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.

sketches from Warsaw

I went to Warsaw a couple of weeks ago and efor some reasons I didn't feel like sketching at all so I only made a few rather lazy sketches. Mostly of people in the airport staring at their smartphones and tablets and toddlers who have better things to do that staring at the smarphones.
Also, it turns out that when I don't spend my holidays sketching obsessively I read more. And this is probably a good thing.

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.

happy christmas

Happy holidays everyone, and all the best for 2015!

And here comes my first New Year's resolution: no more cute animals on skis on this blog.

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.

sketching children

I went for a coffee this morning nad the plan was to sip my long black, read newspapers and then spend an hour looking blankly into distance and thinking about nothing (it has been a long week). Unfortunately a girl came in with her parents and have been walking round and looking adorable in her oversized brace trousers. So I spend the rest of the morning pretending that I am looking blankly into distance (so as not to alarm the parents) but in fact sketching the little girl.
Here she is. I am still not sure towards what exactly she is walking on this illustration.

happiness

ladybird

I love when I make an illustration and it completely surprises me. Here is one of them. I think it is also the first time I am posting a child character on this blog. No tail, no whiskers!

School Meals Project

I took part in an amazing project organised in cooperation with Edinburgh College of Art, Scottish Book Trust and Dalmeny Primary School. We have been working with children's book writer Vivian French, illustrator Cate James, stage 2 illustration students and the school pupils, and writing recipes that would describe ourselves. And then we created plates that illustrated the recipes.
Here is a plate that illustrates my recipe - lots of cute animals, a train and a map of my favourite place in Transilvania in Romania.

I worked with Kyle and here the plate that illustrates him. This a a pop up plate...

...and I would think twice before putting any food on it!

The jaws open and there is a lot of beautiful drawings made by Kyle inside.

We had an opening event with all the students and pupils presenting their plates. They were all amazing!

And we made commemorative badges!
 
It was great fun working with the school pupils (I usually work with younger children). There have been coming up with the best ideas and also asking the best questons. One morning I worked with two lovely P3 girls and the first question they asked me was: "What is your favourite animal?". Just amazing! Why adults don't ask that instead of asking boring questions like: Where do you work? Where do you come from? etc.