Frances McKay Illustration

Season's Greetings and Festive Cheer

 

Rachel Boulton 

Jill Latter 

 

Festive jollity to everyone from Jane and her cat, Celeste.

Jane Eccles 

 

 

Have a jolly Festive Season, and a fabulous happy New Year!!! 

Henning Löhlein 

 

The two characters that have made it onto my Christmas card this year are from a picture book story I am currently developing about possessive friendships.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

Algy Craig Hall 

 

 

 

Tom Morgan-Jones 

 

Donough O'Malley 

 

  

 

Belinda Worsley 

"That looks painful!" said Penguin.

Sean Julian 

 

A piece of concept art for a picture book about the magic of Christmas.

Neil Price 

 

http://www.fidgetandco.com/ Latest poster to download for free, in time for the holidays... The Adventures of Dr Fillie Fidget and Hamish the Dog. 

Happy Christmas all!

Bee Willey 

 

The north wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will the robin do then? Poor thing!

He’ll sit in a barn, And keep himself warm, And hide his head under his wing, Poor thing!

Alan Marks 

 

This is a little booklet I made in the style of a medieval woodcut chap book, illustrating the Christmas story of Babushka, for those not familiar with it....

I recall this story being read on Jackanory one December long long ago on the TV, and it had such an impact on me a child, and it has stayed with me ever since.

Often mistakenly thought of as a traditional Russian tale, this is really an Italian tradition, alive and well, with the children there receiving gifts and sweets down the chimney on January 5th from La Befana - a kindly old woman with a broomstick - they are threatened with getting lumps of coal if they misbehave.

After much digging around researching the origins of the 'Russian' tale, I read that it was actually an English woman visiting Russia in the early 1900s,  who coming across a published version of the story and was not aware it was a translation from the Italian to Russian, as she subsequently translated it to English thereby becoming responsible for creating the myth in the west of the Russian Babushka story! The basic story was not however lost in translation!

  

I hope you enjoy the little tale as much as I did all those years ago: along with the notion that a kindly hardworking woman is responsible for the mysterious gifts in your stocking on Christmas morning and not an old man with a big beard and muddy boots!!

Irene Dickson 

 

 

Season's Greetings, Happy Christmas and all good wishes for the New Year from everyone at Frances McKay Illustration.

 

A monkey, fishing and elephant poo!‏

I’ve recently trotted over the bridge of illustration to feed on the grass of young fiction. And to celebrate I thought I’d pass on some of the wisdom my work has given me.

No matter what your occupation work can get stressful, and sometimes it feels as if you could work every hour of the week and you’d still not achieve everything you want.  At times like this, it’s important to have a little down time with your friends and family. There is nothing more efficient than a clear calm head.

Some tasks can seem daunting and unappealing from the outset, but if you really muck in and get your hands dirty you will soon be smelling the roses of your success!

 

Sean Julian

 

My Cookbook Blog

http://beewilley.tumblr.com/

Recipes from the Princesses' Pantry, for young and older Princesses .

Quite a small format - one of those books you could easily have to hand at all times, especiallly if you needed to bake a cake for a passing prince, queen or significant other .

An appetising selection of things to make with great effect and minimum effort for princesses on a  a tight schedule.

Recipes that are easy, but with flair.

 

Bee Willey

Spirit Bears

Spirit bears or Kermode bears are a variant on the North American black bear, they live in Canada, near to the Great Bear Rainforest. A mutation in the black bear's genes, called Kermodism means that 4/10 black bears are born white.

 

 

It has also been proved that the spirit bear is more successful than the normal black bear at catching fish in the daytime; salmon are more wary around darker objects coming towards them!

 

 

Spirit bears have long been an inspiration of mine, so my bear Finn seemed like a good character for the blog.

 

Rachel Boulton