Illustration Friday - Sea

Full illustration

Close up

Noah and Bear having more fun together this Christmas.

Illustration Friday - Light

Noah brought Bear a little light to help him see in the dark wintery night.

It's that time....

Yes, it is that time of year! ...time to decorate your Christmas tree. Mine will be up and running tomorrow. Thought I'd share this illustration to help get us all in the Christmassy mood.

Although it is nearly the Christmas break, I've still got deadlines to meet beforehand. I'm currently working on my first picture book that I have both written and illustrated, so this is all very exciting.

Also looking forward to my first picture book to be launched in January 2015 called 15 Things Not to Do with a Baby. This wonderful text was written by the amazing Margaret McAllister and is going to be published by Frances Lincoln.

Will keep you posted about our book launch. Sounds like it is going to be very exciting!!

Illustration Friday - Smooth

"I'm going to brush your tail until it is silky smooth," said the little girl.

'Over the Hills and Far Away' Book Launch

On Monday 13th October, we had the launch of the 'Over the Hills and Far Away' book that was held at the Free Word Centre in London.

It was an absolute honour to be asked to be apart of the illustration panel including illustration legends Jane Ray and Michael Foreman, and 'illustrator of the moment,' Yasmin Ismail.

'Over the Hills and Far Away' Special Edition Cover by Jane Ray

Michael Rosen headed the evening and encouraged lively discussions about the power of nursery rhyme and verse, the importance of diversity in children's books, how each illustrator responded to the invitation to contribute to the book, creative working method (traditional vs contemporary) and how an artist approaches colour.

The Panel: Me, Yasmeen Ismail, Michael Foreman, Michael Rosen, Jane Ray, 
Elizabeth Hammill and Joseph Coelho

Performance poet Joesph Coelho, who was also on the panel, entertained us with beautiful and humorous readings of verses such as 'In the Blue Night' and 'You thumb there, wake up'.

Pre-event book signing (Jane, Michael Foreman, Elizabeth Hammill and me!)

After a wonderful evening at the Free Word Centre, I made a quick dash to Kings Cross with the rest of the Seven Stories team for our train back to Newcastle. Now we look forward to the second celebration event on Wednesday at Seven Stories itself.

You can order your copy from the Seven Stories website. All proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Seven Stories, to help save and celebrate the wonderful world of children's books.

KUGB Christmas Cards 2014

Earlier in the year, I decided to use my illustration/design skills to help raise funds in support of the KUGB's (Karate Union of Great Britain) England Squad. There are 16 cards in each pack (4 of each design) and will be available at KUGB events for £3.99 per pack.

There are a limited number available so please take this opportunity to get them while stocks last and help to support our England Karate Squad competing at the European Championships in Zurich at the end of the year.

PDSA Christmas Cards

Samples of my christmas card designs for PDSA have finally arrived in the Paper Dove Studio. It is also nice to find my illustrations on the cover of the 2014 Christmas catalogue.

All profits made from the sale of these cards will help to support PDSA in serving sick and injured pets... so get ordering!!

Learning how to Letterpress

With Verity and ready for acton in the print room.

Jen putting the next plate in place for print.

Over the past few weeks I have started joining Jen and Verity in the letterpress room learning how to letterpress on a beautiful Heidelberg machine.

Letterpress has become the go-to printing technique for greeting cards, business cards and wedding invitations. Invented in the 15th Century, it was the most reliable and widely used method of printing. This printing method originally involved manually arranging words and images before pressing them into high-quality paper.

Although this is still common practice for many designers, at Paper Dove, we create card designs digitally and have metal plates made from them to then print onto beautiful paper. 

It is great to design for letterpress, but it is even better now that I am learning to print for it as well.

A year on - ECA Degree Show 2014

Reunited with some of my ECA studio pals.  

Cate James drawing 'What dinosaurs get up to' in Hannah Botma's exhibition space.

It is so scary to think that it has been a whole year since I finished my Master of Fine Art degree.

So much has happened in the space of a year: I have had one book published with Walker Books, my illustration for the Seven Stories 'Over the Hills and Far Away' book is set to be published in October of this year, I have recently finished my first full picture book with Frances Lincoln (tbp in January 2015) and I am working for Paper Dove greeting card company in the North East of England.

I recently went back to Edinburgh for opening night of the Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2014. It was amazing to be back in the best city in world and to catch up with all of my lovely friends.

Well done to all of those who have just finished their studies... with a special mention to my illustration friends Hannah Botma and Jessica Kettle. It was a fabulous show!

I'm excited to see where we all are this time next year!

Illustration Friday - Voyage

Here is a little post for this week's Illustration Friday topic 'Voyage'. I think everyone knows the story of Christmas, and that these two characters have a long voyage ahead of them!

