Frances McKay Illustration

Sam the Hero!

This is another illustration from the book about Sam the cat burglar that Frances and I got ready for Bologna this year. Unfortunately it did not get any definite interest from the event, but I am hopeful that it will do soon.

This is from the end of the story, where Sam sees his own picture in the local paper, about how he saved the day!

Jill Latter

www.jillustrator.com

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Insecure Caterpillars and Slightly Mad Crabs

Phew! Just finished a book for the RSPB. Over 100 full-colour gag illustrations on the subject off, well – everything actually. But a short list would include juggling woodlice, woodpecker burgers, insecure caterpillars, angry mushrooms, skateboarding slugs, grasshoppers in bandages, slightly mad crabs, woodpecker poo and unexploded seeds. (It's amazing what you don't know you can't draw until you try).

It's odd. There are some things that even after all these years I just can't draw. I've no problem with cartoon horses, or bears, or dogs, or people, or elephants. They hold no fear for me. On the other hand, I can't draw cats or birds at all. I mean, I really can't!. I once did a job for Aardman animation, and spent weeks drawing hundreds and hundreds of cats. I looked at endless reference books, but at the end of it I still hadn't produced a single illustration which I liked (or frankly looked anything like a cat). Weird.

On top of producing so many humorous (hopefully) illustrations in a very short space of time, there was the added complication of getting to grips with the new program that I mentioned in my previous post. I'm now fully up to speed on this, and it's proving to be a godsend.

Anyway, here are a couple of my favourite gags from the book. I came up with most of them but I have to give credit where it's due, the author came up with the fork in the road joke, which still makes me laugh.

All the best

John

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!

Die Oma im Drachenbauch (The Grandmother in the Dragon Belly)

These are some black and white images, for a collection of short stories written by Gudrun Pausewang, and published in the autumn by Gerstenberg, Germany. I really enjoyed working in black and white, and would love to do more work like that. It is so much faster than colour illustrations. The drawings were combined with photography to give the pictures more texture.

Henning Löhlein

Contact Henning

Henning's Website

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More Pirates Ahoy!!

Well my first blog here and similar to John's blog before me it is a pirate theme, so more nautical naughtiness abounds for yee salt crusted sea-dogs! I illustrated this book, Young Blackbeard by Michael Lawrence and published by Barrington Stoke at the beginning of the year. It's my first junior fiction book so a step away from my own work which is usually big ridiculous colour spreads. It tells the tale of how Blackbeard became, well, Blackbeard and involves heartless fiends, spooky islands, buried treasure and lashings of rum.
When I was first commissioned to do it I gave a hearty laugh, as I'm apparently of pirate stock myself, the pirate queen Grace O' Malley knocking about somewhere in the O' Malley clan history. A quick google of her name and you'll see what a wily lady she was, once even being invited to Queen Elizabeth's court to parley. Irony struck again when I was recently on a trip to her home castle on Clare Island in the Atlantic ocean. I hated every second on the ferry out there. In fact I hate boats of every kind.

Donough O'Malley

Donough's Website

Buy Young Blackbeard

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Christina's Website

Finally I managed to redesign my website! As usual I had a few good ideas, but it's always the same question going arround my head: What kind of design represents my work best? When I work for clients it never seems to be a problem to find a way of developing something new and interesting, but as soon as it comes up to representing my work I get totally insecure how to design a webpage, postcard, corporate design...Now I am glad the page is up, and I hope you will enjoy it.

Christina

Christina's Website

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The Yeti

Taken from my second book of unpublished poems 'The Screaming of Life', The Yeti poem is one of my favourites. I really like the squirrels. The illustration isn't the most refined, but it's a yeti, it's meant to be scruffy!

Sean Julian

Sean's Website

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