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)

Illustration Friday chose MY subject this week!

How exciting - people all over the world are creating lovely art based on the subject of atmosphere and it was my idea! I can't wait to see what they come up with - there are usually several hundred entries each week. Puts a bit of pressure on me too - Oh, what was I thinking? I'm stuck!

Thank you Illustration Friday for choosing my word!

Off to Scotland soon!

Next weekend we're off to the Edinburgh Book Festival to do a children's workshop so I've had a lot of fun planning what we're going to do (lots of glue, fur and feathers involved!) and practicing reading stories ( I'm better at painting than reading out loud so I think the talented Lacey from Little Tiger Press is going to help out there!) I've managed to find a stand-in for her as you can se in the photo but I've had to keep his identity a secret! Not sure how impressed the young audience is though!

Illustration Friday - 'Star Gazing'

The subject for Illustration Friday this week is Star Gazing which is very appropriate as this week I lay in bed with the curtains open hoping to see a shooting star from the Perseids Meteor Shower. I think I managed to keep my eyes open for about 25 seconds before I drifted off!

This is a mixture of two greetings cards I painted a while ago - I took the bears from one and the sky from another and hopefully you can't see the join!

Illustration Friday - 'Caged'

This little chap is one of the illustrations from A Winter's Night which will be published in October. This is a sneak preview, because he was just right for this week's IF subject - 'caged'. Actually, the door is open, so he's not going to be caged for long.... :o)