Frances McKay Illustration

Thank You Teacher

Last Autumn I was asked by Little Tiger Press to work on my 7th book with them, to add to their current range of Gift books that were launched in the Spring of 2012.

 

 

The range has seen publications now released in 8 different countries, the U.S. being our most popular customer it seems, and so this particular book has been specifically published for Thunder Bay Books.

  

 

 

I worked to illustrate the beautiful text by Josephine Collins again in this new book, "Thank you Teacher." 

The artwork needed to work alongside the current books in the range, simple line, produced using my "Inky Stick", and gentle use of watercolour inks. A lot of these marks were applied with my fingers. I was very lucky to be able to come up with the choice of character that I felt worked for each phrase myself, and worked closely with Little Tiger Press to decided on the best flow for the pages. 

 

 

 

 

I wonder if book 8 in the range may follow one day?  : )

 

Jill Latter

 

 

 

A Rooster abroad

FMI is delighted to give you the first glimpse of one of our latest Chinese editions!

The Play’s the Thing or The Problem of What to Draw

I was always told that I should keep a sketchbook; it is a discipline, a resource, a vital tool. Good advice, no doubt, but I have never kept one. I’m not confident, I can’t lose myself enough, to stand and draw on the street corner, or even in the middle of a field. I am rarely motivated to draw the stuff around me and I don’t like drawing in books, it feels restricted and precious. To bang on about it, I don’t even really like the word “sketch”; it suggests a certain way of drawing; a sort of short hand. I do like life-drawing, there’s an intensity to it and I’m happy to draw in a class where everyone is striving to get it right. I like drawing animals too for the challenge of getting that instant recognition of shape and movement.

Stories, poems, words, are what really motivate me to draw. This is about looking inside the stuff of everyday life. I take cues from words and phrases. People ask, “Where do you get your ideas from?” Well, from the text. If I do a character ‘sketch’, (in this sense, of course, the word refers to a brief portrayal of someone,) from a description rather than from a story it tends to be straight on and a bit static. Given the story though, I have the character’s thoughts and predicament; there is already drama; I have his viewpoint or the reader’s view of him. As much influenced by cinema as by painting and drawing, I begin also to form ideas about angles, panoramas, mid-shots or close-ups, movement, lighting and use of space. Somebody once said that all illustrators are frustrated actors. Well, I’m not a performer but there’s something in that; I often strike a pose, pull the face or act the part I’m drawing. (The old lady who lived opposite my London flat thought I was a lunatic.) Understanding the drama, knowing the character’s thoughts and actions, is part of illustrating a story.

I’ve drawn almost every day of my life since I was child; yet I recall myself as a child saying “But I don’t know what to draw!” I need to draw, but I need a narrative; perhaps I need to act too. So what else could I do? Illustration solves the problem of what to draw.

Alan Marks

The Shakespeare book jacket illustrations in this post are by Alan Marks and published by Franklin Watts.

Henning's handsome Mr Fox

Julia Donaldson, children's laureate and author of the Gruffalo, chose "My name is Mr Fox" written by Shen Roddie and illustrated by Henning Löhlein, amongst her top ten favourite recent picture books, as published in The Guardian Saturday 22 October 2011. 

The People's Book Prize 2011/12

Bee Willey's The Mouse who saved Egypt written by Karim Alrawi and published by Tradewind Books has been entered into the children's books section of  The People's Book Prize.

 

VG Lee's Guest Post

I am a writer, but for the last two years I’ve also been a stand-up comedian.

At the age of fifty my first novel ‘The Comedienne’ was published, ten years later in my sixtieth year a friend enrolled me on a comedy course.

“You’re hilarious,” she said.

Carey Morning - Mysterious Births

 
What a mystery! We give birth to our stories - conceived in what impenetrable realms? - and they fly off into the world, a few hundred words, flapping black and white. If we are very very lucky some may return to us as full-grown books, in full-colour, to perch on many strangers' shelves! What a miracle! What gorgeous plumage!

Small Change for Stuart

Last February I finished illustrating a book by author Lissa Evans called Small Change for Stuart. I drew on A4 drawing paper, a pad of which I bought from Trago Mills (a department shop in Falmouth) about 4 years ago. It was going slightly yellow, and I spilt Ribena on it a while back. I used a pen also bought from the same shop – I stockpiled, as they were going really cheap at the time.