Frances McKay Illustration

Darkmouth

Author Shane Hegarty tells FMI about his hugely exciting debut from HarperCollins, illustrated by our own James de la Rue.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a book. Darkmouth is the story of a boy who must follow 50 generations of Legend Hunters in a town plagued by monsters. HarperCollins offered to publish it. I picked myself up off the floor and accepted their generous offer.

"We'd like to illustrate it," they said.

"Well, ok," I replied. "I mean, I'm not very good at drawing, but I could give it a go..."

"Not you," they said. "A proper illustrator."

"Oh, thank goodness for that," I said, putting down the hurriedly purchased ink pot and quill.

Off the book went, and I thought little of it. There would, presumably, be a cover image. Maybe a detail or two to kick off some of the chapters. Sure, hadn't I described it all so perfectly that no pictures would be needed.

Then a selection of illustrations came back. James de la Rue was the artist. We had never met. Never even spoken. Yet, it was if he had rummaged around my head and seen exactly what I saw.

I was just a little freaked out.

But I was delighted. Utterly wowed by it. And I had learned one particular secret of just when the collaboration between illustrator and writer works best: where James had added details, he had put them in all the right places.

I knew then that the illustrations running through the text were going to bring the book onto a whole other level I had never envisioned. The characters and the action have been brilliantly shown, but James had also captured something very important in the story - which is that it is contemporary but should feel timeless.

Ultimately, it's incredibly satisfying as a writer, having imagined this world, tried to grab hold of it in my mind, lived with it for so long, to see it be brought to life in an extraordinary way. And, because Darkmouth is a series, it is great to know that the words are in very safe hands. Literally.

On a couple of early school visits, the reaction to the illustrations have been immediate and resounding. The young readers love them. They see the text and pictures working perfectly, as if one springs organically from the other. As the writer, it is wonderful to feel the same way too.

Although, in retrospect, it would have been fun to have had a go at the illustrations myself. Stick figures are very big these days, apparently.

 

Shane Hegarty

 

Darkmouth (HarperCollins) is published on January 29th.

 

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

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

The Deep Dark Wood

The multi-talented Algy Craig Hall; illustrator, author and financial journalist, now shares his first acting role.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have my latest book (The Deep Dark Wood, superbly illustrated by Ali Pye) selected by the Reading Agency to be part of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. 

  

Up and down the country, librarians have been doing amazing work promoting the challenge, which this year is based on the theme of mythology. I’ve also attempted to help in the promotion of The Challenge with my first ever author video. While I did do all my own stunts, I may need to hone my skills further before I’m ready to lay down my pen in pursuit of fame and fortune on the silver screen…!

 

 

The End of the World

'Stone Factory'

It happens to us all, some times illustrations are rejected for utterly bizarre reasons (angels don’t have wings or at least right wing protestant ones don’t), and others well maybe it just wasn’t what the design team and editors had in mind. And there’s always the author, utterly unpredictable. Decisions to accept work or reject it can be completely subjective.

You have probably done a great job and the designers love it, then marketing and sales team turn around and say it’s not working for them!

Ahhh being rejected is never good, but it happens to us all.

This illustration by James de la Rue, which I think is completely wonderful, for an American publisher, was rejected with no real explanation. Except they must be completely barmy!

So when it does happen to you, grind your teeth, swear and curse, then realise it’s their loss and get one with the next one, as I used to say to one illustrator, although it’s the end of the world as you know it, it is just a children’s book.

Frances McKay

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