Frances McKay Illustration

James and the Giant Peach

As I had a look at James's great new book cover I remembered a fictional book cover I did last year. One I haven`t added to my website yet. This cover feels like a hopeful preview to what is coming up for all of us in 2010.

After last years meeting in November we (mostly John & Elena-thank you so much!) have brought this blog on it`s way and I am looking forward to the development of the other projects which will follow if we work together continuously. I am sure we, as a group of illustrators, will have a surprising and successful year coming up!

Christina Bretschneider  

Hangman’s Hollow

As we fly headlong into the new year I am developing the artwork for a new (yet to be titled) series. I took the decision to try and put some strip artwork in there. I wanted to integrate text and words a little bit more and play with layout. It’s taking some doing but I think it will be worth it in the end.

The story is set in a place called Hangman’s Hollow. Far from anywhere else in a frozen landscape where thick woods grow up around a walled city. The city is at war with the forest. Things emerge onto the streets at night. The forest people want to claim the city as their own and children are outlawed in these parts. But one small boy manages to smuggle himself in there one winter’s night without knowing what awaits him and the series is all about his dark adventures as he desperately makes his way to safety.

I’ll be keeping you posted on how the series is progressing but in the meantime here is a taster of some of that artwork.

Chris Mould

www.somethingwickedlyweird.com

Rats, Rickets and Robbery

The cheerful pic above is the cover artwork of book one in a new Scholastic series by the seemingly unstoppable Terry Deary. The books detail the adventures of a gang of (early) Victorian street urchins who rob from the rich and give to the poor. They are very entertaining and I'm told the illustrations are rather good too. There are four books in the Crime Academy series; Burglary for Beginners, Robbery for Rascals, Classes in Kidnapping, Safecracking for Students. As you can see from the scene depicted, it's all good clean wholesome fun and should inspire and uplift the youth of today. The cover artwork was entirely produced in Corel Painter (apart from the original drawing which was produced entirely in good old-fashioned graphite pencil 7B). Hope you like. John Kelly

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

Bird Fishes and Mung Beans

Outside my window everything is covered by a blanket of snow. So I thought I’d dig through my boxes of paper to find some warm colours… I’ve then glued together a little sunny garden where my characters can find shelter from this f r e e z i n g weather! The first one to find out about my garden is a bird-fish (ever heard of such an animal?). It has just popped out of a clumsy magician’s hat and, together with other funny and very magical characters, it will be featuring in a pilot animation I’m doing the illustrations for. So watch this space, you might see the fish-bird (or was it a bird-fish?!) flying through your screen soon!

The second picture looks more like what is outside my window. (Why, don’t you have beans wrapped up in their winter coats strolling outside yours…?) It is a spread I’ve recently done for The Mighty Messenger, published by Secret Seed Society. The book comes in a cute little package including a packet of seeds and it is the second of a series aiming to get children to grow and eat their own! Mingo is a mung bean who needs to get a job in order to buy some lights for his bike…

To find out the whole story visit www.secretseedsociety.com.

Valentina Cavallini

Emily’s Surprising Blog Entry

This is the cover for my first Walker Books commission. The year has started off busily, in fact it couldn’t get more so with further Gladiator Boy episodes in the offing and the patter of puppies paws once again off in the distance. Meanwhile this new blog is a welcome opportunity for me to put my own lonely blog to sleep, if I can find it. It’s covered in dust. And very small.

Cheerio!

James de la Rue

www.jamesdelarue.co.uk

Happy New Year!

This is a collage of some of my characters from my recent books, from Greg the sheep to Tom the Rabbit from out of space. And to start the new year, my new website is now online, where you can see my published books, my work for magazines and newspapers and various other illustrations such as postcards etc... Check it out at www.Lohlein.com.

Happy New Year to all of you!!!!!

Henning Lohlein