Bob Robber and Dancing Jane

'Bob Robber and Dancing Jane'; a children's book illustrated by Bee Willey and written by Andrew Matthews is to stage as a ballet!

Produced by Clare Prenton,  the story now evolved as 'Shadow Thief' is a thrilling development of the original book about the dark souled Bob Robber who learns to dance and live in the light with help from Dancing Jane. Bee says "Both myself and Andrew were delighted at the clip with the lyrics we were sent by Clare's agent, and also by the twitter info around the rehearsals in Barnes, seemingly leading to a premiere in 2014 in Edinburgh! It is wonderful for a story like this to take off in a new context…"

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.

Anne Wilson in Mac User

Anne's feature in Mac User

a selection of Anne's art used in the article

January's edition of Mac User Magazine features an article on the wonderful Anne Wilson. Experiencing the industry in times before our digital world, Anne talks of the changes, her illustration education and inspirations with some sound advice; " just do what you do".

The article:
I have been practicing as an illustrator for the past 15 years or so...the time seems to have flown past so fast at an unbelievable rate. During this time the technology I've experienced has evolved tremendously. One of my very first commissions for example was completed through to the finals stage using a fax machine! Email now is second nature, and the format now in which discussions on projects tend to take place in the main, to the point where now I cannot remember the first time I began using email! It has always been a highly competitive industry and unless, for the most part, illustrators keep an eye on the technology available to them and embrace it in their working practice, those around will most likely have the upper hand.
I love the global feel of the industry, now more apparent than ever. Often I get work via the USA and recently I have completed a few jobs for various clients in Korea. The days of hiking around London with my portfolio focusing in the main on UK based clients, has passed and evolved into an exciting mix of cultures, opportunities and inspiration on a world wide basis.
On the one hand there seems to be a constant barrage of fightingly good illustrators graduating and entering the industry today, bright eyed, fast paced and full of imagination, which is both wonderful and overwhelming for me. But on the other hand it provides a pool of fantastic inspiration which serves to keep me well on my toes year after year. As this career tends to be a rather solitary one, the reality of the competition for commissions is important, a good reason I feel to take the time and energy to enter industry led competitions when ever possible. They serve as a good tool to sharpen your creative processes and a bench mark for where you are at within the illustration world.
New creatives are certainly one source of inspiration. More and more creative collectives are appearing such as the illustrator led groups of Ohh Deer and No Brow, but global culture in the main endlessly fascinates me, from intricate details, patterns, textures, colours and beliefs people possess and live their lives by.
What would I be lost without? Well the traditional side of me would undoubtedly opt for my Swan Morton scalpel, with blade 10a, and the current side of me would say my Wacom drawing tablet and pen (teamed up with my Mac and Photoshop.) I think it is important to embrace both sides, to pick up a pencil, or my dip pen and ink and commit to a drawing, or make marks with mono prints and any other mixed media I might care to throw at a surface in the moment. Neither are seen as a separate entity and when the two working methods are brought together, exciting things evolve from their meeting. I enjoy the physical process of colour mixing and mark making according to what might be suitable for the project I am working on. These results then get scanned and imported into Photoshop to create a final image. Increasingly it is my Wacom pen and eraser tool which becomes my scalpel.
I certainly don't even pretend to be remotely wise, but if I had a little wisdom to share, I would say keep it all positive, be 'can do' in your communications with clients and get plenty of fresh air!
I have always felt compelled to draw and create something on paper or whatever comes to hand. I loved picture books as a child and as my reading progressed I would still look for the pictures! I think since school I had in my mind that creating pictures to tell a story or describe something was what I wanted to aim for, just to see if maybe I could give it a go, and maybe I might be able to keep doing it, and just maybe, if that happened I could make it my job! The funny thing is, that I still don't feel I have a 'job', so in an obscure sort of way that makes me a very lucky person!
So I progressed as follows; school, (start drawing) A levels, (keep drawing) Art Foundation course, (more drawing) Degree - BA Honours at Bath, (definitely some drawing here) and then I went to do an MA in Communication Design at St Martins College of Art in London a few years ago, where I was lucky enough to get a Distinction, (masses of drawing stuff went on here!) There was no other obvious career paths for me, in my mind it was simple, I love drawing and creating images, so all I have to do it keep creating and I felt that one day I would become a professional creative of some sort - illustration fitted the bill nicely.
Some of my favourite projects have been children's picture books, I have completed several for Barefoot Books, but other recent clients include The London Transport Museum, The Independent On Sunday, The BBC, Mojo Magazine, Francis Lincon, Feast Creative, Beam, Crocodile Creek and Save the Children.
So that's me in brief! I would add though that one thing I have learnt through time, frustration, joy and the general madness my creative world involves, is that you can over think things to the point where you just can't see...my answer, is to take a deep breath...and just do what you do.