These are two card designs that are part of a four pack that I created for Paper Dove last week. Creating designs for kids packs are my absolute favourite and it is quite nice that Christmas follows me throughout the year! 

I hope you enjoy these little fellas.

Sara Ogilvie Workshop at Paper Dove

Sara showing the group her prints and explaining about her working process.

Paper Dove designer, Caroline Gordon getting stuck in with mono-printing. 

My experimental mono-prints based on Sara's beautiful Russian Dolls.

Sketchbook development from Sara's new book 'Meet the Parents'.

Last week at Paper Dove was full of fun and excitement with a visit from my favourite illustrator, Sara Ogilvie (the illustrator of 'Dog don't do Ballet'). 

I first met Sara at the 'Take Five Illustrators' exhibition opening in 2012 at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, whilst studying for my masters degree at Edinburgh College of Art. Since then I have been fortunate to work with her at other talks and workshops at both Seven Stories and Edinburgh College of Art. This time I'm lucky enough to work with her at my new workplace.

During the morning session, Sara gave an inspiring talk about us where she finds inspiration, her creative process, her approaches to different creative projects and creating books for children.

After lunch we had a messy session in the print room, experimenting with the potential of mono-printing and screen-printing. As a group we came up with some interesting characters based on some observational drawings of Sara's collection of old toys.

I am looking forward to arranging her next visit soon!

Illustration Friday - Red

I've been drawing quite a few rabbits recently, so thought it would be nice to continue using them for this week's Illustration Friday topic, Red.

Hope you enjoy!

Paper Dove at Seven Stories

On 8th March, a few of the Paper Dove designers went to Seven Stories to meet the official 2014 World Book Day illustrator, Alex T. Smith. This event was supported by Hodder Children's Books. During this fabulous interactive family event, Alex introduced us to Claude and friends. He told us about where he gets his inspiration from, did some live drawing for us and taught us how to draw our very own Claude. This event was rounded up by a book signing and photo session in the Seven Stories Book Shop.

Photo by Emily Rose Lambert

On Monday 10th March, we went to the Walker Books event 'Ink and Drink with Chris Haughton', which was also hosted by Seven Stories. This was a great opportunity to hear about Chris' creative process, his experience of illustrating for children and his work with Node (fair trade rugs). We also had the opportunity to do some doodling ourselves and have his latest book 'Shh! We Have a Plan' signed. 

Here is a funny little snap of us having tea with the Tiger in the Judith Kerr exhibition.

Illustration Friday - Voice

This Illustration Friday post was fitting for celebrating both World Book Day and the completion of my first full picture book with Frances Lincoln.

It has been a crazy time getting the book ready for Bologna, but it is finally finished and has been sent to repro. Here is a little vignette from an interior page where a brother and sister are lovingly reading their favourite book together.

Happy World Book Day!!

Paper Dove Studio

It has been a tough start to the year with completing my first picture book for Frances Lincoln Publishers. Whilst it has been a wonderful experience working with such amazing people, I must say that I am happy to finally be catching up on some sleep! 

It has obviously been a while since I updated my blog, so I thought I would start by sharing some of the recent artwork that the design team have been creating in the Paper Dove studio. Here are a few visuals of sketches and original artwork made in a variety of different media.

Geek Squad range for Cherry Moon

Four of the cards from my Geek Squad range

Jen changing the ink on the letterpress machine

Verity in production 

Here is a sneaky peak at 'Geek Squad', which is my very first range for Cherry Moon.

These brightly coloured designs showcase familiar retro objects and games that we've all loved. They have been beautifully hand printed by my friends Verity and Jen using one of our amazing letterpress machines. This old printing method is perfect for this range, adding to the retro feel.

This NEW range of twelve cards, is set and ready to go to the Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham next month.

Illustration Talk - The University of Sunderland

As part of the Seven Stories 'Picturebook in Progress Project', I was asked to present an illustration talk at The University of Sunderland. This wonderful project aims to inspire young artists to follow into an illustration career. What a great project to be apart of!

During the event I discussed my artwork for the 'Over the Hills and Far Away' book, my transition from being a student to working in the professional world of illustration, my working methods/techniques, my experience of working with publishers, editors and book designers, and my new job at Paper Dove.

At the end of the talk, the students had the opportunity to look at some of my original material, work in progress, and published pieces, seeing a project from the very beginning to the very end.

If you are in Newcastle on the 25th January, make sure you get yourselves to the Picturebook in Progress Gallery Opening at Seven Stories and view the artwork of some of the UK's best loved illustrators.

With special thanks to Alison Barratt, David Wright and Carey Fluker Hunt.