Mother & Baby Bear

A couple of weeks ago I had a couple of hours to spare so I sat down and did some drawing with no specific aim in mind. The result was this scene of a mother and baby bear in a leafy mountain scene.

I played around with the colours quite a few times on this one before deciding on this palette.

This was a fun illustration to create and made a nice change from the fairytale and classic story inspired pieces I've been working on (more to come next week!)

Penny the Parakeet

Penny the Parakeet

I know I keep mentioning the new colouring books! I promise they are on their way and will be in the shop soon. Penny the Parakeet is one of 4 birds that will be in the new edition of Animal World. I'll be continuing to share coloured versions of the images of the next few weeks as colouring inspiration for once they're available!

Loved

Today I have another preview of the illustrations from the new colouring books.

This one is a slightly altered version of a page from the new edition of Positive Thoughts.

You are so loved...

Out of this World

I doodled this idea in one of my mini sketchbooks a few months ago and had forgotten about it. I found it again recently and decided to develop it into a finished illustration...

You're out of this world!

This illustration will be featuring in the new edition of my Positive thoughts colouring book, due to be ready for sale in the next few weeks!

Drakestail

This week's fairytale was a new one to me: Drakestail.

Its about a small duck who is owed money by the King. He hides various "friends" inside himself so they can help him when he confronts the king. Its a little weird but makes sense by the end!

I've illustrated a silhouette of Drakestail made up of the "friends" that help him: the Fox, the ladder, the river and the wasps.

Bonnie the Bear

Bonnie the Bear.

Bonnie is another of the animal illustrations that will be appearing in the new Animal World colouring book.

Every Story

As I've mentioned a few times lately, I'm working on some new colouring books, including a second edition of Positive Thoughts.

This illustration is an edited, coloured version of one of the pages from the new colouring book.

I drew this one last week on World Book Day, inspired by all the tweets and images about books I saw throughout the day.

Jack and the Beanstalk

This week I have two illustrations for the latest fairytale from the Fairytales Around the World book, Jack in the Beanstalk. 

I haven't illustrated a quote yet in this series so I thought I'd change that and create something with the most well known line from the story: "Fe, fa, fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman"

Surrounding the quote is a pattern made up of the beanstalk and a cow pattern, representing the cow that Jack sells to obtain the beans at the very start of the story.

 The second illustration for Jack and the Beanstalk is of the items that Jack steals from the Giant after seeing them through the keyhole of the wardrobe in which he is hiding.

Follow

This is another illustration inspired by one of my pieces of work from a few years ago. I came across some old illustrations a little while ago and decided to give them a bit of an update to fit with my current style. 

I'll be adding lots of new prints to the shop as soon as possible (along with the new colouring books and some new greetings cards!)

 Here's a few close ups of the elephants:

Gina the Giraffe

Gina the Giraffe is another of the illustrations that will be appearing in the second edition of my Animal World colouring book. I'll be sharing coloured versions of each of the images as previews of the book, and as some colouring inspiration once they're for sale!

Soria Moria Castle

This week's fairytale was Soria Moria Castle.

I'd never heard of this one before so had no idea what to expect when I started reading. It turned out to be filled magnificent castles and enchanted objects (and multi-headed trolls!)

I created two illustrations for this one...

The three castles amongst the rolling hillside. The number of flags on the top of each castle represents the troll inhabiting it (and the number of heads he has!)

This one is a pattern made up of all the objects and spells that Halvor uses throughout the story:

The sword that kills the trolls, the drink that gives him the strength to do so, the ring that takes him home, the boots that help him walk, and the wind and moon that guide him on his way.

Oh Deer!

I recently found an old illustration of mine with the words "Oh Deer!" under a pair on antlers. I always liked that illustration but my style has changed quite a lot since then so I thought I'd create a new version to fit with my recent work. I'm hoping to add this to the shop as an A4 print soon!

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!