Frances McKay Illustration

Apes

 
Here is one, of a few, small illustrations I worked on recently. Four weeks ago I was asked to produce a small portfolio for a potential client in France. As usual, when I had a look on the publishers website, I got nervous of my old illustrations. Would they be good enough to present? So I decided to do a few quick illustrations, which I could add to the older ones.

At the moment I am working at an cover-artwork for Oetinger Verlag Hamburg. I`m right at the beginning, thinking about the story and the different ways to design the cover and type. I feel like a cat surrounding the mouse. Already fulfilled with joy of what will come up, afraid of being unable to draw something that I will really like, that it is representable, and worth printing. As soon as I have something to show, I will share it with you.

Christina

Tweet

Share

The Arctic Circle

This is a drawing that I did a couple of years ago whilst I was studying. It is Antarctica as a lump of coal. For a very long time, it has been my dream to live there as part of the British Antarctic Survey’s artist residency program. Unfortunately the residency program closed last year through lack of funds, and although I was not eligible – you must be out of education for over two years, and be quite established at your profession – I was saddened by the decision.

Then this year, by a grand mixture of luck and fluke, I was awarded a participant place onboard an arts and science expedition called "The Arctic Circle." The organisation is based out of New York and the expedition is to the High Arctic. So this October, I will be travelling onboard an icebreaker around the Arctic Ocean, skirting about the North Pole.

I will be making a vast amount of drawings, photographs, and filming a short documentary film. I will also be uncontrollably excitable for the entire trip.

Temujin Doran

 Tweet

Share

Just the Job for Kind Dog

The lovely Gaby Morgan at Macmillan Children's Books has compiled a book of poems about puppies aimed at 7-9 year old girls and I am lucky enough to be illustrating it - a combination of my favourite animal & poetry is irresistable.
It includes poems by Roger Stevens; Clare Bevan; John Foster and Brian Patten among others. I'm having to get used to drawing on Bristol board again, having worked almost exclusively on watercolour paper for the last year.
The deadline is the end of September so must get cracking ! Here are the first offerings....
Jane Eccles

Kind dog

Tweet

Share

Fluffy Wuffy Norbert

This double page spread illustration shows Norbert, our fluffy hero, in my next Christmas Book "Wie Weihnachten beinahe ausfiel" (Turned Out Almost Like Christmas) written by Adriana Dorsett and published by Hoffmann & Campe in the autumn. Here he is very annoyed, because everyone just calls him fluffy wuffy, and everyone expects him to be good, when in reality he is the trouble maker. To find out more, you have to wait until publication day....

Henning Lohlein

Henning's Website

Follow us on Facebook

Tweet

Share

Click on the illustration to enlarge it.

Different Times and a Bit of Name Dropping

I stumbled into working in children’s books. This was 1984; I’d done some English Language work with OUP but had mostly been working for magazines: The Literary Review, Time Out, Radio Times and the like, when (as mentioned in a previous blog) a designer at Heinemann saw something I’d done and put me forward for a ghost story for children. Storm by Kevin Crossley-Holland was in the first series of Yellow Bananas Books, the first “readers” now prevalent in children’s publishing, (I think this had a great deal to do with Judith Elliott who was children’s book editor at Heinemann). With that book under my belt, by ‘phoning and arranging to meet with editors I went on to work with several independent publishers, illustrating work by Fiona Waters; Rosemary Sutcliff; Jill PatonWalsh, (including Thomas and the Tinners, above); Joan Aiken… you get the point; it was a good break.

Does this happen now? The small, independent publishing houses did seem more approachable than today’s conglomerated businesses, and I do understand the pressures on modern publishing. Somehow ease of communication has made connecting all the more difficult. I, naively, used to deliver work by hand to editors and was often welcomed, shown work-in-progress etc. It was part of an editor’s job to find and nurture new talent. Starting out was never easy; not everyone wanted to look at what was essentially college work. But I remember, having just left college, talking to Tom Maschler, head of Jonathan Cape, from a ‘phone box; he was helpful and encouraging and gave time to explain how I should approach publishers with my work. I sat in Klaus Flugge’s office, Andersen Press, whilst he read a story that I’d written; in both cases, probably unthinkable now. The story, Nowhere to be Found, (via an introduction from Frances McKay), was later published by Michael Neugebauer, now owner of Minedition and another great publisher, who took a chance with that early picture book. During all this time I don’t think I knew how fortunate I was.

I’m sure that new talent is encouraged today, if it can make itself known. I’m not sure that young illustrators can get away with stumbling any more.

Alan Marks

MarksOnPaper

Alan's Biography, Books and Awards

Follow us on Facebook

Tweet

Fairy Tale Village

During summer I spent a week in Sarmede, a tiny village in the Venetian hills in Italy. Quite unexpectedly given its small size and isolated location, Sarmede hosts an international school of illustration and a yearly exhibition featuring works by some of the most exciting contemporary children’s book illustrators.

The school was founded in 1989 by Czech artist Stepan Zavrel, whose beautiful frescos are still dotted around the village (together with the anecdotes about his rocambolesque life).

In Sarmede I attended a course taught by Linda Wolfsgruber (a great teacher as well an inspiring illustrator) and I had fun experimenting with monoprint.

By using a sheet of Perspex, oil based colours, and a press, monoprint allows you to create interesting textured backgrounds. If you don’t have access to a press though, a rolling pin will do the trick.

Back to my studio I cut and pasted the backgrounds I had produced in the course. And here is what came up…

Valentina Cavallini

Valentina's Website

Follow us on Facebook

Images 34 Exhibition- the Best of British Contemporary Illustration 2010

 
Tuesday September 7th was the The AOI Private View of the AOI Images Exhibition 2010, at the London College of Communication.

Tibbs Felt Grey

I have been developing a story over the last few months, and I now feel that I have got the character looking how I imagined.

This all came about, when an illustration which I painted many years ago, of a very simple grey and black tiger, seem to trigger off quite a bit of positive feedback from my portfolio when Frances showed it at various meetings. They seemed to like the vulnerability of the character and although he seemed sad he still had quite an appeal about him. I had originally painted this character with my usual inky stick technique, (as it sounds a stick dipped in a pot of ink,) and my fingers to print the stripes on, I also produced a giraffe and some other animal friends like this too. Now because of the way I used the black ink, whenever i tried to add colour to the tiger, it never seemed to be as effective, and he seemed to lack the very quality he had in the first place. So for this reason i decided that although he was to remain black and grey, for him to appeal to children in a book, he needed to meet some colourful friends, and for there to be a reason as to why he felt so grey!

I know that Frances, has introduced my Tibbs story at a few meetings, so I am hoping that with time, and with the right development of the artwork, he will become a real printed book character one day!

Heres a few lines from the end of the story . . .

Tibbs still felt grey, but maybe not quite so sad.

He stopped and looked up . . .

. . . and something very beautiful and very smiley looked back down at him.

. . . and then Tibbs saw something, something that made him feel the most cheery, the most bright, the most smiley, the most happy, the most beautiful that he had ever felt before. . . .

Jill Latter

http://www.jillustrator.com/

Follow us on Facebook

See Jill's work at the Images 34 exhibition – the Best of British Contemporary Illustration 2010