Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Finished!!!
Just yesterday I finished the book illustrations and sent them on their way with the fedex man all the way to Massachusetts to Candlewick. I've been frantically checking their progress and amazingly they will arrive today before 10.30 am. That was QUICK!!! I'm nervous for them to see the work. What if they don't like it?
I've been dragging my heels sending the paintings for the past 2 weeks. Changing the odd thing here and there and repainting others completely in some cases. Yes, the urge got the better of me. If I'd held on to them for another week, I'm sure I would've repainted a couple more. Never completely happy.
It feels weird now, sat at my desk, shuffling things around, sorting paints and general tidying. No other job to move straight on to yet (I'm hoping and praying to get something else soon). It does feel great to have a clean and tidy workspace for the first time in months. I was worried I would find something vitally important I should've sent in the package under the mountain of trash on my desk. I'm surprised there wasn't a family of mice living in there. Nothing so exciting I'm afraid. Just a few tubes of gouache that had annoyingly lost their screw tops in all the chaos and have now dried up and are useless.
HOLY MOLY....IT'S ARRIVED!!!
Now I suspect it will sit in Candlewick's shipping dept for a while.
NO! I just received word that the Designer has it in her hands and they will look at it and get back to me. Aaaargh! My stomach hurts!
Thursday, 1 January 2009
Too stuffed to draw.
That's how I feel.
Christmas has been one fantastic meal after the next (thank you Mike!) but now I am too stuffed full to do anything. To finish of the festive period we just ate roast leg of lamb (organic free range of course), potatoes carrots and parsnips roast in goose fat and savoy cabbage steamed and the whole thing smothered in a rich gravy (not the American kind) oh and mint sauce .
Later when the boy has gone to bed we will force in some tiramisu from Waitrose - the best food market in the country - and then say goodbye to excess til this time next year. Ha....who am I kidding?
Seriously though, I need to get back to some swimming. The exercise puts my mind in a better place for work and I need to get my book finished in the next two weeks.
Here's a couple of doodles from my sketch book. In my never ending quest to loosen up my drawing and painting I've decided that I will only do sketches in pen and ink in my sketch book. It's been a long time since I just used ink and not pencil first so I'm incredibly rusty. Makes me realise I should have a pen and paper glued to me so I can sketch any time I have a quick moment to myself. Unfortunately having a two year old, those moment are few and far between but I do need to get into the habit.
I'm also going through a phase of wanting to draw like anyone else but me. I'm sure it will pass. Finding a style was something I struggled with and obsessed about for years when suddenly decided to relax about it and a style just came. Maybe I can have lots of styles after all.
Christmas has been one fantastic meal after the next (thank you Mike!) but now I am too stuffed full to do anything. To finish of the festive period we just ate roast leg of lamb (organic free range of course), potatoes carrots and parsnips roast in goose fat and savoy cabbage steamed and the whole thing smothered in a rich gravy (not the American kind) oh and mint sauce .
Later when the boy has gone to bed we will force in some tiramisu from Waitrose - the best food market in the country - and then say goodbye to excess til this time next year. Ha....who am I kidding?
Seriously though, I need to get back to some swimming. The exercise puts my mind in a better place for work and I need to get my book finished in the next two weeks.
Here's a couple of doodles from my sketch book. In my never ending quest to loosen up my drawing and painting I've decided that I will only do sketches in pen and ink in my sketch book. It's been a long time since I just used ink and not pencil first so I'm incredibly rusty. Makes me realise I should have a pen and paper glued to me so I can sketch any time I have a quick moment to myself. Unfortunately having a two year old, those moment are few and far between but I do need to get into the habit.
I'm also going through a phase of wanting to draw like anyone else but me. I'm sure it will pass. Finding a style was something I struggled with and obsessed about for years when suddenly decided to relax about it and a style just came. Maybe I can have lots of styles after all.
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Green Drops and Moonsquirters?
With my deadline for the book looming - Jan 1st - I have only three interior pieces of art left to do and it feels like I'm really grinding to a halt. Even though I'm thoroughly enjoying it and have to pinch myself everyday that I am able to paint for a living, I find it very hard to finish things. I'm the same with everything. I'm having to fight the urge to go back and redo some of the pieces I did at the beginning of the project. It could be a never ending vicious circle if I let the little things bug me too much.
