Monday 29 April 2013

Stickers!


Not long left until the deadline now! How has it gone so fast? This is my last week of doing final piece work, meaning more FMP stuff.I've just completed a set of illustrations based on the tale 'The Fox as Shepherd'. I plan to get these printed as badges and circular stickers! Suitable as prints, cards or postcards.
Next I'm working on my last piece: Cooking with Little Fox! (and another editorial if I have time).

Tuesday 23 April 2013

FMP: True and Untrue



This is another Children's Book DPS based on Norske Folkeeventyr's 'True and Untrue' (Norwegian: Tro og utro). Despite having this near finished last month, I decided to return to it and completely redraw several areas of it. The story itself follows 'True' who climbs into a lime tree and overhears animals talking about the King and his dilemmas. True uses the knowledge to help the king, and eventually gain the hand of the Kings daughter.
I wanted to summarize several aspects of the story in one piece, rather than being a literal depiction of the text.

Bruin (bear) and Longears (rabbit) are two of the characters in the story, alongside a wolf and fox. Previous versions contained all the characters however I felt this version, with less characters, was stronger. The illustration includes other things mentioned within the story- such as chickens, a hawk, a toad, a castle and a lime tree with magical dew. If you look carefully you'll notice True's eyes in the top corner.
The story itself is set on St. Johns Eve (also known as Midsummer festival/ Sankt hans), further research into the day found Norwegians typically eat cooked meats, cured ham, polse (hot dogs) and Rømmergrøt- a sour cream porridge...so that is what the characters are eating! The story implies use of Alcohol, but seeing as this is intended for Children, thought I'd stay away from that.

Annoyingly, the file size is so big its hard to see it all on screen. I'm hoping printed out it will be clearer, and you'll be able to see all the details. In the meantime, Im finishing off the Hawkwood Book entry, and moving onto new work. Ideally, I'd like to get another few DPS's done before the deadline. Due to True and Untrue's large background, I hope to use parts of it to develop 4 postcards/iphone covers.
Close ups:


Tuesday 16 April 2013

Charlie and the Moon: Complete



It's been a long few weeks, but I've finally finished the illustrations for Dreaming Tiger Productions 'Charlie and The Moon'! I didn't quite realize just how big this project was until I'd started it. The final project compromises of 14 backgrounds/scenes, some with moveable objects on different layers, and over 20 character poses (I daren't count them all). Given the relatively short time scale, I've completed the project slightly sooner than I planned, leaving me a hectic few weeks left for everything else!
This project has been quite challenging for me,as I rarely draw humans- and meant facing my illustration nemesis: backgrounds! Although I have a long way to go on them, I've certainly made a massive improvement as they don't look quite as 'flat' as they used to. So heres Charlie- my first drawing of a child character! :

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Charlie and the Moon

Over the past few weeks I've been working with Dreaming Tiger Productions on a project called 'Charlie and the Moon'. I've finally finished all twelve backgrounds, and ready to start work on characters. I usually avoid backgrounds, so having to do so many was quite a challenge. I can't wait to see the end project! I don't want to spoil too much, so here are a few illustrations:

Check out Dreaming Tiger Productions on Facebook: [Link]

Although I planned on entering the recent Puffin Book Cover Competition, I really haven't had time. Instead I'm focusing on the Hawkwood Book Cover Competition, which I'm now midway through. Next week I'll start work for the Macmillan prize, and finally be able to go back to FMP.

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Bright Agency



I'm very pleased to announce the news that I am now with The Bright Agency! I'm so excited to be working on new work with them, and look forward to the projects to come. Last week, Bright took samples of my work to showcase at Bologna Children's Book Fair! Read a little about it here: [Link]

You can now find me on their site here: [Link]

In the meantime for Uni I'm working on the Macmillan Book Prize, Hawkwood Books competition, a project named Charlie and the Moon and FMP! How I'll get it all done I don't know.