I was delighted recently to find out that I’d won a competition to design a Christmas card for the National Theatre… it’s very exciting to see my card on sale in the bookshop there! My design was inspired by the view of the building from the Waterloo Bridge side…I’ve always liked that the Lyttelton flytower is just a massive cube. It’s a great example of brutalist architecture. I also wanted to work in watercolour (which gives some nice textures,) but keep the look of the design quite modern & uncomplicated. Here’s a photo of the NT bookshop that I took just the other day…

I have a long history with the National so also thought I could also use this opportunity to blog about some old sketches that I did in and around the theatre about 10 years ago. I used to find it a good place to sketch, as it’s full of interesting angles and I found the different levels useful for being able to sketch people without being seen! I also used to challenge myself to draw inside the auditoriums during performances.

First of all here’s how my card looks… it’s a nice big size!

Just a final blog update before Christmas! A couple of months ago I received copies of two books that I illustrated quite recently, and I haven’t had a moment to blog about them til now. ‘This is Me’ (published by HarperCollins Big Cat) is an instructional book about making a self-portrait from buttons, paint, wool and other fun things. I had just two weeks to complete the final artwork for this book…it was quite an intense two weeks but I managed it!

I really enjoy drawing hands, so loved the task of drawing the little girl’s hands as she completed different stages of her project.

This is from one of my favourite pages… the girl’s reflection as she looks at herself in a hand-mirror.

Here’s one of my roughs from the early stages of planning the book…

‘Jo and Jess’ (published by Hinkler) is an early-reader book that tries to encourage kids not to be afraid of the dentist.

Another thing I did recently was attend a couple of winter craft fairs with the lovely Vicky Scott…

I also went to see my friend Olu’s comic ‘Ding’ which was on display at the cafe in Foyles, Charing Cross Road. It won second prize in the Observer/Jonathan Cape Graphic Short-story Prize. ‘Ding’ is based on the fascinating and hilarious snippets of conversations that you overhear in the course of bus journeys sometimes… it has a clever structure which repeats and alternates between the different characters page by page. The Observer describes Olu’s illustrations as ‘waspish and very funny.’ You can see more at Olu’s website here: www.oluoke.com

I also couldn’t resist showing a couple more examples of Olu’s work… first an illustration she created for Camus’ ‘The Outsider’, and secondly a page from her Cuba sketchbook.

One final piece of news is that I coloured a cover for a comics magazine… the new (and brilliant) DotComics by Elliot Baggot and Mike Medaglia who I’ve been lucky enough to meet at various comics events over the last year. The cover was drawn by Elliot, inked by Mike and coloured by me, and it’s the second issue of their magazine, which aims to bridge the gap between web-comics and print. You can find out more at their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/dotComics

Elliot and Mike: Serious about comics! :o)

At the weekend I attended the amazing Thought Bubble sequential art festival in Leeds for the first time. It was a great weekend with atmospheric foggy weather…

Here’s Sergio looking after my table at the convention…

…and a few more pics of the Thought Bubble craziness:

Here are just a few of the things that caught my eye, and the nice people that I met:

Kristyna Baczynski

Kristyna’s work is incredible… her blog is here: http://kriskicorp.blogspot.com/

Edward Ross

Some of Edward’s work combines two of my favourite things… comics and films! Check it out here: http://edwardmaross.blogspot.com/

Dot Comics – Elliot Baggott and Mike Medaglia

Elliot and Mike are lovely guys who’ve just created a new project aimed at linking web comics and print. The first edition was fab, and I’m excited to be colouring the cover of their 2nd edition for them! Can’t wait to share the illustration soon…

http://www.facebook.com/dotComics

Nelson

This week is Nelson week! It’s an amazing comics anthology… a collaboration between 54 of the best UK comics artists. There are a lot of signings at various locations in London all week… check out the details here: http://www.blankslatebooks.co.uk/2011/11/nelson-week-19th-27th-november-2011/

I found out about Canadian artist Jessica Gowling’s artwork through Twitter some time ago, and became really interested in the Mail Art that she does. She creates beautiful packages of fun and interesting art and ephemera that she sends to other artists around the world, and in return they create packages for her. After doing a zine-swap with Jessica in April, I really wanted to make a nice mail art package for her and finally got round to it a few weeks ago. I have to admit to getting a bit carried away making my package… from worrying that I wouldn’t have anything to go in it, I ended up with way too much! Here are some pics of what I sent:

There were a few little bits of my artwork including a pencil drawing and some prints, some photos of my garden wildlife and my street, some 70s fashion, a letter, and various other odds & ends. Within the package there was also a little tissue paper parcel containing some ‘Loteria’ cards from Mexico, a flower, a doll from Guatemala, and some badges/magnets.

There was also a Mexican peso!

I included an envelope containing some postcards & cards by a few of my UK illustrator friends… and some tiny samples of Japanese handmade paper

There were other nature stickers, a bird illustration postcard, and possibly my other favourite item: an awesomely random advert coupon for a lawnmower catalogue!

I can’t wait to do more mail art… it’s so great to receive stuff in the post, and reminds me of the fun and silly letters I used to write to friends as a child. Jessica’s blog Nature’s My Friend is a fascinating read, and she (somehow) manages to post virtually every day! Do check it out to see what other creative projects she does with artists worldwide… from ongoing mail collaborations, to trout decals that get sent around the world and have to be stuck in interesting public places! Amazing stuff. Highly recommended.

Just a little update on my recent news! I’m partway through a commission for Oxford University Press which has been great fun… and also very exciting for me as they’re a publisher that I’ve always wanted to work for. I’ve created an illustration for them based on one of Aesop’s Fables… the story of the Travellers and The Bear. I’m only showing a little peek at the moment, and a glimpse of the colour-planning that I did to give the illustration a hint of old-fashioned story-book illustrations from the turn of the century. The illustration shows the moment that the bear leans over the traveller who is playing dead, and instead of eating him… it whispers in his ear.

In other news I attended the opening of Stuart Whitton’s amazing exhibition ‘Origin’ at the Exposure Gallery on Little Portland Street in London. Stuart is a fantastic pencil artist, and being a pencil enthusiast myself I was very pleased to get a chance to see his originals at the exhibition. The exhibition continues until the end of October, 10am to 6pm, so if you get a chance do go along and have a look. You can see more of Stuart’s pencil illustrations and portraits at his website here: http://www.stuartwhitton.co.uk/ 

Here are a couple of pics from a project I’m currently working on. I’m about halfway through illustrating this Indian folk tale, and really enjoying it! My colour-scheme of earth colours and hot reds, yellows and oranges was inspired by Dulac, one of those classical illustrators who I really love. And also inspired by India itself of course.