Dolores

This moody painting by T.S Spookytooth is a promotional piece for his short story "Dolores".
Spookytooth says " (The story) revolves around a house that sits on an unkempt lawn that was sun scorched from summers past and tangled with weeds that winter could not kill. It concerns a young girl called Dolores and who she is...or was." The mystery of the narrative echoes Spookytooth's enigmatic illustrations. We look forward to seeing more.

Mt First Kafka is One of the Best

'My First Kafka' illustrated by Rohan Daniel Eason makes one of the thirteen 'Best Children’s, Illustrated, and Picture Books of 2013'.
Selected by journalist and writer Maria Popover of Brain Pickings, the book is Matthue Roth's adaptation of Kafka for kids. Rohan gets much praise for his work too, Maria writes " Indeed, it’s hard not to see Sendak’s fatherly echo in Eason’s beautifully haunting black-and-white drawings." Read more on the book here.

Modern Twist Designs

children's bib and table mat designs

sea pattern table mat

Helen Lang works with San Francisco based Modern Twist to create designs for their baby and kids range.
Commissioned to supply four animal designs to be used on children's table mats and bibs, and a sea pattern for another range, Helen used her signature lines to produce these fun and friendly products. She says "This company has been great to work with. The products are great to touch and use."

Once Upon A Time

Bee Willey will be taking part in 'Once Upon A Time'; an exhibition celebrating Children's Book Illustrators of East Anglia.
Opening on 25th January, the show takes place at Ipswich Art School and includes original artwork from artists such as Edward Ardizzone, Michael Foreman,  Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone and Helen Oxenbury. Bee says "I am very happy to be showing five images here as part of a large show at the Ipswich Art School Building. This is one of the artworks included as well as older pre-digital pieces . It is great to be there amongst great illustrators!". Running until the beginning of May, admission to the exhibition is free.

New Talent Alert: Amyisla McCombie

Amyisla McCombie's illustrations are both delicate in style and bold in design, take a look at her portfolio...

New Talent Alert: Jo Rose

Take a look at Jo Rose's playful character creations, full of story and theatre...

PanToy

Turine Tran works with PanToy in Taiwan to create a toy design.

The brief was to make a character of a little boy around six years old wearing a wolf baby suit. Turine took inspiration from the character Max in Maurice Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are', and then loaded her design with cool accessories such as a backpack, skateboard and a lollipop gun. The final piece is now a cute toy, with Turine's poster art as promotion. She says of the commission "It was a lovely, fun project, and I'm totally in love with the toy at the end!"

Jo Rose at The Henries

Deer Little Forest

We are delighted with Jo Rose's nomination for The Henries 2013!
Jo's card range 'Deer Little Forest' was up for the award of 'Most Promising Artist/Designer 2013', a category with some 14,000 entries. This range which is one of Jo's latest creations about a 'cast of colourful creatures who form a magical and musical travelling parade', made it to the final five. She says "The awards evening (was back in October), I didn't win but am still totally chuffed to have been nominated".
We are sure her hand crafted work, full of character and theatre will be up for more awards in the future.

Fishy Art

Fish For Sale In Salvador

Mussels Man

Marseille Fish Market

Grand Canal Fish Market

Christopher Corr exhibits his latest 'fish themed' paintings at Kensington Place.
This show at the Notting Hill restaurant 'features fish from the seven seas', referencing his time spent in Marseille and other world travels. The joyful nature of his work in this setting will be a feast for the eyes and the belly!
The artworks are hanging from today until January 2014.

Wendy's Hidden Message

Kathryn Rathke enlightens us on the talk recently of a hidden message in the Wendy's logo.
The Huffington Post observed that the word 'Mom' was written in the collar of the girl in the new Wendy's logo, which Kathryn created with the team at Tesser agency. She says "Although it was not indeed intentional, my mother noticed and remarked on it, way back at the unveiling last fall,.....when she pointed it out to me, I did let her think that I did it just for her."

The word 'Mom' can be seen clearer here

Angelina Tearoom

Lollipop Tin

Biscuit Tin

Chocolate Tin

A treat of a job came to the desk of Lauren Mortimer, who was asked by Angelina Tearoom Paris to create three illustrations for their novelty tins. Lauren, using her quaint drawing skills has completed biscuit, chocolate and lollipop tin illustrations, she says "Angelina is a historical tea room in Paris, created in 1903 during the Belle Époque, so they wanted to illustrations that would portray this era and style." The tins are now looking great on their website and in the tearoom filled with the sweet things Angelina is so famous for.

Twins UK

Being a twin herself Jessica Townsend is the perfect artist to complete several illustrations for the Twins UK 21st Anniversary Party. Hosted by the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, the work was exhibited at the garden party in the Guys and St. Thomas Hospital and then donated for display in the department. Jessica says "I am an identical twin and we take part in twin studies at the hospital which has over the years had a big impact on the progression of medical science and genetics".

New Talent Alert...

Jongmee is with us! For refreshing compositions and palette take a look at the New York based illustrator's fashion and editorial work...

Rhymes My Mother Never Told Me

Duncan Beedie's collection of illustrations for 'Rhymes My Mother Never Told Me' by Bill Burkland live up to the hilarious nature of the book. An 'anthology of puerile, childish rhymes about all things toilet-based' suited Duncan's humour down to the ground! With pieces such as 'Sweet Bread Farts', 'Tony's Tiny Bladder' and 'The Poop Between Her Toes', you can imagine how much fun Duncan had! The book is out now.

Trunki's Paddlepaks

With Duncan Beedie's fine character animation talents, Trunki's ad for the new range of summer swimming/beach bags is now aired. Duncan was brought to the project as a house client for Aardman Animations and used Adobe Flash to create the character animation for the lobster, jellyfish, octopi and clown fish. The new 'Paddlepaks', shaped like underwater creatures are a fun new range from the popular brand Trunki, the ad can be seen here.

Forest Love

Here's a sneak peek of a book project by Bee Willey;  Esmeralda the magic hare and another called Maximilian come together in a forest love story set at Christmas. Experimenting with medium, Bee says "I have just started using egg tempera and I love it". More to come soon!

Some Boo Style!

Boo and Friends provide some cute illustrations for this page on a teenage fashion addict commissioned by Michelle Buckley at the Sunday Times Style Magazine.

Muxxi's Scrapbook

Guatemala-based illustrator & character designer Muxxi talks of the inspiration she draws from children's worlds & imaginary friends. Muxxi's Scrapbook

Narnia Grotto

Bee Willey completed an amazing job leading up to Christmas last year; creating artworks for a grotto was the perfect commission to put her in the mood for the festivities! Commissioned by Katie Burnett at Les Enfants, Bee worked on the scenery for a Santa Grotto, a Narnia landscape (with wardrobe) and the Snow Queen's castle. The artworks were used at a Christmas event with the finished result being a Narnia themed environment for children, complete with props! Irresistible!