Frances McKay Illustration

The Folio Society Book Illustration Competition 2016

I'm delighted to have won The Folio Society Book Illustration Competition and a commission to illustrate War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. The result was announced by Michael at The House of Illustration in London on Thursday 25 February, and a very good evening it was too.

With The Folio Society’s reputation for excellence and some beautiful entries from the other illustrators, I was chuffed even to have made the longlist. Here’s a link to the list as featured in The Guardian.

The Folio Society makes lovely, covetable books. Quality of binding and paper and reproduction are, rightly, important to authors and illustrators, as well as to readers of course. But I went into the competition because of the choice of book. War Horse is a great story and its themes obviously still resonate.

The central relationship of Albert and his horse, Joey is key, as are the expectations of the time and the industrialisation of  war that took men and horses for fodder. For me it’s not the horses that are difficult to get right (though I could always do it better), it’s the apparatus and devastation of war that is hard to fathom. Barbed wire, for example, has a particular way of contorting; a calculated menace.  Together, these elements create a tension for both the narrative and the pictures.

It’s a terrific commission; it’s one of those jobs where I think, ’this is what I’ve always wanted to do’... actually, there are one or two more Michael Morpurgo stories that I'd love to illustrate. 

 

Alan Marks

Red Hair and Black Leather

This is a first for me; I’ve recently completed a sleeve and a label design for a vinyl record. Vinyl! For a child of the sixties and seventies that’s quite a big deal.

The O’Keefe Music Foundation is a non-profit organization in the USA that gives children the opportunity to record their musical performances for free with professional equipment and engineers.

The sleeve is for covers of Richard Thompson’s ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’ and ‘The Worst’ by The Rolling Stones. It’s a very grown-up children’s venture and, as the vocalists are female, the lyrics have been given a feminist slant. In the wrong hands, though, these recordings and the accompanying videos could be a disaster; there are so many possible pitfalls – think ‘The X Factor meets Playschool’ perhaps. But Aaron O’Keefe, who runs the organization, must be a brilliant teacher and enabler because these kids are seriously good. There’s no fuss; it’s for and about the music and I think the foundation gets help from a music industry that recognizes this.

Not surprisingly, the O’Keefe Music Foundation recordings are getting a lot of attention on YouTube: Check out the Vincent Black Lightning video here: Vincent Black Lightning and lots of  other videos here: O'Keefe Music Foundation

 

Alan Marks

 

 

Voices of the Child

Occasionally I get a commission that makes me look up from my drawing board and think about the real world. Through dialogue, Penal Reform International advocates justice reform in diverse countries around the world. I was recently asked by PRI to illustrate three covers for reports on children in detention centres, state-run care homes and police stations in Central Asia (although this is a worldwide issue): Voices of the Child is about shining light into these dark places; to raise awareness of and address the rights and conditions of young people. I was also made aware that other cultures are sensitive to these issues.

It was the use of light and shadow in my work, something that has always been important to me, that prompted the commission. But I did I wonder if they had the right illustrator; I started out working for editorial magazines but have largely illustrated children’s books for the past thirty years. I imagined how well Ralph Steadman or Brad Holland would handle the job, and took a deep breath.

It’s more difficult to give potency to interiors than landscapes, I find, and prison buildings are, intentionally, quite dull places; there are a lot of straight lines and blank facades. Watercolour will readily create atmosphere but here I think the now unfashionable use of drawn perspective was important to draw the viewer into these bleak, anonymous surroundings; to shine a light on the issues. 

 

Alan Marks

High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs

Lisa Kahn Schnell writes about her new picture book published on 14 April by Charlesbridge Publishing.

“Horseshoe crabs?!? Why did you want to write about them?” I’ve been asked, more than once. The question is always accompanied by an expectant look: there is a reason, right?

Sort of. Like many children, if I ever thought of horseshoe crabs at all, it was mostly while I pried sharp bits of their shells out of my sand castles, or while I plugged my nose near the animals’ stinky remains. Then one morning a few years ago, I came across the beautiful track a single horseshoe crab left as it dragged itself back toward the water. Poignant, I thought. What’s up with these guys, anyway? 

At the time, I was exploring ideas for a new research project. I wanted to write about a natural phenomenon that not only fascinated me, but that I connected with at a more personal level, too. And I wanted to share what I learned with children (and adults!) in a way that would encourage them to go out and see it for themselves.

A little internet searching and a few hundred pages of reading later, I knew that in horseshoe crabs, I’d met my match.

