Frances is very happy to announce that FMI Illustrator and good friend Elena Gomez has given birth to a baby boy, Jude. Both mother and son are doing great, and both will have a pencil and a crayon in their hands in no time. A big congratulations and best wishes from us all.
Four years ago I took a break from illustrating to work for my brother and his wife at Bandito in the wonderful, not for the faint hearted, world of special effects. The experience, ranging from muttering incoherently at 3am at state-of-the-art computer technology to the dizzy Emmys, deserves a post of it's own another time. Except to say, I enjoyed it so much it's taken me until recently to drag myself away and back to painting. So in the past couple of weeks, paint brush in hand, I've been muttering incoherently at 3am in a state-of-the-artist-without-an-'Undo'-button manner to the buzz of a daylight blub.
This illustration is the book jacket to 'A World of Prayers' written by the Rev. Jeremy Books and published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.
Often when I look at my work it takes me back to the time when I painted it. I illustrated 'A World of Prayers' whilst living in Paris for a couple of years. It was by sheer luck and a lack of available accommodation that I wound up living in the heart of Montmartre. An artist's paradise!
The filming of Amelie (directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet) was just finishing on my door step and surrounding streets (that I had yet to walk many times) when I arrived there. After the film came out, friends who visited would often ask if it was shot in my building. It wasn't, but they'd be forgiven for mistaking the apartments that are so typical of that area and in particular, the main stairwell, which bar the odd plant is, well, the same!
I lived just a few streets away from the garden of Sacre Coeur and would often spend lunch times there on a park bench, reading a book and glancing at the circus of tourists, street sellers, buskers and children on the old fashioned merry-go-round.
On the hottest summer evenings the parisian air would get so still and thick that the only place to catch a breeze was at the top of the hill, at the top of the steps to Sacre Coeur. During the hottest days, I'd spend an hour or so inside the thick cool walls of the church admiring the frescos and statues.
This book jacket is the direct result of making many escapes from a very hot, old apartment with no air-conditioning.
Au revoir!
Elena Gomez
'A World of Prayers' is available from Amazon
"Elliot the cat lives by the sea, a perfect place for a fish-loving cat to be. At least it would be if only he could catch one!"
"Draw cats and boats, you're good at those!" was Frances McKay's advise. The result was Elliot and The Big Wave. My first book, published by Hodder Children's Books and written by Frances McKay. I'd had cards, prints, calendars, book jackets and editorial pieces published, along with ranges of table top merchandise but breaking into picture books took a bit longer and Frances's help.
Hodder commissioned me to paint Elliot from the rough drawings with only a three week deadline for Bologna Book Fair. I was so tired by the time I got to the fair that I fell a sleep for a couple of hours, on two very uncomfortable plastic chairs in front of hundreds of books stands and even more people. I certainly did a very good job of promoting the good for nothing, lazy artist!
Better yet, there wasn't time for Elliot to be sent aboard to be printed. It had to be printed in the UK (the best printers in the world at that time) and is still today the best reproduction of my work I have seen. The pages are as good as the original art work. Unfortunately, Elliot is now out of print. However, copies do appear on Amazon from time to time See Elliot and the Big Wave
Toodle-pip!
Elena Gomez
