Hillside

This illustration is inspired by an old watercolour painting I found in a sketchbook from my first year of uni...

This, along a few other new illustrations, should be available on Etsy soon!

Paisley the Panda

I've got another sneak peek of one of the new colouring books today.

Paisley the Panda will be appearing (minus the colour) in the second edition of Animal World, which is due to be finished by the start of April.

Flowers

I recently came across an old A3 sketchpad with some spare pages. Its been a while since I drew on anything larger than A4 so I thought I'd have a go at some floral designs...

Here's a few close ups of some of the flowers:

I've got a few other new illustrations to share over the next few weeks too, including a couple inspired by some old works of mine.

Blue Beard

This illustration isn't technically based on the story of Blue Beard. As I mentioned at the end of last week's post, its a pretty unpleasant story (read: locked up room full of dead ex-wives!)

However, I didn't want to skip another story just yet, and there's a line that's repeated a few times in the story that gave me an idea for a simple illustration:

"I see nothing but the sun, which makes a dust, and the grass, which looks green."

I'll be back again next week with the next fairytale!

Zizi the Zebra

I've been busy drawing lots of animals lately for one of my new colouring books (see some of the sketchbook drawings here)

Obviously when they go into the colouring book they'll be black and white line drawings, but I thought I'd give a few of them some colour to see how they look, and give you a little sneak peek here on the blog!

So here's Zizi the Zebra:

I'll share a few more of these as I put the books together. I'm hoping to have them ready for any Spring markets I take part in.

Toads and Diamonds

In my last Fairytales from around the World post I said that the next story I'd be illustrating was the History of Whittington. After reading it and spending a few days putting off making a start on the illustration I decided to skip that one as no ideas were coming to mind!

I've counted and there are enough stories in the book to last me two years if I keep illustrating every single one, one a week! So I've decided to be a little less strict and skip any that don't appeal.

The next story in the book was Toads and Diamonds. Its a very short story but full of imagery and it didn't take long to get the idea for this illustration. The girl in the story is given a gift:

"At every word you speak, there shall come out of your mouth either a flower or a jewel."

Her sister was given the opposite punishment of snakes and toads, but I thought this one would be much nicer to illustrate!

The next story in the book is Blue Beard. I'm not sure how that one will go as I know its a pretty unpleasant story!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

This is our first special occasion as an engaged couple so its pretty exciting! We're off for a meal at our favourite restaurant this evening. Hope you all have a lovely day however you're spending it!

(This design is from a new range of cards coming soon. I had hoped to have this one ready for Valentines but had a few delays along the way so it'll be released with the other new designs ASAP!)

In my Sketchbook: 10/2/16

After a few weeks of being less productive than I'd have liked (blame a nasty cold and lingering lack of motivation!), this week I decided to try and make some real progress on some new products. I'm designing some new colouring books* including a new, larger and better second edition of my Animal World design. This one will be A5 sized with 24 pages (thats twice as big as the old versions!)

So for the last couple of days I've been filling sketchbook pages with various animals ready to go into the colouring book! I've got a list of animals I'd like to include but I'm happy to hear any suggestions!

Here's some sketchbook pages from the week so far:

*I'm also working on a second edition of Positive Thoughts, and possibly something fairytale and/or nature themed too!

Puss in Boots

This week's fairytale is Puss in Boots (or The Master Cat).

The original idea for this one was a simple character illustration, however after reading the story through I went with an image of the cat performing a slight twist on one of his current tricks. Here he is with a bag of corn to lure in the partridges...

Next week is The History of Whittington.

Beauty and the Beast

I'm a week late with the Fairytales from around the World illustration as I had a horrible cold last week and didn't get as much done as usual!

I had a quite a few ideas for this one but the time restraints meant I've just picked one. But I may return to this story later on and try out my other ideas!

So here's my illustration for the third story in the book:

Beauty and the Beast

Next up is Puss in Boots!