Frances McKay Illustration

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

Brillustration for Big Green Week

FMI's Sean Julian took part in a huge doodle-a-thon this weekend in the city of Bristol.

Images 35

It's that time of the year again when the great and good in British Illustration pop up in the A.O.I's 'IMAGES' annual. Judgement on number 36 is out soon, while IMAGES 35 recently had it's private view in London, where the various awards in different categories were dished out. Work to appear in the annual is jury selected, so not every Tom Dick and Harry can get in, and subsequently the standard is always high.

Well we are happy here at team FMI to say that we have had not just one, nor two, but three people manage to get into the hefty tome. And if that wasn't enough, some of them even got a number of illustrations into it.

Going to Mecca

Going to Mecca, my first full-size picture book written by Na’ima B Roberts with publisher Frances Lincoln, is nearly ready to go to print!

Through poetry and pictures the book takes us on a pilgrimage to Mecca, as seen through the eyes of two children.

As a friend suggested, illustrating this book has represented for me a metaphorical pilgrimage on a creative and professional level.

The Guardian - Buy of the day!

Just as I am gluing the word “end” on the final page of “A Frisbee to Fly”, the latest of Secret Seed Society books, I was very excited to hear that they have been featured on the Guardian as the “buy of the day”! 

Paper Cages

 
They say all illustrators fall into two categories: those who like drawing people and those who like drawing animals.

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

From Recycling to Cycling

Hi all, Here are two images I’ve worked on last week. Together with another 1043 by various artists, they were entered to the Cycling in London Competition launched by the London Transport Museum in collaboration with the AOI. Being a keen cyclist myself I liked the brief and I had fun thinking about the different things people carry on their bikes (I later thought I should have included a self portrait with A1 portfolio!!)
The slogan I used brought back to my memory another picture I did some 5 years ago when I was at university, and which was about promoting recycling (I am a keen recyclist too, which is part of why I use collage as my main medium). Making 3D models and photographing them is a different way of working from what I normally do (not the quickest when you’re working on tight deadlines!). But it’s possibly the most fun I’ve had making a picture…
Valentina All three of these illustrations are avaliable as limited edition giclee prints. For more information on these prints, and to see more prints by Valentina see 'Valentina's Limited Editions' in the right hand column.  Valentina's Website Follow us on Facebook