What a week!

I have had plenty to keep me busy. Lot's of painting, with loads more ahead of me. I got some picture book news, which I can't wait to tell you more about. I haven't done a picture book in quite a while - most of the books I have been working on lately are novelty books, which are a lot of fun too but I am looking forward to focussing on a bigger, more in depth project.

I did a local library visit on Friday which was great. It was part of the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival. I had two groups of kids from Elizabeth Ballantyne school (Helloo!) and one from my son's school - Willingdon (Hello again!). I chatted a bit about what I do, read from a couple of books and then got to the best bit where I drew characters from the kid's suggestions. It all got very animated and loud and I hope the kids had as much fun as I did. The kids from Elizabeth Ballantyne are illustrating their own books and they came to the visit for some inspiration, so I hope they got some! And I would love to see how their books turn out :)

I got a nice treat in the mail as my copy of Artful Blogging arrived. I felt all red faced and bashful when I saw my name on the cover:


The quality of the magazine is wonderful and the artwork looks great. I am featured in there with lot's of talented and amazing people, including the wonderful Elsita, so I feel quite honoured.





Better get back to it - see you soon!

Hello

Just popping my head up from my work to say hi. Things have been really busy around here for the last month or so. I have two books on the go, with another to follow straight after, so it is not leaving me much time to post here. Still, I get to look out of the window and see that everything is coming back to life and turning green. I can see a magnificent magnolia tree starting to bloom when I am painting at the kitchen table (the illustrations I am working on are too big for my desk), and all that soft, pink loveliness inspired me to change my header - what do you think?

Because I have been so busy, I haven't been able to get out much, but with the wonders of Ebay and Etsy, I have bought a few things that are keeping me happy.

A tintype of a woman with a tartan bow. I love her intense expression:



A carte de visite taken on June 11, 1863:



A set of postcards from Emily Martin
This one is my favourite:



An adorable brooch from Anne-Julie



Next time I will show you some lovely, inspiring books.

Paula Deen's My First Cookbook

I was working on a big project before and after Christmas and can finally tell you a little about it . I got to illustrate a cookbook for children. It's called Paula Deen's My First Cookbook and it is going to be really sweet and fun. It was a lot of work as I had to illustrate every recipe ingredient and utensil. But I also got to illustrate little vignettes to go with the recipes, so it has a bit of a storybook feel. There are also photos from Paula Deen's childhood and photos of her own children. The overall feel of the book is very cosy and warm. I think it will inspire children to feel excited and confident about cooking. Here are a couple of sneak peeks:

Here's what some of the ingredients look like before they are labelled and put with the recipes:


A little vignette from the birthday chapter:


And the cover:


It's published by Simon & Schuster Books for young readers and will be available in October. Paula Deen's My First Cookbook

Bunnies

I have started making little stuffies again - it's a nice way to relax after painting all day. I don't know why they all have sad little expressions - thinking of their lost loves perhaps? Or maybe they have tummyache from overdoing it at Easter. I was adding their ribbons while watching Marie Antoinette - I think it influenced my colour choices and their names. Now for sale in my Etsy shop :)

Percival

Antoine

Milly

And you already met Alphonse:

New book!

I just received samples of a book I illustrated for Sandvik books, called Hugs for Baby, written by Allia Zobel Nolan. It's so fun to see the final product and this one has flaps and sound. Am I allowed to say it's really cute, when I illustrated it? I had to keep lifting the flaps and my husband was wondering what was going on when he heard mewing kittens, tweeting birds and giggling babies coming from the other room!

Happy Easter!

Illustration Friday: Garden

I painted this a while ago for a possible book. It didn't work out, so I thought that the theme this week was a good excuse to show it. We have had so much snow that it is hard to imagine ever seeing greenery again. Might as well dream about a nice little fairy garden...

watercolour