Bookbug Picture Book Prize 2018 Shortlist!

I am delighted to announce that The Fourth Bonniest Baby in Dundee has been shortlisted for the Bookbug Picture Book Prize! Hurrah!
Our book will be included in the Bookbug Bag and every P1 pupil in Scotland will receive a copy. Schools, nurseries and libraries can register the children to vote for their favourite book and choose the winner.

You can find more details on the Bookbug website here. You can also watch Michelle read the book and me make some mess in this video! 

Big thanks to the Scottish Book Trust for including us in the shortlist and congratulations to fellow shortlisters Little Owl’s Egg (Debi Gliori and Alison Brown) and Gorilla Loves Vanilla (Chae Strathie and Nicola O’Byrne).

I am a Very Clever Cat is out

I am a Very Clever Cat, my first author and illustrator picture book has been published earlier this month and here is a few pictures from it. I am super excited about the way it turned out, particularly about the neon pink wool throught the book - the photos don't really show how bright it is!

And if you want to read more about the process and inspiration here is an interview I did for Picture Hooks.

COMING SOON!!!

I am very happy to annouce that 'I am a Very Clever Cat', the first picture book where I am both author and illustrator will be soon published by Templar Books! The publication date is 8th September and you can pre-order it here.

I am super excited about the book and I will be blogging and shouting about it more closer to the publication date.

The Fourth Bonniest Baby in Dundee

'The Fourth Bonniest Baby in Dundee' has just been published by Floris Books! Beautifully written by Michelle Sloan, a hillarious and very lively story about a mum and big sister taking a baby to the contest for The Bonniest Baby in Dundee.
It was a lot of fun to work on, even though, it was probably the busiest book I have ever illustrated - I ended up drawing 104 characters (not including animals) throughout the book.
I also ad lots of fun drawing the actual places and landmarks from Dundee.

Król

A few illustrations from 'Król', a picture book I illustrated for Dwie Siostry Publishing earlier this year. This is the second book in the series written by Ewa Madeyska. A beautiful text and a strong message - the story is about a girl Frania who is bullied by two very naughty boys. Things are really bad to start with but then Frania meets a new friend, a boy on a wheelchair called Artur and becomes a knight. A lovely story about self-acceptance, empowerment and inclusiveness. It is always super exciting to illustrate a book about a girl, who becomes a knight (and not a princess!) .

New picture book out soon!

Great news! A picture book I illustrated for Wydawnictwo Dwie Siostry in Poland is out soon. You can see a preview here.  The story, written by Ewa Madeyska, is about a 4 year old girl who doesn't like to wear glasses as she is being teased by other children at the nursery.
It was a fun book to illustrate (I fell in love with the main character and her world first time I read it) and I was happy I could work with Dwie Siostry as it is one of the best Polish publishers and every book on their list is just great.
Just a few pictures for now. I will post more illustrations and maybe some sketches when it is published.

clairvoyants competition

Good news!!! My artwork have been shortlisted in the international competition for the picture book project Clairvoyants 2014. The competition was organised by a Polish publishing house Dwie Siostry and the winners and shortlisted artwork will be exhibited in Warsaw and Krakow soon.

As you can see Ada and her dragon friend are very happy to be included on the list of finalists. And I am as excited as they are. This was first time I wrote a picture book script in Polish, my first language, and I very much enjoyed being able to play with the words that way I cannot really when I write in English (even though the text has only two words per page - my new record!).

Ada rides a skateboard, builds constructions, searches for a hidden treasure and rules her own kingdom. She is an active and creative girl, sometimes a little bit naughty. The book is all about the empowerment, being able to create your own world, do whatever you want and be accepted for who you are (no matter what is your gender, age, race, nationality) . I guess I feel very strongly about the message it gives and this is why I am super excited about the shortlist.

For the results and to see the winning entries click here.

