I’ve been drawing children – almost a whole classroom-worth. They’re aged about 5, probably in Reception – I’ve enjoyed imagining all the different interactions between them.
Drawing children
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Category Archives: Illustration
A brief in a bush
A few weeks ago I was looking for inspiration to do some black and white images. I went for a long walk in Sussex, and what should I spy amongst the trees at the side of the path but a yellowish, ink-stained paper headed ‘list of illustrations’. It was from the front of a book, but no other pages were to be seen anywhere. Most mysterious!
I deduced that the list was from an old book of Hans Christian Andersen fairy stories – what could be better for an illustration project? Shown here are ‘The sharp-sighted princess and the shadow’, ‘Kissing the swineherd’ and ‘The Emperor cured by the nightingale’.
There are plenty more to do – I’m looking forward to ‘The bell sounds in the forest’, ‘The fishes take pity on Totty’, and ‘On the edge of the chimney pot’. I’d love to know how the paper came to be there…
Queen Victoria’s scrapbook
My family trail for Kensington Palace‘s new permanent exhibition, Victoria Revealed, is now finished. The exhibition opened this week and gives visitors a chance to see many of Queen Victoria’s personal possessions, from her elaborately named dolls to her paintbox, stockings and dancing shoes.
The family trail I’ve designed and illustrated helps visitors learn a little more about Victoria’s life, and there’s also a puzzle to complete.
I made a font out of my own handwriting to give the trail the feel of a personal scrapbook, with lots of overlapping images.
Today I visited the palace to do a few final tweaks – it was lovely to see all the exhibits in place, particularly my favourite: a very tiny painting of Albert’s greyhound, Eos, with thumbnail sized portraits of Victoria and Albert’s other dogs all around.
My book is here!
I’ve just received an advance copy of the first book I have illustrated – Duck Sock Hop by Jane Kohuth. It’s going to be published on May 10th by Dial Books (an imprint of Penguin US) in America, Canada and Australia.
A giant fabric book for the Palace
I’ve been working on a giant hand-made fabric book for Kensington Palace. It’s for the outreach team who go storytelling in nurseries, schools and libraries, and is a story about the Palace’s various princesses over the years encountering a plague of rats and dealing with it in their own individual ways.
To make the book, I used pen and ink and digital collage to create the images, then printed them onto iron-on fabric transfer paper (kept forgetting to ‘flip’ first, so many sheets went in the bin), then ironed the pictures onto heavy cotton canvas ‘pages’. I added bits of stitching here and there, also opening cupboard doors and sequins in places, and 3-d felt leaves. Then I bound the book by stitching the many layers together (very sore fingers) and adding a contrasting spine with blanket stitch.
I also made a hand-puppet to go with the book – it’s the young rat-catcher who saves the day, and the storyteller uses him to go through all the events of the narrative.
Mural in Teddington
I’ve just finished a public art commission – 2 murals in the Teddington Health and Social Care Centre.
Where the foxes live…
Zoo Book finished
I went to London Zoo this afternoon to deliver the hand-made giant book I have been making for the education department.
It’s a story about one of the zoo’s ferrets, Toffee, visiting all the other animals in the zoo to find out about how they live.
Anne will take both the book and the real-life Toffee with her when she goes to visit schools to explain about the Zoo’s work.
Anne and Sophie (above) were both really pleased with the outcome.
The book is entirely hand-made and a mixture of collage, ink, watercolour and acrylic on Somerset paper, with Japanese binding.
Penguin invasion
I’ve been making lots of penguins for the hand-made book I am making for London Zoo‘s education department – it’s all about the zoo’s ferret, Toffee, meeting the other zoo animals.
Dressing Up
Another one from the Compendium show.
Source: ‘The Girl’s Companion’, Blackie and Son, 1940s
Everyone at some time or another has felt a trifle discontented with their general appearance and wanted to change it.
There is no doubt that wearing a festive costume changes your whole physical appearance and personality. You do not feel yourself to be the same person, and it is so exciting to feel different.
The important thing to bear in mind is your type: before making a choice study yourself carefully in a mirror, both front and back view.
Never, never be embarrassed; because it is always a game of fun and frolic, and above all, ‘let’s pretend’.