Cheltenham!

Just some pics from Thursday..I don't have much comments about this event so i think i should let someone else comment about it..

Not Picture books but why not give it a go!

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/index.php

HOWEVER:
http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/puffin_brief.php

postcards

Heya,
I made up some postcards and wanted some opinions on them - I don't know whether to make them normal postcard size or one size up. And I don't know whether I should put anything on the back? Also I put some borders on them which I am unsure about - should I keep them?

I'm not sure I will include the last image. I like the colours but not the drawing but I thought that 3 coloured and 3 black and white would make more sense!
thanks:

I Don't Like Bedtimes!

Hello everyone! This is my story I am aiming to fully illustrate by christmas. I had a lot of fun doing it this way but I'd be grateful for any thoughts regarding what I've done. The imagery I am aiming towards is photorealism contrasted with some of my usual stuff. I'm waiting on a really good source book so I can get my faces looking just as I want them so at the mo I'm just drawing to keep me in shape. Let me know what you think!

I Don't Like Bedtimes!

I don't like bedtimes, they make me feel bad,

I get all hot and bothered and that makes me mad.

I toss and I turn and I get all fed up!

Then Dad comes with cocoa in my favourite cup.

"I'm not ready to sleep!" I yell at my Dad.

He tells me I must and that makes me sad.

But I could not drop off, try as I might,

This time I thought, I'd be up all night.

I got up in the morning feeling totally rotten,

Mum's told me before but I must have forgotten.

"If you moan and groan on your way up to bed,

You'll wake in the morn like a bear with a sore head!

But if you skip up to bed with a big cheesey grin,

You'll be right off to sleep before Dad tucks you in!"

I sloped off to school feeling dreadful that morning,

I sat at my desk and thought of Mum's warning.

Too tired to learn made my schoolday a chore,

I needed some sleep, my bed I longed for.

So when I went off to bed, later that night,

Dad gave me a kiss and tucked me in tight.

"And remember sweet dreams when you close your eyes!"

But I'd already gone, and that's no surprise!

______

Any comments would be great guys thanks!

John Shelley is doing a workshop on Saturday 10th Oct...
£5 in for students (with student card)
£8 otherwise

http://britishscbwi.ning.com/xn/detail/2213582:Event:10872?xg_source=activity

Alice

ok, i re-designed the second page.including a neater more readable text. let me know what you think :)
opinions would be great.
x

Cheltenham Festivals

Hey guys
This is at Cheltenham as well and it s happening the same time we are going as well and it goes for a few days. It s got different stuff (music, literature etc etc) and it also has quite a few events relevant to picture books and graphic novels (basically different artists come and give talks). I m pretty sure most of you ll find something to be interested in about.
I m going on the 10th when Chris Riddell is having a couple of talks. Is anyone up for that?
I think for most this kind of events you need to book but the prices are decent and some have student discounts as well.



http://cheltenhamfestivals.com/tag/book-it/

Golden Wedding Anniversary Painting.

Hey people! Hope all is well.

I've recently just finished this painting this piece..its a copy of a Jack Vettriano painting, and every 18th birthday that comes around in the family my Grandad paints a version of a Jack Vettriano piece, there currently three at the moment.

Anyhow it's my Grand parents golden wedding anniversary so I thought it would be a great idea if I painted one for them :)

I'm very happy with the outcome as its not something I would usually paint..and something I was very shy about doing..I dont usually do big washes..and I usually leave a white space..but it seemed to work ok...

Hope you like :)

Cheers Guy

hi guys. me again lol
i thought this cud belong in picture books blog, since its in picture book format :) kinda.
iam actually pretty proud of the snakes in this page cuz i cudnt draw snakes faces and lizard textures for shit when i started. this is page one of a mini picture book i want to make for promotional material, and to sell at artists book fair :)
the text is a sonnet by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, about lilith which he depicts as human form in one of his most famous paintings. any thoughts and crit would be awsome, as i kinda struggle making artists books.

Evil Chicken

Hey guys,

i know i should be feeling bad for not doing much work over the summer but then again...it s summer. Too much sun, too much heat..

Ow well..i was to draw today a chicken character for a story i ve been working on for a while now but felt very bored and unispired to work on that, so i ve done an Evil Chicken instead!

Spam the blog time

Another new piece for my children's story, i was worried that such focus on purely the boy's face would not be able to carry itself as its own composition, i'm still unsure but i paid particular attention to the eyes and framed the face with the arch created by the father's head and shoulder to draw a point of focus to the boy. Any thoughts?

New Piece

This is another new piece for my children's story, where the boy is fed up of the mundanity of his house. Although in some ways the lack of extreme motion further adds to the feeling you get from the image of silence, for future work with motion however i will work on creating more movement within the image.

Elsewhere i have been trying to work on new characters, stories, and more challenging expressions and scenarios, using the cheapness of amazon to build by kiddie book collection as one of the things which will help with this.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, hope everyone is okay!

chickens

Hey all,
I recently bought Martin Sailbury's book "Illustrating Children's Books" (which is highly recomended by the way). In one chapter about drawing animals, he suggests drawing chickens because of their interesting shapes and "stacatto movements". Coincidentally, my dad recently bought six chickens so I went out drawing them!



All the observational drawing was very good practice for transforming prepartory sketches into my finished drawings. I've already come up with a picture book story, which this is a concept drawing for:

Hello

I have been working on creating more powerful backgrounds, luckily this part of the story relied on creating a theatrical atmosphere so i have created this down-the-street decadent view featuring the boy looking up at the skies. I may mute the colours a little more and darken the sky so it looks more intense.

Any comments would be appreciated :)

Mandrill with colour

Just moving on with the char development, here is my first attempt at my mandrill character in colour - the picture doesnt really do it justice, but i think it will fit in nicely with my pastelly jungle backgrounds!

Altho i think its missing something - it doesnt seem as good as my toucan :o/