Saturday 29 August 2009

I spy and detecting in the snow...


Maybe it's because I can feel the approach of autumn, who knows, but I am revisiting Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. It is not an easy read (especially with a small boy of my own) but it is beautiful all the same. Combined with my other book de jour, the amazing A City in Winter, I have an idea for an illustration...

Wednesday 19 August 2009

designing (not illustrating)... boo







Lots of design work is keeping me from working on my book... (but is paying the bills)


Not too bad, at least they're all music or arts related - nice people to work with and interesting to do (plus I get to find out what's on first!).

Monday 17 August 2009

playing cowboys (girls)

I squeezed a western riding lesson into my hectic schedule last week, and I'm hooked! I visited Leaf's ranch near Alford and got to ride the lovely Cody (the spotty horse above). Fun!

Wednesday 5 August 2009

the growing boy is... growing!

All my creative energies are going into the Growing Boy roughs at the moment. I've been trying to work up a couple of finished visuals as well as the thumbnails to see how the pages are going to fit together.

I haven't decided whether to do just one more colour spread then concentrate on more detailed sketches for each page, or whether to work up the whole book in colour. I'm not sure whether presenting a publisher with a finished book is a good idea, as it might look a bit inflexible (I know from experience that the roughs can change quite a bit from the first visual to the finished artwork!).

Perhaps it's better to show a couple of finished illustrations but the whole book as a rough with my final text. Any advice from folk with more experience of submitting picture book manuscripts than me would be much appreciated!

Monday 3 August 2009

Beltane no more...

A blast from the past. Fires of Bel was created for I Colori del Sacro exhibition 2007 and has just been bought by a mystery man who saw it in the Italian touring exhibition. So it will not be returning to Scotland when the exhibition ends in November...

I'm waiting now to hear if the Jumis Tree will be selected for the 2009 exhibition, and I have already had some enquiries for the limited edition print (I have the first print, as the original is in Italy). The organisers produced the most fabulous full colour book (complete with spot UV varnish!) for the 2007 tour, I will try to remember to post some pictures of it as it was filled with wonderful illustrations from all over Europe.