Jo Rose's Scrapbook

Based in the New Forest, illustrator Jo Rose lets us glimpse into her magical creative world. See Jo's Scrapbook.

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.

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: Jo Rose

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

Mandala Colouring Book

Just out, this Mandala Colouring book for children is created by pattern expert Hannah Davies.
Published by Buster Books, this is the latest in a series designed by Hannah, she says "The book is full of wonderfully themed mandalas, ready to colour up and complete...this book was a fantastic commission to work on, I created a range of themed pages and lots of wonderful patterns to colour in! There is also a range of other books available in the next coming months for more complex abilities!" Buy the book.

My First Kafka

Rohan Eason is delighted with the end result of his commission from One Peace Books in New York. "My First Kafka, Rodents, Runaways and Giant Bugs" retold by Matthue Roth with illustrations by Rohan, adapts 3 Kafka stories for the child reader, both startling and creepy. More information on the book. Buy it 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!

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!

Trick or Treat?

Celebrate Halloween with these two pieces from Steinar Lund . The treat is a book cover done for HarperCollins Children's Books as part of the Bliss Bakery trilogy by Kathryn Littlewood; due out next year. And the trick....a very eerie one at that, is a personal piece originally created as part of a video idea. Which one will you choose?

People's Promenade Paving

Hannah Megee has been commissioned by Broadbent Studio and Wyre Borough Council to design a paving slab to sit at the base of a new sculpture on Cleveleys' award-winning 'People's Promenade'. The resulting piece has images and text inspired by 'The Sea Swallow', a children's book illustrated by Hannah last year in association with the same project. She says "The images also show a granite relief of another of my book illustrations depicting two sea swallows in flight."

Care For Our World

Alexandra Ball has been busy working on a commission from Compendium Inc. (a US publishing company who specialise in inspirational ideas). The brief was to illustrate a children’s book, the text being a beautiful poem by Karen Robbins with an environmental message to Care For Our World. Alexandra says "It was a wonderful project to work on as they gave me pretty much full rein of the content and with the environmental theme, one which is very close to my heart, I couldn’t have asked for more. My initial sketches of the animals gave the brains behind Compendium Inc. the idea to create a play-set to go along side the book. This consisted of a number of punch-out animals and habitat box that children can play with to stimulate their imagination." The play-set has proven a success with quite a collection of awards so far; 2012 Mom’s Choice Awards, 2012 Playset of the Year; Creative Child Awards, 2012 Top Toy of the Year; Creative Child Awards, 2012 Runner-up in the Children's Books Category; Green Book Festival and a silver in the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards. Super work!

Reading Is Fundamental

Anne Wilson has received the wonderful news that one of her children’s books has been chosen by the RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) organisation to be part of the Macy's Multicultural Collection of Children’s Literature 2012-2013. 40 titles were chosen for RIF to distribute to schools and other organisations across America with a focus on reaching at-risk and underserved children. Anne says "There were 800 books looked at and my book 'We're Roaming In The Rainforest' (written by Laurie Krebs) was selected! It's a lovely pat on the back to know your work is out there benefitting children."