some inspiration

 Good to see a few sketches already posted up, I thought you could look at the following website, for a variety of visual styles, but especially in the way these illustrators sketch out ideas :)

http://twisted-genius.squarespace.com/

and especially:
http://twisted-genius.squarespace.com/journal/category/motivation-monday

Character drawing for Belle

Decided to go for the traditional feel towards the story, Keeping a 1700's look.
Now im going to try to arrange the character into scenarios aswell as working on the other characters.

Characters so far.

Not as much done as I'd hoped, found it hard to get into the project, but here's what I've got at the moment.

I've decided to go with having the Beast as a more humanoid animal rather than a mythical beast.

This drawing of the Prince was meant to be a starting point to give an idea of his appearance, I'm working on drawing more versions of him since this is quite flat but I won't be able to post them until I'm back in a week.

Haven't got many angles since I haven't got round to putting the characters more in situation, more colour will be added eventually. I've also got ideas for another few characters if they're needed in my development - but these four are my favourites to work on further at the minute.

Initial Beast Character drawings

Looking at using a dragon as the beast, working on some other drawings with the dragon illustrated in a scene with beauty and also more 3d looking drawings, these are the first drawings any advice would be appreciated.

Beauty and The Beast.

I've been reading the requirements for the entries, and I'm a bit stumped because it asks for two of the characters to be animals and one human, unless the fairytale has no animals in it - which depends on the version of Beauty and the Beast that's being retold as some of them don't have any important animal characters (apart from the Beast obviously).

Does anyone know which version we're illustrating? Or have any suggestions of how this can be solved?

Eric Carle

Obviously we all know who Eric Carle is but did you all know he has a blog?! It's got some really interesting bits and pieces- I especially liked this post about the rejects he makes, the things that didn't make it into books: http://ericcarleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/rejects.html

Enjoy! x

Cheltenham awards extended!

Ayup folks! So today was a nice day of finishing off the Cheltenham awards piece and then I found out, the deadline has now BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL 23RD!

Kind of dismayed to find I've been working my ass off and didn't need to put quite as much pressure on myself, but now I might well go back and explore some other ideas...maybe even submit two pieces DAYUM!

Just thought I'd share in case anyone was starting to panic!

http://www.cheltenham-illustration-awards.com/

xx

Different fonts

A couple of different fonts for my Rabbit story, I'm thinking of using the top one which is the same font as my Birds book.

Moustache cat

Not at all related to anything, but heres a cat with a moustache...relaxing.

new story!

Ive taken your advice chiu and decided to do a smaller side project to keep myself from getting too bogged down with the owl and the pussycat. As I've used a found story for my other book, I decided to try my hand at writing my own story this time. I quite like it! I'm not sure how many pages I will actually do to a finished state, or even how many pages it will be at this point! But here is the story..

Home, Sweet Home

Henry the hedghog was very lost. That morning he had left his mum to go sunbathe in his usual sunny spot, when suddenly he was picked up by something much bigger than him, and started travelling at much faster speeds than was normal for hedgehogs like Henry!

Henry rolled up into a little ball and hoped it would all be over soon.

But next…   THUD…   THUD THUD THUD THUD ….. BUMP!

At least that’s what he thought had happened..

‘Owwwww’ moaned Henry.

See, ever since that bump Henry couldn’t really remember … anything!

He couldn’t remember his way back home, and thinking about it, he couldn’t even remember what his home looked like!

Glumly he stumbled along wondering if he would ever see his brothers or sisters again, and after a couple of hours of hedgehog paced wandering, Henry hadn’t gotten any closer to finding them. He sat back and started to cry.

‘Oh what ever could be the matter?’ a big badger had come over – even bigger than whatever had picked him up that morning!

‘Well… I cant remember what my home looks like!’ he sniffed.

‘Oh dear..! How about you come see where I live, maybe it will ring some bells.’ Kindly said the badger, who led him down a hole, and down, and down, and down!

