Frances McKay Illustration

The Unlikely Outlaws

The Unlikely Outlaws, written by Philip Ardagh, illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones and published by Barrington Stoke has just been released.

Here the brilliantly bearded Philip talks about the release of this book.

"The Unlikely Outlaws, illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones is an interesting book for me. It's made up of three books: two previously published and one about to be published, all about The Green Men of Gressingham and all illustrated by Mike Phillips. The Green Men of Gressingham are a bit like Robin Hood's merry men, except that they wear brown -- the Green Men that is -- because it's cheaper and hides the dirt better. And their boss is a lady called Robyn-in-the-Hat. With me so far? Good.

Anyway, I was well used to Mike's interpretation of the characters. Then along came Tom who made them all his own. Of course, Big Jim had to look big and Friendly had to look friendly and the evil Marshal Guppy had to look evil, but Tom's style is very different to Mike's, so The Unlikely Outlaws has a very different feel to it. It's loose and crazy and zingy and zappy and all those other terms which are useless unless you've got the Tom Morgan-Jones illustrations in front of you but, if you DO have them in front of you, you'll know exactly what I mean.

 

 

Tom's fab pics add to the pace and comedy of some very silly adventures indeed. What a pleasure doing business with him."

Here's a link to the Barrington Stoke page (just look at those end papers...)  

 

Philip Ardagh

Illustrations by Tom Morgan-Jones

 

 

River Story

"A luscious blend of cool blues and verdant greens lights up the pages of this poetic picture book, which traces the course of a river from its source." Publishers Weekly.

Follow a river from its beginnings as a mountain stream formed from melting snow, as it rushes over rocks and through valleys to the busy city, and finally to its end, where it joins the sea.

River Story was published on 12th May 2015 by Candlewick Press (MA)

 

Bee Willey

A Scribble of Illustrators: Visiting the Event

Hello everyone,

As some of you may know, 3 of the illustration horses out of the Frances McKay stable, Henning Lohlein, Donough O’Malley and Sean Julian (that’s me!) Recently took part in an illustration exhibition at the Centrespace Gallery in Bristol. The show was called ‘A Scribble of Illustrators‘ and along with 8 other top West Country based scribblers we showed off our wares to the general public.

The Scribblers were:

Joe Berger

 

Paula Bowles

 

Jo Empson

 

Yasmeen Ismail

 

Sean Julian

 

Steve Lenton

 

Henning Lohlein

 

Gwen Millward

 

Donough O'Malley

 

Lauren Tobia

 

Sarah Warburton

Workshops were also a big part of the event with lots of families coming through the door eager for a story or two and wanting a quick lesson in how to draw a gorilla (or at least I hope that’s what they wanted). 

Paula reads the kids a woolly story.

 

Steve Lenton is looking a bit shifty (and Mc Gifty).

 

Sean Julian and The Gorilla Gang.

 

Hopefully in the future we can put on more exhibitions and workshops to spread the word of illustration and show the world what we do. A huge thanks to all those people that helped us put on a great show.

 

Sean Julian