Natural phenomenon? Check! Horseshoe crabs have predictable mass-spawning events (high tide, under the springtime new or full moon—so romantic!). Clouds of shorebirds—and a long list of other animals—gather to gobble up horseshoe crab eggs. Some of the birds eat so many tiny eggs that they double their body weight in two weeks.  

Fascinating? Absolutely! Horseshoe crabs and their ancestors have been on the planet for hundreds of millions of years. They’re much older than even the oldest of the dinosaurs. I also discovered that we humans are utterly reliant on horseshoe crabs for our health. Who knew? A simple test using a chemical derived from horseshoe crab blood ensures that everything from vaccines and needles to pacemakers and replacement knees are free of harmful bacteria. The same chemical (Limulus amoebocyte lysate) is even used by astronauts to make sure spaceships are not contaminated.

The challenge, as I saw it, was to make horseshoe crabs feel as alive for a kid in Chicago or Canterbury as if that child was actually there on the ocean’s edge. (Bonus: the book comes sans biting flies and the inevitable sand in bad places. Yay!). I volunteered to help out with research so I could watch the birds and horseshoe crabs up-close myself. Those experiences made the writing process much easier--and much more fun! 

This was my first time through the picture-book-creation process, and it was a terrific opportunity to learn how much teamwork goes into making a picture book. It turns out that the intertwined relationships horseshoe crabs have with shorebirds, humans, and other animals are similar to the relationships required to create a picture book.

Once my manuscript was accepted, the editor helped me polish it. Then the publisher recruited Alan to bring the story to life visually. I loved the way Alan used my words as a jumping off point for sketches, and then graciously responded to the feedback of some very exacting experts. The art director, marketing experts, and others have worked together over the past couple years to make the book possible. I’m thankful to have had such a wonderful team to work with while creating High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs. Now we can more easily tell the world about this incredible creature. 

So in answer to that expectant look, I wrote about horseshoe crabs because they fascinate me, and because they have a lot to teach me. But mostly I wrote about horseshoe crabs because I fell in love with them. Now I hope you do, too. 

 

Lisa Kahn Schnell

Illustrations by Alan Marks

 

 

 

 

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 Christmas Carol

Top hats off to Usborne Publishing for their beautiful new edition of A Christmas Carol.

This is the second time I’ve worked with them on Charles Dickens’ Ghost Story for Christmas. About ten years ago I did an abridged version for the Young Readers series. I like working on these and Usborne takes great care with the adaptations; capturing the essential characters and story to entice budding readers. But I was delighted to be asked to illustrate the complete and unabridged story. There’s so much more in the detail even when you read a story you think you know.

I don’t find Dickens an easy read but he does repay the effort, and his characters, their names alone, cry out to be illustrated. They are often described as ‘grotesque’; they are vivid, certainly, but I think of them more as ordinary people in grotesque situations; fashioned and constrained by circumstance.

I’ve always liked working on mysterious and gothic stories. There is something about watercolours that really suit atmospheric, ghostly subjects; the washes so readily suggest crepuscular light, half formed figures emerging from dark spaces, foreboding shadows, mists and uncertainty. 

The ghosts in the story are fantastic and frightening and profound: There’s Marley, of course, bound in the chains of his former life and career, who comes to warn Scrooge that he will be visited by three more spirits. Then comes the Ghost of Christmas Past; perhaps one of the strangest creatures in literature; ‘ - like a child, yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium.’ It’s a shapeshifter and more strangely has a jet of light coming from the crown of its head for which it carries its own extinguisher.

The Ghost of Christmas Present, preceding Coca-Cola’s red-coated evocation, is a Father Christmas figure, full of the joy of good things, but different from him in that he is aware too of darkness and hurt in the world; harbouring, as he does, children called Ignorance and Want in his robe. 

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come; cloaked in mystery, shows Scrooge his possible, desolate end; disregard from his fellow man and a neglected gravestone. It’s the darkest moment in a story that ends happily when the repentant Scrooge begs on his knees,’ Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!’

 

Alan Marks

 

In the Spirit of Halloween

Bee Willey’s illustration for Macbeth opens our celebration of all things All Hallows’ Eve.

 

Check out my Pumpkin fairy and others, part of a growing family!

May your Halloween bee full of wintry sparkles!

Bee Willey  

  

Monsters are hiding everywhere, as the little hamsters Mini, Paul and Max find out in their adventure "Hamster Monster", just published by North/South in Zürich, Switzerland. Three little hamsters are tired of being called cute and sweet - so they decide to be scary, but they get a reaction, which they don't expect...

