Frances McKay Illustration

The Great Big Sleep

‘The Great Big Sleep’, like most of the stories I write, is semi-autobiographical and inspired by true-ish events.

It is a tale of two friends, Squirrel and Bear who are preparing to settle down for their long winter nap. But even after they’ve both had their supper, drank their milk and had one last mess about in the snow, Squirrel is still not tired.

As Squirrel tries his best to make himself sleepy in a number of ever increasingly noisy ways, he begins to test the patience of his friend, Bear. Not wanting to keep his friend awake any longer, Squirrel leaves the den and heads out into the snow.

With the night growing colder and the snow beginning to fall harder it’s up to Bear to find Squirrel and bring him home to the warmth of the fire.

‘Meanwhile, the den was so quiet that Bear couldn’t sleep because he was worried. Where was Squirrel? Bear lit his lantern and headed out into the snow to search for him.’

Although I have illustrated many picture books over the years, ‘The Great Big Sleep’ is the first I have both written and illustrated. It feels like it was a long time in the making but now it’s here I’m really proud of all the hard work that both myself and the publishing team have put into it. The book is published in the UK on 7^th January 2016 by Penguin Random House.

I hope you enjoy reading it with your family and have a Great Big Sleep of your own.

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/editions/the-great-big-sleep/9781849419888

 

Sean Julian

 

Bear Can't Sleep

My latest picture has arrived - ‘Bear Can’t Sleep’ written by Marni McGee and published by Little Tiger Press is out on 10^th September 2015.

It’s a bit of a departure for me as the illustration style in which it is painted is not my usual one. Known predominantly for my opaque acrylic painterlyness, I was encouraged by the Little Tigers to apply the acrylic paint in a looser way to take advantage of the line work produced at the design stage. 

I had to learn a whole new set of skills, buy an A3 printer from Argos and spend several happy months illustrating by the seat of my pants.

The plot of the book involves a scooter, a grumpy bear, a thermos flask, some blueberry and onion sandwiches (there was some snails in the sandwiches too, but they were reprieved at the last minute), some needlecraft, lots of jam, underwear and an accident prone hare.

 

Sean Julian

 

Hamstermonster

Henning Löhlein's new book shows what might just happen if you don't buy your hamster a wheel. 

My latest book just got published in Germany and will be published at the end of September in the UK by North South Books. It is called "Hamstermonster", and is written by my sister, her first picture book.

Three little hamsters are tired of being called cute, sweet, and little so they decide to be scary. They make scary faces and wear scary costumes, but the only thing they get in response is laughter. ‘We need to be bigger!’ they cry.

But when they build bigger costumes, they soon realize that being cute isn't so bad and that you don't need to be big to be scary.

I really enjoyed using more collage in the artwork, and to combine my acrylic paintings with paper textures and photographs. 

 

 

Henning Löhlein

Back to Canvas.

 

Four years ago I took a break from illustrating to work for my brother and his wife at Bandito in the wonderful, not for the faint hearted, world of special effects. The experience, ranging from muttering incoherently at 3am at state-of-the-art computer technology to the dizzy Emmys, deserves a post of it's own another time. Except to say, I enjoyed it so much it's taken me until recently to drag myself away and back to painting. So in the past couple of weeks, paint brush in hand, I've been muttering incoherently at 3am in a state-of-the-artist-without-an-'Undo'-button manner to the buzz of a daylight blub. 

Reality

I was a serious child, and not without good reason. I must have been about five years old the first time I can remember racing through the dark forest on a unicorn, my brother to the left upon a flying dragon and my sister close behind in a golden carriage pulled by six horses. Stars poked through the leaves above and thousands of ugly, screaming, giant trolls jumped up and down through the trees, closing in on us by the second. Will we make the castle before the trolls make dinner of us?

Suddenly the energy was sucked from our magical creatures, the forest slowed down, the trolls grabbed us and threw us into the air laughing.

"Didn't you enjoy that?" enquired one of the largest trolls, looking at me through thick black eye brows.

"Uhmm, yes" I replied, blinking and frowning; a few seconds ago it was the castle or death!

"You didn't look like you enjoyed it" he continued. "Your mother and I jumped up and down, called your name, waved like mad, but you didn't wave back or smile once! All the other children on the carousel were waving to their parents".

Briefly my father looked disappointed, then in a flash it was forgotten as he growled and chased us through the fair whilst we screamed with delight. Reality is secondary to a fast pair of legs, an imaginary sword and a flying horse when you are five years old.

This illustration was rejected as a sample spread for a book, but that's part of the job. When I painted it I wanted it to be sleepy, to compliment the lullaby script, and subliminally a dream like merry-go-round; the poles becoming trees, the animals flying free. There are no trolls as they'd wake the baby.

Sweet dreams.

Elena Gomez

   

An Artist's Paradise

This illustration is the book jacket to 'A World of Prayers' written by the Rev. Jeremy Books and published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.   

Often when I look at my work it takes me back to the time when I painted it. I illustrated 'A World of Prayers' whilst living in Paris for a couple of years. It was by sheer luck and a lack of available accommodation that I wound up living in the heart of Montmartre. An artist's paradise!

The filming of Amelie (directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet) was just finishing on my door step and surrounding streets (that I had yet to walk many times) when I arrived there. After the film came out, friends who visited would often ask if it was shot in my building. It wasn't, but they'd be forgiven for mistaking the apartments that are so typical of that area and in particular, the main stairwell, which bar the odd plant is, well, the same!

I lived just a few streets away from the garden of Sacre Coeur and would often spend lunch times there on a park bench, reading a book and glancing at the circus of tourists, street sellers, buskers and children on the old fashioned merry-go-round.

 
On the hottest summer evenings the parisian air would get so still and thick that the only place to catch a breeze was at the top of the hill, at the top of the steps to Sacre Coeur. During the hottest days, I'd spend an hour or so inside the thick cool walls of the church admiring the frescos and statues.

This book jacket is the direct result of making many escapes from a very hot, old apartment with no air-conditioning.

Au revoir!

Elena Gomez

'A World of Prayers' is available from Amazon

Frances McKay Face Book Fan page

Elliot and the Big Wave

"Elliot the cat lives by the sea, a perfect place for a fish-loving cat to be. At least it would be if only he could catch one!"

"Draw cats and boats, you're good at those!" was Frances McKay's advise. The result was Elliot and The Big Wave. My first book, published by Hodder Children's Books and written by Frances McKay. I'd had cards, prints, calendars, book jackets and editorial pieces published, along with ranges of table top merchandise but breaking into picture books took a bit longer and Frances's help.

Hodder commissioned me to paint Elliot from the rough drawings with only a three week deadline for Bologna Book Fair. I was so tired by the time I got to the fair that I fell a sleep for a couple of hours, on two very uncomfortable plastic chairs in front of hundreds of books stands and even more people. I certainly did a very good job of promoting the good for nothing, lazy artist!

Better yet, there wasn't time for Elliot to be sent aboard to be printed. It had to be printed in the UK (the best printers in the world at that time) and is still today the best reproduction of my work I have seen. The pages are as good as the original art work. Unfortunately, Elliot is now out of print. However, copies do appear on Amazon from time to time See Elliot and the Big Wave

Toodle-pip!

Elena Gomez