‘OH, I don’t think this is right. It’s much too dark, and way too big for me!’

Henry thanked the badger and carried on his journey.

Before long Henry got talking to a blackbird.

‘Maybe you live where I live! Come on, I’ll show you’ She took him in her claws up, and up, and up!

It was very spiky and..

‘OH I don’t think this is right. It’s much too high, I don’t like it at all!’

The blackbird gently put him back down on the ground, Henry thanked her and carried on his way.

Looking around him, Henry tried very hard to think of his home… He didn’t think it was high in a nest like the blackbird, but it seemed much too dark and underground in that burrow with the badger too.

‘You look lost’ said a caterpiller who had wriggled up beside Henry without him noticing ‘Can I help?’

Henry explained his bump, his memory loss, and how now he couldn’t find his way home. He felt himself begin to cry, but tried to be brave, and the caterpiller kindly offered to show Henry his home. Henry followed the caterpiller up and up the wobbly plant stalk, put one paw carefully on to the leaf ahead, then the other …..

THUMP!

‘OWW!'
' I think I’m a bit too big and heavy for where you live caterpiller! That can’t be right either’

Henry tried not to look too disappointed, thanked the caterpiller and stumbled on. It was beginning to get dark now, and it was Henry’s feeding time hours ago. He shuffled his way through the thick leaves , where suddenly it started to smell very familiar… He rummaged faster and faster until – ‘MUM!’

Henrys mum took him into a big hug  and cried ‘Oh Henry! Where have you been!? I was so worried.’

 ‘Oh mum I made so many friends! There was a really nice badger, and a..’

Suddenly Henry wasn’t so unhappy anymore, looking around his den at all his brothers and sisters, he snuggled into his mum’s arms and told them all of his adventure, with the big bump, the badger, the blackbird, and the caterpiller, and how he eventually found his way home, sweet home.

Any thoughts?

Owl and Pussycat

I actually did this a couple of weeks ago but have been extra-ordinarily busy and forgot to share, this is nottt a final. just a larger experiment to do with finishing techniques. it is heading in the direction i want though! more to come over the next week hopefully.... text placement looks a bit dodge to me, any suggestions with it anyone?

also - people who didnt go to london on tuesday, i took lots of photos some of which are on my blog  www.jasminehortop.com feel free to steal!

Writers & Artists announces writing conference

Just got an email from Writer's and Artists, thought it could be useful to some people? It is quite expensive though.

Writers & Artists announces writing conference

How do you submit your material? How do you attract an agent? How do you negotiate a deal?

Writers & Artists invites aspiring authors to attend a one-day event in central London, aimed specifically at answering your industry-related questions, providing expert advice on exactly how to get your book published. Attend a W&A Conference, and you're guaranteed to hear from and network with major publishers, national booksellers, senior agents, senior Commissioning Editors and your fellow writers.


The Insider Guide on How to Get Published
Saturday June 18th 2011
9.45am-4.30pm
WELLCOME COLLECTION
Euston, Central London

Early Bird Discount
Book by 18 April 2011 for £31 off the ticket price
(RRP £95 each)

Post-event, stay, mingle and enjoy a free tour of the Wellcome Galleries.

Find out more and book your ticket (http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/events-for-writers/how-to-get-published/)

small birds

The colours didn't come out quite as they are in the actual piece, the background is more blue. Much easier to do a lighter wash as a background though.

slightly altered version...

This is another version, I painted the sky on this one and I think it looks better than a sky layered on photoshop. The tree is cut out instead too so it's more like a collaged image.

First experiment with layering

I tried to do a finished piece but with painting layers separately and putting the image together on photoshop. It was a lot easier to do the fiddly bits like the tree and the bird separately because you don't get the paint overlapping, and you don't have to leave space on the background layer. Also putting it together on photoshop gave the ability to move things around, initially the tree was smaller.