Congratulations to the winners, honorary mentions and other finalists!

rain sketches

 

 Some quick character development sketches I made using paint drips I found in one of the studios in the art college. What I love most about the character development is that it is so unpredictible. The characters slowly come to life and they start making their own decisions that you wouldn't expect them to make. This little girl was supposed to be quite annoyed with the rain but she looks like she is having a good time. She might do a little dance on the next page. Or jump in the puddles.

tricycle

One of those illustrations I just had to make. Who wouldn't want to go for a cycle trip with their favourite duck!

off for a journey

This is an illustration I made for one handsome man who was born a few weeks ago. The most important thing when you are off for a new and exciting journey is to take a toy dinosaur with you.

children chasing various animals

Two illustrations I made a while ago and never posted here. I knew I had a thing with the idea of a favourite toy (a favourite duck in particular) but it turns out I also have a thing with drawing children chasing animals.

Maybe one day I will make a picture book that will be all about children chasing different types of animals!

trouble with crafts

Here is a short wordless story I made as a side personal project to keep myself sane while working on a big project. This is also when I realised that for some reasons I have to smuggle a dragon, a monster or a dinosaur into almost every illustration I make. I have no idea why is that but I guess I will have to illustrate a picture book with a dragon as a main character soon.

watching children play

Apart from illustrating I also lead creative workshops for children. One of the places I work in is the North Edinburgh Arts centre where together with a lovely team we organise creative sessions for under 5's and their families. No matter what the session is about (making the sea creature from recycled plastic bottles, building a huge cardboard tram...) it is always lots of fun. And a lot of mess!
It is also very inspirating for my illustration practice. I love watching the children play and engage with the activities I'd prepared for them.
The sketch above is inspired by one of these sessions. The theme was the age of discovery and we were making boats from recyced materials. And these two decided to develop the activity further and attach a string to each of their boats and then they were wandering through the room, dragging the boats and engaging in the most exciting conversation (at least this is what it looked like from the outside as they didn't really pay attention to anything around them; just walking with their boats and talking). There was so much in there - the beauty, friendship,  love, magic, imagination, adventure...
Moments like that are one of the many reasons I so much love my job!

Oh...and check out my newly updeted website!

rabbit and pig

It looks like I haven't blogged for ages. So just to show that I am alive and all is going well, here is an illustration I made recently. I very much enjoyed working on this one, painting with sticks, twigs and other random tools that I find laying around.

Picture Hooks Exhibition

The Picture Hooks exhibition at the National Gallery in Edinburgh is open!

Over the past year five of us - Laura Clark, Lesley Barnes, Naomi Howarth, Stuart Simpson and me - have been mentored by more established children's book illustrators - Sue Heap, Natalie Russell, Catherine Rayner, Ross Collins and Alison Murray. It has been a very busy year for all of us, especially the final month when we all had to finish four final pieces for the exhibition.

It was lovely to finally see all the artwork up and enjoy a very much awaited drink at the private view last Friday. The exhibition id open until 16th February 2014 so there is plenty of time to come over and visit if you are around. The gallery also organised illustration masterclasses for those who are interested in the process of creating picture book illustrations. I will be doing one with amazing Viv French on the 7th December. Here is more details.

And some photos from the exhibition.
Amazing artwork by Laura Clark who was laso chosen The Best Scottish Picture Hooks Illustrator 2013. Congartulations Laura!

Illustrations by Stuart Simpson who will have his book published by the Orchard Books. Well done Stuart!

Here is the most awesome walrus Magnus by Naomi Howarth. And the flying rabbits!

Lovely artwork by Lesley Barnes. The story is about a girl whose name is Jill and a dragon whose name is Dragon.

And my illustrations. There is a crocodile, a wolf, a teddy bear and a cat.

As a part of the exhibition the organisers asked us to submit our work in progress, sketches, dummy books, notes etc. Below are sketches by Laura and Naomi.

And my work in progress. I realised I forgot to remove some silly notes from the margins. Too late now.


Here is more details about the show.

Picture Hooks 
Scottish National Gallery
The Mound (entrance from Princes Gardens)
1st November 2013 - 16th February 2014