a game and childrens' book. These are just early teasers, but show somewhat the art direction we're going. We're trying to keep a very consistent style between all the production even though it consists of two different teams. The project is called Aurora and Happi for the moment, but we're trying to come up with a less character specific name so the franchise universe can be expanded in future products.


I already got a ton of these "pencil" sketches and it's a lot of fun shaping a fantastic world. I draw inspiration from Alice in Wonderland, Coraline, Pans Labyrinth and other 'parallel universe' type of tales. However my biggest inspiration for creating these designs is music. Mentally adding an atmosphere and soundtrack to the visuals, really helps creating something that has a certain depth.

Best Regards,
FRIDTJOF/FRITS OLSEN Frits's Website Follow us on Facebook
 

Desert Warmth

Dear All, Head up from the crayons etc for a minute, hoping you'll like my picture for a scene in a book I am working on the moment, amongst other jobs. Heat and desert warmth, to compensate for the tedious weather here....Another image to follow next month! I bought a new big box of pencils from the US as they are much cheaper there (Prismacolour) so that is always very exciting for me!!!

I just saw How to be a Princess on Amazon. Not many credits for me there I see, but you can take a look inside the book I did anyway....

Bee Willey

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Rabbits

Just an update on current jobs and projects: this first image is part of a project underway at the moment, a magical tale which I love, written by Frances. Hopefully this will find a definite publishing home soon. I realized, reading the manuscript, how full of rabbit and hare images my house is, way before my daughter was born and started being obsessed with rabbits herself. It is always nice to find threads and themes running through one's life and work, although I am usually the last to see it for myself. Apart from that, I am working on a lovely book of Indian tales and another one about Egypt, requiring a fair mount of research, which I always love doing. More images from those jobs later. Bee Willey Frances McKay Face Book Fan page