Drabble: Complicated Vehicle Love

“He just never listens to me anymore, why can’t men take simple directions? Even when I ask nicely, “Please turn left….in….500….yards. He never takes the hint and tells me to ‘Shut the BEEP up!’ Mercedes’ eyes glower hotly towards her man who struts away.

“You think you got problems?” growls Harley. “I’ve seen my man try on another woman right in front of me! She may be a younger model, but at least I’ve got class, reliability and experience…” Harley winks at Mercedes.

Mercedes sighs loudly,“Uh...Men! why do they like to drive us crazy?!”

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*Drabble: A short story that is exactly 100 words.

2013 Bologna Children's Book Illustration

Strange to think that my trip to the Bologna Children's Book Fair and time with the Cambridge School of Art  is all over now. I saw so many fantastic illustrations and received great (if sometimes curt) advice from publishers. What have I learnt so far? Well...I'm not 'commercial' enough, that's for sure. I really need to travel a bit more in terms of my 'style'. The whole trip taught me that simplicity is a child's best friend when it comes to learning the world around them, and how to engage stories with them. I guess it explains why there are so many picture books where characters are living in a constant flux of white limbo (ahem... Emily Gravett's 'Orange Bear Apple Pear', you have been poked). Seriously though, I need to learn how to tone down the texture, but that's going to be so hard as I adore it so much. Some of the publisher's liked my work, but they said it wasn't for them as it was too 'mature' (which they assured me isn't always a bad thing). I don't know if I'll get a contract or anything out of this, but it's really opened my eyes. 

 

Book cover for "Guzzler The Greedy Dragon"

It's been a long journey with Guzzler, I still don't know if children will take to him, but he's flying off to Bologna next week. I'm going to the Bologna Children's Book Festival and will be trying to catch the publisher's eyes, which will be incredibly difficult! I know I haven't added a name down the middle where the spine would be, but this is just to show you what it looks like. Please tell me what you think about this. I take criticism to heart and I really do want to improve. 

Flying my dragon.

Quick little sketch of a mini-me flying Guzzler the dragon from my children's book. It looks weird without its scales, hehe.

MA Exhibition at Foyles Bookshop.

I'm happy to have been part of the MA, Children's Book Illustration exhibition at the Foyles Bookshop. In a way, I'm sad that it has ended, as it marks the end of my time with the Masters lot. There was a lot of fantastic art there. I hope that we get some good jobs out of it (ahem, publishers, I am talking about you there). Here are a few photos of the show...

My work.

 Andrea Ramos' work

Andrea Ramos - "Wolfodile"

 Khuyen Le Thi Minh's work

Left: Tamsin Gilbert's work
Right: Victoria Turnbull's work

Courtney Dicmas' work

'Rooster Loses His Voice' (pending picturebook)

Story about Rooster who loses his voice and has to use alternative means of waking up the farm animals. This was partly inspired by Eddie Izzard's 'Jazz Chicken' and had an idea of creating a back story as to how or why this chicken / rooster wanted to play it.

Left: Animals tell Rooster to stop waking them up with his 'rude' methods
Right: Rooster walks off dejected, but hears some jazzy tunes on a radio. Hmm... inspiration?

Rooster  uses things he finds round the farm such as party horns, banging on buckets, blowing in empty bottles and other musical ways.

I know this is a repeat image, but I wanted to indicate a light source and experiment with mono-printing under the linocut.

Adventure Time: Ice King's Penguins

Yes, I have *quite* recently become a big fan of the show and was inspired to add a little personality to each one. Technically there are eight official penguin names on the show, but thought I'd only do six of them. I love all of them, but my eye always goes towards Gaunter, Ginther and Gunter. 

Hiccuping Dragon

Here's the latest of story I've been working on over this past 'semester'. It's about a dragon that gets the hiccups from over eating cattle and crops. And as humans do, they get very upset about a dragon eating all their food and complain to their king, who in turn, sends his best knight to rid his lands of the greedy beastie. However, rather than slaying the dragon, the knight ends up hedging a bet with the dragon that if he can rid it of its hiccups, it must promise never to trouble his people again. And the mayhem begins....

I think I had too much fun drawing dragons, I went from very Eastern, to cute chubby child-like, to finally, a 'sensible'-ish western spotted gecko dragon. Yes, I have returned to the Lino-lands, and they have given me a lovely callus on my left middle finger and nice numbness to half of my index finger. Anyway, disregarding that, I've really had a lot of fun with this project and the amount of background research involved.

       
 Dragon hiccups (without 'hic' type)

I think when my tutor sees this page with the 'hic' type on top, he might have a fit, or just roll his eyes and growl my name, hehe. 

Dragon Tries to Drink Water Different Ways

This was one of the very first lino-plates that I did, so there's no circular border running round it. Apologies to the scary bright colours, but hope you like the design. It's looks better on paper than on screen. 

Well...that's all you're going to get in terms of a preview. You'll just have to come to Foyles Bookshop gallery (4th - 9th February) in London, or Ruskin Gallery in Cambridge (27th Feb - 14th March)  to see the rest of my book. Hope to see you there!