Go bananas!

Good news...(okay, so this might not be news to everyone - and to many people this may be very old news, but)...I am illustrating a picture book! 

I am over the moon to have been asked to work on Never Bite a Tiger on the Nose (sound advice) by the brilliant Lynne Rickards. The book is all about healthy eating and features some very hungry children and their cheeky animal friends. 

Today my desk looked a bit like this:

And at times like this:

Things have started to get colourful:

Lynne has written a lovely rhyming story, hopefully I can do it justice and help bring her characters to life. The finished book will be distributed to 3 year olds across Scotland as part of Scottish Book Trust's Bookbug scheme in March 2015. So it's back to work for me - tonight I think I'll work on some monkeys and bananas. Mmmm bananas. This book is making me hungry.

Chessmen. And more windows.

I've been working on a few different projects recently, and one of them involved drawing in windows. Again. (I promise I do get asked to do this, it isn't some weird addiction...though it is really fun) This time I was hand-lettering and drawing fireworks for the Edinburgh University Student Elections.

It was a really fun commission, even the part where I was drawing on the mirrors in the bathrooms. It's a unique profession alright, this illustration business. Not many jobs have you colouring in a giant star at 3am. In public toilets.

Since that wee adventure I have been indulging in some lovely research: Collecting postcards and looking at books of Victorian illustrations. Oh, and yesterday Simon and Angie Lewin came to ECA to talk about the beautiful fabrics and wallpapers made by the St Jude's artists. Check them out here:

http://www.stjudesfabrics.co.uk/

I've also been visiting Edinburgh's Museum on Chambers street in preparation for my next exciting job...(live drawing at their late night event in May - eep!)...The Lewis Chessmen have got me smitten. I love their shocked little faces!

A sneaky peek at my degree show...

Here is a couple of snaps from my MFA degree show space at Evolution House in Edinburgh - it will be open to the public from 1st-10th June. These are some of my fairytale paper figures and wallpaper designs. Feeling good to have submitted. I've had three days off. I'm getting bored. New project please!

Flowers, birds and shoes

New patterns inspired by things I like (that also happen to be in fairytales I like)

Sleeping Beauty (or maybe just sleeping...)

ZZZZZZZZZZ

Degree show is almost here! Setting up the space this week. I have been making patterns. It has been fun. Some were hand drawn, some lino printed (I'll post these up in a mo).

Printingprintingprinting

The lino printing adventure continues! Learning a lot as I go...mainly to do with how sharp lino tools are. I'm planning to use this as a book jacket for my Fairy Tale Activity Book. Next I plan to use a different colour other than blue, green and bluey-green. Off the chain.

R is for...RAINDROPS!

Working on a series of illustrations beginning with 'R' for my favourite-almost-3-year-old-nephew (I have 3 nephews, so being diplomatic) Ruaridh. Initially intended for colouring in, I had a go at colouring this one myself. Splish splosh. I hung washing out today...oops.

Today I met the lovely Louise Power from Walker Books. A brilliant opportunity to have an expert look over my work and give me advice. She was very helpful, honest and encouraging. We also talked about bins full of ladybirds... I feel very inspired and full of ideas, hopefully the Picture Hooks conference tomorrow will only add to this! And there's sandwiches provided. WIN.

Louise liked my house illustrations - here are a couple. I'm thinking of a whole street. I'm focussing on developing this decorative style by drawing more houses and objects, but also building up a folio of characters. I'm drawn to geese...watch this space!

Hello! I've been working on creating new characters and images made up of lots of different marks and patterns. This is a wee sample of a recent creation. Does this mean that all my obsessive pattern doodling is (kind of) justified...??

The residents of Tweet Street! These guys are little Chiff-Chaffs. The characters in my new story...

Three days to go til hand-in day! And surprisingly, I'm quite sad to be moving on from the Borrowers. It has been a challenge, but this project has been very handy. I've been experimenting with screen-printing and this week felt like a breakthrough, i love it. I've also made my own interpretation of the text, a twist I'm quite happy with. And and and...i have found my love of font! It is fun. So off i go to draw more pretty lettering and get all up in the print studio's face.

p.s. little bird cards were a mini success too...could be possibilities for my summer craft fair/selling mission...?

So, I've been procrastinating. But I don't feel like defending my actions: lions and geese and owls and smug old ladies are fun to doodle. I've spent so long experimenting with colour I forgot the fun of just drawing. With pencils. When you're meant to be working. Can't beat it!

Splash! I've been painting again. I'm not sure about these, but they are making me smile so that will do for now. May try adding colour to my line drawings digitally next...wish me luck...

She still has no name! Why do I find that so tricky? All suggestions welcome...