Frances McKay Illustration

Painting The Haunted Farm Window

In aid of Books Are My Bag an unsuspecting bookshop in Colchester called Red Lion Books let me paint all over their shop window. For my glass-based artistic debut I decided to depict a scene from my latest literary masterpiece, The Mystery of the Haunted Farm. In this book ghost stories meet agriculture to give you zombie ducks, ghost cows and a Frankenhorse. 

I began the window design by realising that I’d done my preparatory drawing the wrong way round and that I would have to wing it. Here’s me filled with panic doing a speedy redesign:

As it turns out painting on glass is rather tricky. Before setting out for Colchester I found myself doing some extensive googling to figure out how exactly to do this. I discovered that there’s whole forums dedicated to shop window painting (which once again confirms to me that there’s something for everyone on the internet). It seems that the best way of painting on glass and then being able to remove it again is to mix powder paint with washing up liquid instead of water so that it’s thick enough to stick and then do multiple coats. This worked fine on my french doors at home but took a bit of getting used to because painting on vertical, slippery surfaces is frankly silly.

Once I got to this stage I thought everything was going swimmingly but that was not to last. The brown and pink paint started to flake off like a kind of colourful, soul destroying dandruff. Instead of bursting into tears, which was my initial option, I added some PVA glue which thankfully stopped the flaking. I must try it on my scalp.

From then on I started to succeed and with a constant supply of tea and fancy sprinkle covered biscuits I was done just before closing time.

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone at Red Lion Books for letting me deface their window and being so lovely about it. I’m assured the Haunted Farm window is going to stay up until it falls off, which hopefully won’t be too soon. 

 

Elys Dolan

 

The Mystery of the Haunted Farm by Elys Dolan is published by Nosy Crow and out now. You can find out more about Elys and her work at elysdolan.com and elysdolan.tumblr.com or follow her on Twitter and Facebook at @ElysDolan and facebook.com/elysdolanillustration

 

 

 

Henning's humorous horseys

A quick post to show this cheeky image from the talented Mister Henning.

Possible pitch for a kid's book? Doubtful. Topical? Yes. Funny? Definitely.

Henning has some more exciting news we will be sharing over the next few posts, so stay tuned!

 

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.

Paper Cages

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

St Valentine

  
Spring is coming, love is near.

Apes

 
Here is one, of a few, small illustrations I worked on recently. Four weeks ago I was asked to produce a small portfolio for a potential client in France. As usual, when I had a look on the publishers website, I got nervous of my old illustrations. Would they be good enough to present? So I decided to do a few quick illustrations, which I could add to the older ones.

At the moment I am working at an cover-artwork for Oetinger Verlag Hamburg. I`m right at the beginning, thinking about the story and the different ways to design the cover and type. I feel like a cat surrounding the mouse. Already fulfilled with joy of what will come up, afraid of being unable to draw something that I will really like, that it is representable, and worth printing. As soon as I have something to show, I will share it with you.

Christina

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Tickle the Moon

This is from a picture book idea I've been playing with, called Tickle the Moon. It's about a girl and her cat who are on a mission to cheer up the moon who is all lonely in the night sky. I'm still playing with the story and characters but I do feel that there's a decent picture book lurking in there somewhere. This illustration is largely pen and ink with water colour, but there's also a bit of gouache in there give the colour a bit more body. It's painted on heavy grade water colour paper and has managed not to buckle, however I'm regretting not having used my usual water colour board as I reckon the finer details would have benefited from a smoother surface; anyhow I'll remember that for next time!

Kate Willis-Crowley

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Featured in the beautiful Ballad Of blog. Many thanks Lindsey & Claire!

Die Oma im Drachenbauch (The Grandmother in the Dragon Belly)

These are some black and white images, for a collection of short stories written by Gudrun Pausewang, and published in the autumn by Gerstenberg, Germany. I really enjoyed working in black and white, and would love to do more work like that. It is so much faster than colour illustrations. The drawings were combined with photography to give the pictures more texture.

Henning Löhlein

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