Frances McKay Illustration

Yo Ho Ho, Me Hearties!

Greetings, you scurvy swabs! Anyone familiar with my usual artwork style will recognise that this is not it. I do have a variety of different styles, but I'm always experimenting and this one is brand-new. I'm illustrating two (possibly three) books for Autumn -- that's the publishers, not the season. The first one is about pirates, the second about cowboys. The third -- which I'm really worried about -- is probably going to be about fairies. That will be very much stepping outside my comfort zone. Yikes! My usual painted style of artwork is done with a mixture of Corel Painter and Photo Shop. The pirate artwork style is drawn in a program called Manga Studio. Now, as a general principle, I can't abide Manga artwork (I think it's an age thing) but this program is phenomenal. It's very cheap (you can buy a cutdown version of it, which is all you'll need, for about $80). There is a pro version, which I'm using, but frankly most of the cool features are in the cheap version. The amazing thing about it is the control you have over the way the pen behaves. You can set the pen parameters in so many different ways, for example to smooth, straighten or have very sharp points (mitres) on corners or zigzag turns. This all may seem very small beer, but to anyone has ever attempted to make a inkpen, real or digital, do these things, it's a revelation. You can do a lot of these things in programs like Adobe Illustrator, or CorelDRAW. But they are indescribably clunky in comparison. Manga studio is a program that does one thing but does it very, very well. It is, and I've been using digital drawing programs for 15 years, the best pen and ink program I've ever come across. Dave Gibbons, the artist who illustrated the seminal graphic novel Watchmen uses it. That's a good enough endorsement for me. All the best John

The Ratty Racers

This is a spread from "The Ratty Racers", which is going to Bologna book fair with Frances. I am working on the dummy book at the moment, and really enjoying my creative freedom.

I hope by writing the story as well as illustrating it, will allow for a little more of this. I begin my long awaited silk screen course in a month, so hope soon to have some original prints in my blog in the not so distant future.

Maddy McClellan

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Henning Löhlein

I was at the Bologna Book Fair around seven or eight years ago and as usual I spending time looking at all the illustrators work in the exhibition. Which incidentally almost never has any work by UK illustrators. But I will save that blog for another time.

The exhibition is large and has work from illustrators from all over the world. The good, the bad and the beige and brown. Very few stand out for me, but that year Henning had his Greg the Sheep illustrations in the show. I was immediately struck by them, colour, vitality and humour as well as great execution.

When I got home I contacted him fully expecting him to be based in Germany, but found to my delight that he was living in Bristol. So we arranged to meet when I was there next and well I am still delighted to represent Henning. I still love Greg!

Frances McKay

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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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Reindeer Off Season

And for all those who wonder what the reindeer are up to, when they don't do their seasonal work with Santa; I got some postcards which do show that they are having a good time off season. These cards and other illustration will be included in my next Christmas Book, published in the autumn, written by Adriana Dorsett. It is a follow up book from last season's "The Christmas Rabbit", where a bunch of fairy tale creatures (the Easter Rabbit, The Bad Wolf, the Seven Gnomes, etc) are doing a race to Santa's home, and the winner will be Father Christmas for one day.

Henning Löhlein

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The London Book Fair

Hello all! Just a brief look up and out to the world in the pre- Bologna head down frenzy to finish everything in time!!! Out of the woods soon for me too, and looking forward to going to The London Book Fair where I won a free pass and display of my work. Intrigued to find out who the other people were too!
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My Favourite Playground

This is an illustration I did for a weekend supplement of Berliner Zeitung a few years ago. It was for an article called "Job & Career" and as you can imagine, they no longer order illustrations for this anymore ("It`s too expensive").

For me it points out, again, what the illustration job market looks like in Germany at the moment. It´s really hard to find new clients in the editorial area for magazine and newspaper illustration, which has always been my favourite "playground". And even though Germany is a country of photos I hope more illustrating jobs will come up again in future. I think no photo can replace a good illustration!

Christina

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Keith the Grizzly Bartender

As a hobby I used to write (and still do occasionally) film noir/animal based stories. They were written around the idea that this world and the world of Frank the Swan runs parallel with each other. So I am Frank the Swan, known for my grace and elegance, as well being able to break a limb with one waft of my mighty wing. Everyone else in my life is also a part of the stories too. All you need is an animal that best sums up you, a film noir occupation ( Chief of police, ice cream salesman, card shark, funeral director, chaplain etc )  and of course your name. Put it altogether and see if you can get a decent sounding "Moo! City name.

For example:

Tom the Mule
Ian the Dog
Simon the B(rude word)d Snake
Vicar the Penguin
Keith the Grizzly Bartender.

Sean Julian

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