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.

 

ARCHIE GREENE AND THE MAGICIAN’S SECRET

Archie Greene and the Magician’s Secret is a children’s novel, written by me D.D. Everest, and beautifully illustrated by James de la Rue. (The book has been short-listed for the National Book Awards, for Children’s Book of the Year.)

It tells the story of a young boy called Archie Greene who receives a mysterious present on his twelfth birthday. Deep within an ancient wooden box he finds an old book, written in a language he doesn’t recognise.

With the book comes a Special Instruction – Archie must return the book to the Flame Keepers of Alexandria – a secret community devoted to finding and preserving magical books. 

Set in (and below) the ancient, winding streets of Oxford, the book is very atmospheric. The action takes place at several magical locations – including the Museum of Magical Miscellany; a bookshop called the Aisle of White; and Quill’s Chocolate and Coffee House. 

Any book about magical books had better be a bit special, and I was lucky enough to land Faber & Faber as my publisher. Leah Thaxton at Faber Children’s wanted to include line drawings with the book. It was clear to me from the start that this would work well – but only if the illustrator really captured the spirit and mood of the characters.

We worked with a couple of US-based illustrators, but in the end Faber chose the UK illustrator James de la Rue. I knew the moment I saw his drawings that it was the right decision. James immediately captured the quirky, Englishness of the characters, and produced what for me is the defining image of Archie himself. 

For an author it is a magical moment when the characters you have created in your head come to life in illustrations. Some authors are fortunate to be blessed with drawing skills that enable them to capture the images from their imagination. Think of JRR Tolkien’s stunning drawings in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, for instance.

My drawing isn’t up to that, so I have to rely on someone else doing my characters justice. It could be a big disappointment. But instead, it was a revelation.

By some curious process of creative osmosis, the characters that James has drawn bear a resemblance to my own children who, in turn, influenced the characters in the book. And yet when he produced them James had never seen my children – or even met me.

Reviewers have (rightly) heaped praise on the illustrations. They give the book a magical feel. Everywhere I go to promote the book, the children always ask about the illustrations. Did I draw them myself? If only!

 

D.D. Everest

Illustrations by James de la Rue

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

100 Years Later

James de la Rue will soon finish work illustrating a short series of First World War adventures written by Terry Deary, of Horrible Histories fame.

Spy Pets adventure exclusive

 

James De La Rue gets to finally meet the author of Spy Dog, Andy Cope.

Spy Dog: brainwashed!

 

James De La Rue has some canine espionage excitement to share with us.

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.

Great Expectations

 
Published late Spring 2011 – I’m very excited to have contributed to Puffin’s Classics series with a cover illustration.

It’s different having to illustrate a scene (namely the opening graveyard scene in which the convict Magwitch confronts the terrified Pip) which is so well known in people’s minds. But the trick, I soon found, is to forget all that and just draw what they ask, as usual.