Latest news!

Oh, I'm such a hopeless blogger! I know I should be blogging regularly but I get distracted, so here's a quick update on what's happening. A few weeks ago I finished my latest book for Little Tiger Press and I think (not very modestly) that it's looking pretty good! It's a lovely story with a theme of changing seasons and friendship. It'll be a while before it's published - it's probably off in China being printed at the moment! I'm just about to start another new book with them and I'm so excited because the author is the lovely Tracey Corderoy (Star Friends) and the storyline is fab! I'm also working on a lovely new book for Caterpillar Books (My Little Night-Light, By Lantern Light) and doing the illustrations for two new anthologies for Stripes Publishing (Winter Tales series) so I'll be busy with my favourite sort of work over the coming months! In the meantime I've been doing artwork for some new greetings cards which makes a nice change for a while. And I made this for the Village Autumn Bazaar - it was a late entry and came first in the adult category because no-one else had bothered to make one!!

October Update

It's been a hectic few weeks here and I've not had time even to post entries for Illustration Friday :o( but I've finished a new book called 'When will it Snow' which is off at Frankfurt Book Fair with Little Tiger Press getting it's first airing! I did a local school visit with Lauren from Stripes publishing yesterday and in spite of having twice as many children as I expected (75!!) we had a great story and craft session and the kids made lots of little monsters - each one unique! I love how creative they are and how some love to make them neat, some colour co-ordinated and some just go wild with their imaginations!

Anyway that's it and we're off to Spain now for a lovely holiday so bye bye blog for a couple of weeks !

Illustration Friday - 'Acrobat'

This is my entry for this week's Illustration Friday topic of Acrobat. It's from a book I illustrated a few years ago for Brainwaves called Manic Math which was full of animals doing bizarre things to encourage children to practice adding and subtracting. It included a calculator gadget inside the back cover to help with the sums - very clever!

Illustration Friday - 'Proverb'

It Never Rains but it Pours

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Proverb, so I chose "It never rains but it pours" or in other words when troubles come they come together. Bit miserable now I think about it! But I think this illustration fits the bill.

Illustration Friday - 'Dessert'

This week's Illustration Friday topic is dessert - yum! Thought this picture would fit the bill - it's a sneaky preview from a magical mousey fairy book that I illustrated which won't be published till later on this year - hope you like it!

Edinburgh Book Festival 2010

Just back from a fantastic festival weekend in sunny Edinburgh! My workshop went very well and the children were lovely - they all made their own versions of little furry monsters hatching out of eggs and their creativity was amazing! There were so many variations on the theme and some of the children just went way off and came up with the most bizarre ideas - I loved them all! Definitely need to be watching my heels - these little'uns are already so clever and talented ...

Illustration Friday - 'Atmosphere'

I almost wimped out this week - what a stupid subject! Then I decided to take an existing illustration ( it's from 'By Lantern Light' by Cat Weatherill ) which already had an atmosphere of tension and add some effects in Photoshop to create an environmental atmosphere - it now looks foggy! Hope it works :o)