"The Conference of Scary Ghosts" a cover for a Young Fiction title, published by Arena, Würzburg, Germany, written by Amina Paul. A child is sent to spend the holidays at his uncle's house, a castle, where not everything is what it seems.

Henning Löhlein 

Here's a raven I drew for the RSPB's 'Wingbeat' Magazine, which illustrated an article concerning why we associate certain human characteristics with particular animals and birds.

 

And here are two spooky characters I drew for a book pitch a few years ago, or is it three characters I can spot?

Tom Morgan-Jones  

This is an illustration of The Black Skull from a young fiction story I am currently developing - 'The Mysteries of the Magic Map'. 

Algy Craig Hall  

A while ago I had an idea for a story about a group of witches that gather together every fortnight to exchange spells and broth recipes, learn new witch-crafts and have topical conversations about all things related to being a witch. The group was going to be called the Witch's Institute or W.I. for short. 

One of the Witch's laws was going to be that if you did too much dark magic, bits would start to drop off. So if you ever see a witch with a carrot for a nose - be wary!

Sean Julian  

This is literally hot off the drawing board, work in progress for Little Tiger Press, an extension to the Gift Book range that I illustrated for them a few years ago, this will be book number 7 in the range, "Thank You Teacher."

Jill Latter  

I love drawing kids all dressed up for any occasion, especially Halloween, and no matter witch sort of Halloween you have I hope it's FANGTASTIC! 

Rachel Boulton 

Here in Germany Halloween has become more and more popular. I drew these pictures for myself and my son, Anton. When Anton was small the pictures had to be mostly funny because he was afraid if they were too dark and mean.

I did the last illustration a few weeks ago; I read quite a scary story but I kept in mind that although the children were afraid they were also fascinated by what they would see when they walked further on. 

Christina Bretschneider  

The next night came: Hallowe'en. Most people stayed safe inside their houses with their doors tightly locked. But not Janna.

When all her household was fast asleep, out she crept again, into the darkness. She followed the path the cold moon showed her, a silver path that led straight back into the enchanted forest.

From 'The Enchanted Forest' by Rosalind Kerven

Alan Marks

Lemony Snicket’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ is about three orphans who are placed in the custody of their distant cousin, Count Olaf, who will stop at nothing to steal their inheritance. This was a personal project.

The Milo Adventure cover is about an Angry Druid who rises from the grave! This cover was commissioned by O’Brien Press.

Neil Price  

 

Hansel and Gretel at Halloween! 

This is one of two images I made to accompany the chapter entitled 'Abandoned Children', in 'The Golden Age of Fairy Tales', by Jack Zipes published in 2013. The numerous old stories on this theme are truly gruesome but at least in this one the children triumph! Although the other image was published, I think Gretel despatching the witch to cook in her own oven has more of a Halloween feel to it!

Irene Dickson 

 

Illustrator James de la Rue has a friend who wants to join in the fun!  

 

And Jane Eccles is, well...  a bit batty!

 

Jane Eccles 

 

Wishing you a fun and spooky Halloween, and more than a few treats, from everyone at Frances McKay Illustration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Digital Resolution

Most illustrators have been using digital techniques for years of course, and whilst I frequently scan artwork and send digital files, it hadn’t really occurred to me to make digital images as such. The last straw? It’s hard to say but I read that as a result of working on 'Lord of the Rings' Alan Lee now works digitally. Can you believe it? He’s a fantastic draughtsman, a wonderful watercolourist; it's the sort of work I aspire to; I had nowhere left to hide, so I resolved to have a go.

I don’t simply want to reproduce the sort of work I make traditionally, so I’m playing with the differences between imagery that is obviously drawn and the more shiny stuff that you can do with Photoshop. And, maybe because it also suits my learning curve, I quite want to see the join between the two; it creates a lovely visual tension that reminds me of early stop-frame animation; Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin’s ‘Ivor the Engine’ perhaps. 

There’s a story that I wrote some time ago but have never really tried to illustrate, (strangely, because I couldn't decide on the right combination of techniques). It’s called ‘Glum the Weaver’ and it seems to fit the digital/analogue idea well.

‘Glum was a weaver and he had a shop in the town, but no one went there anymore.’

‘He was an old grey man in a world of bright new things.’ 

You get the analogy of this now grey-haired illustrator in the bright, new digital age. Glum’s is a slightly dingy, drawn world where he thinks and works as he has always done. Flora, his granddaughter, brings him colour and light and he starts a new way of thinking and working. It ‘made the town an even brighter place and Glum a happy man.’  So, together with traditional work, like Glum, I’m going to pursue this new way of making pictures and see where it leads. 

 

Alan Marks