Illustration Friday: Enough

Do you think we have enough icing?

Illustration for Comet can't wait for Christmas, acrylic on paper with lots of icing

Not enough time to do something new this week. This illustration is from a Christmas book that was a joint venture. My husband wrote the story and I illustrated it, so it was really fun to work on. And icing is fun to paint :)

I am busy working on sketches for a new picture book written by Jane Yolen. I have always wanted the opportunity to illustrate one of her books and now that I am, it has taken me a while to get into the flow of it. I think I was feeling a little star struck at first, and nervous about doing a good enough job. I am starting to relax into it and it feels good now that the story is starting to take shape visually. I have been illustrating books for a few years now, but the whole process still feels quite magical to me. It never feels quite real until I hold the finished book in my hands.

Illustration Friday: Foggy

Mole loved to take long, hot showers but his glasses always fogged up afterwards...

cardboard tag, acrylic, ink and a foggy mole

Oh that felt good! I am not sure how long it has been since I last participated, but it feels like such a long time and I have missed it. It's such a fun exercise and a great way to take a break from work. I am off to look at the other submissions.

A Fiendish Sneak Peek!


I wanted to let everyone know that my husband, children's author PJ Bracegirdle, has just been interviewed on Presenting Lenore. Head on over to read all about his new trilogy THE JOY OF SPOOKING, on shelves from August 5.

If you would like a chance to read the book before its release date, Lenore has three ARCs (advance reviewer copies)of the first book, Fiendish Deeds, to give away, each containing a signed bookplate. Just stop on by and leave your name in the comment section. Lenore is also offering the chance to earn up to four fiendish bonus entries by: reading the first chapter and answering Lenore's skill-testing question; blogging about the contest; commenting on next week's review of the book; and signing up as a fan on PJ's facebook page!

Best of luck!

Hello folks, it's been a while hasn't it? I would like to say that I have been off adventuring but instead I have been sitting at my little desk working away. I just finished up two books for mother's day and father's day for Little Simon (Simon & Schuster) and am now busy working on another project.

I haven't had much time for dreaming and sewing but when I next have some free time, I want to get back to making some bunnies and bears. I have been thinking about having a go at making little outfits for them and thought it would be fun to use fabric with my own art on it - so I have have signed up with Spoonflower an amazing site where you can design your own patterns. I have played around with a few designs - haven't ordered any actual fabric yet, but thought I would show you what I have come up with so far. It's interesting working with pattern, quite different from illustration. I think in some ways simpler is probably the best way to go and I tend to make the patterns too busy. It may take me awhile to get the hang of it and come up with something worth printing! Here are my first attempts:

Cakes - I like this one but not sure if I should space the cakes farther apart and give them more breathing room:



Pumpkins:



Hee! Not quite working yet, but I love these guys:



Dandelions blue:

What a week!

I have had plenty to keep me busy. Lot's of painting, with loads more ahead of me. I got some picture book news, which I can't wait to tell you more about. I haven't done a picture book in quite a while - most of the books I have been working on lately are novelty books, which are a lot of fun too but I am looking forward to focussing on a bigger, more in depth project.

I did a local library visit on Friday which was great. It was part of the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival. I had two groups of kids from Elizabeth Ballantyne school (Helloo!) and one from my son's school - Willingdon (Hello again!). I chatted a bit about what I do, read from a couple of books and then got to the best bit where I drew characters from the kid's suggestions. It all got very animated and loud and I hope the kids had as much fun as I did. The kids from Elizabeth Ballantyne are illustrating their own books and they came to the visit for some inspiration, so I hope they got some! And I would love to see how their books turn out :)

I got a nice treat in the mail as my copy of Artful Blogging arrived. I felt all red faced and bashful when I saw my name on the cover:


The quality of the magazine is wonderful and the artwork looks great. I am featured in there with lot's of talented and amazing people, including the wonderful Elsita, so I feel quite honoured.





Better get back to it - see you soon!

Hello

Just popping my head up from my work to say hi. Things have been really busy around here for the last month or so. I have two books on the go, with another to follow straight after, so it is not leaving me much time to post here. Still, I get to look out of the window and see that everything is coming back to life and turning green. I can see a magnificent magnolia tree starting to bloom when I am painting at the kitchen table (the illustrations I am working on are too big for my desk), and all that soft, pink loveliness inspired me to change my header - what do you think?

Because I have been so busy, I haven't been able to get out much, but with the wonders of Ebay and Etsy, I have bought a few things that are keeping me happy.

A tintype of a woman with a tartan bow. I love her intense expression:



A carte de visite taken on June 11, 1863:



A set of postcards from Emily Martin
This one is my favourite:



An adorable brooch from Anne-Julie



Next time I will show you some lovely, inspiring books.

Paula Deen's My First Cookbook

I was working on a big project before and after Christmas and can finally tell you a little about it . I got to illustrate a cookbook for children. It's called Paula Deen's My First Cookbook and it is going to be really sweet and fun. It was a lot of work as I had to illustrate every recipe ingredient and utensil. But I also got to illustrate little vignettes to go with the recipes, so it has a bit of a storybook feel. There are also photos from Paula Deen's childhood and photos of her own children. The overall feel of the book is very cosy and warm. I think it will inspire children to feel excited and confident about cooking. Here are a couple of sneak peeks:

Here's what some of the ingredients look like before they are labelled and put with the recipes:


A little vignette from the birthday chapter:


And the cover:


It's published by Simon & Schuster Books for young readers and will be available in October. Paula Deen's My First Cookbook