Anyway, there is a great museum in Sheffield that I like to take my little boy to every now and again and I think we are due for another visit. At the moment there is a free exhibition on there called Green Drops and Moonsquirters - The utterly imaginative world of Lauren Child. I have taken Cal to see it several times and he loves it nearly as much as I do. It's provided me with a good dose of inspiration when I have most needed it and Cal gets to play with all the great interactive stuff there. It really is fab!!
The icing on the cake for me is one little corner of the room which displays an original Edward Gorey, a Quentin Blake sketch on a tatty bit of paper and a few other originals from illustrators who have provided Lauren Child with inspiration. Both Cal and I will be sad when the exhibition moves on in february.
Oooh Edward Gorey!!!
Here's a link to the Manchester Gallery that first hosted the exhibition - it explains a little more about the show.
Anyway, there is a great museum in Sheffield that I like to take my little boy to every now and again and I think we are due for another visit. At the moment there is a free exhibition on there called Green Drops and Moonsquirters - The utterly imaginative world of Lauren Child. I have taken Cal to see it several times and he loves it nearly as much as I do. It's provided me with a good dose of inspiration when I have most needed it and Cal gets to play with all the great interactive stuff there. It really is fab!!
The icing on the cake for me is one little corner of the room which displays an original Edward Gorey, a Quentin Blake sketch on a tatty bit of paper and a few other originals from illustrators who have provided Lauren Child with inspiration. Both Cal and I will be sad when the exhibition moves on in february.
Oooh Edward Gorey!!!Here's a link to the Manchester Gallery that first hosted the exhibition - it explains a little more about the show.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
So about that book.....
On 6th June last year I received a rather nice email from Anne Moore at Candlewick Press saying she had a picture book manuscript for me to illustrate, and was I interested ( It had been about a year previous to this email that I had sent her some samples and she replied with nice a post card asking me to keep in touch).
As you would expect, I cartwheeled around the room for half an hour, called a couple of people to scream at them and then calmly answered her email with a ' Definitely yes!!! Don't care what it is....YES! '
I didn't actually say I didn't care what the story was - that would have sounded really desperate. Luckily the manuscript was perfect - lots of animals and plenty of humour but best of all the main character is a dog. It's written by Maxine Kumin ( who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 1973) and is due for release Spring 2010
As this was my first book I didn't really know much about the process so I was glad to be working with Maryellen a senior designer at Candlewick who has been very patient with me and made the process so far, easy and thoroughly enjoyable.
Here's a couple of preliminary sketches I did for the main character......
As you would expect, I cartwheeled around the room for half an hour, called a couple of people to scream at them and then calmly answered her email with a ' Definitely yes!!! Don't care what it is....YES! '
I didn't actually say I didn't care what the story was - that would have sounded really desperate. Luckily the manuscript was perfect - lots of animals and plenty of humour but best of all the main character is a dog. It's written by Maxine Kumin ( who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 1973) and is due for release Spring 2010
As this was my first book I didn't really know much about the process so I was glad to be working with Maryellen a senior designer at Candlewick who has been very patient with me and made the process so far, easy and thoroughly enjoyable.
Here's a couple of preliminary sketches I did for the main character......
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Happy birthday to me!
After a failed attempt at starting this blog some months ago I have decided to give it another shot ( thanks for the dressing down Jaime!)
I'm hoping to find something interesting to say once a week and if that's not possible I'll just post a sketch or two or maybe even a picture of a local land mark - that will hopefully please anyone who stumbles upon this blog.
I'm also coming to end of my first illustration job for the wonderful Candlewick Press
so I'll shares with you some of the highs and lows of working on such a wonderful project (mainly highs by the way - any lows have been completely self inflicted ie stupidly dropping a mop brush full of red paint onto a nearly completed double page spread )
Anyway, enough for now, it's past my bed time. I'll just leave you with a picture of my birthday breakfast and a local landmark :-)
The Victorian bear pit at the botanical gardens, Sheffield,
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