Irish Cultural Centre Show

Myself and Laura Callaghan are partaking in some free children's film festivities at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith this Sunday 6th November. Plenty of our illustrations will be on show as well as some fantastic animations (Granny O' Grimm's Sleeping Beauty is a personal favourite). Pop by if you're in the area.

Sketchy Times

        I'm not usually in the habit of posting roughs and sketches (...anal retentive? Who, me?) but I know how I often find looking at other people's sketches more interesting than seeing the finished piece, so I thought I'd put a few up here.
       I'm in the process of developing a black and white portfolio so that I can illustrate for older children too, so I decided to make a story about an abandoned Ghost Circus. It's in the early stages so I won't go into it too much but a couple of interesting characters are emerging.
          It's strange drawing in black and white, and is something I hardly ever do. I keep imagining the circus in full-blown, all-singing, all-dancing technicolour in my mind's eye and I remember that I'm only allowed to use black and white. It's a challenge.
       I suppose it's a very common complaint among illustrators that some of the lovely spontaneity that's present in the early sketches seems to vanish when it comes to making the finished piece. I'll try to keep some of the looseness for the final drawings. We shall see. Click on the images to make them bigger.

The End! The End! The Endpapers!

      I can hardly dare to believe that the time has come, I am more or less finished Ruby and Oliver!!!! Above is an experiment in endpapers, I'm not sure if I will use them or not. More to follow soon. Olé!

The Print Space

The place where I get my prints done got in touch with me as they wanted to feature me on their blog. Check it out here.

Keep on, keepin' on

        Hello! Guess what? For anyone who is still bothered, yes, I am still working on my book, Ruby and Oliver. It turns out that I wildly underestimated how long these things take, but I really am almost there now. I was looking at an old dummy from a few months ago and the change the whole thing has undergone is really immense. It has taken me quite a long time to find my visual language for this project, and to strengthen my skills, but hopefully it means I have lain some framework for the next book and it might not take quite as long.
        I don't want to post any more final artwork, but I will post a cropped image which introduces a new silent character who has an important (albeit background) role in the story. I must think up a name for him...

    I had some good news last week, Walker Books had a publishing meeting with Candlewick Press, its US counterpart and they are officially going to publish Ruby and Oliver in America. There were rumblings before but now it is definitely happening for sure, which is wonderful news for the book. 

Once Upon a Time

      I was selected with four other Irish illustrators to take part in an exhibition of children's illustration in the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre in Derry, which opened on Saturday. If you're in the area, go and have a peek, it's on until the 30th of September, read more here.

Babiekins

A few months ago, I illustrated a story for the summer issue of the online magazine Babiekins, which went live yesterday. 

Working for Free, My Two Cents

              I came across this chart today by Jessica Hische and it struck a chord with me. We all know that the illustration profession is over-populated and that third level courses are churning out hundreds of talented graduates every year. There simply isn't enough work to go around which means that illustrators feel they have no choice except to offer their services for free (I think this applies mainly to editorial illustration). Being a newbie myself, I can totally understand this approach - you're hungry for work and trying to break into that particular field invariably feels like banging your head against a brick wall. If you have a few freebie projects under your belt, it might be easier to get a foot in the door to that proper, paid illustration job. But nobody can deny that it devalues the illustration market, and as a consequence, people expect to pay next to nothing for professional, high-quality illustration. To add insult to injury, illustrators are supposed to feel privileged for the "opportunity" to work for free, just for the love of it. People commissioning work know that they can easily find a hard-working, talented illustrator somewhere who will gladly do the job on the cheap.
             Nothing can incite a bout of bile-churning rage in creative professionals the world over like hearing these two words: "Good Exposure". But exposure doesn't pay the rent - there is no value whatsoever in "exposure" unless it is monetary value, and very seldom do small, free jobs lead to legitimate offers of paid work.

               I think that the writer Harlan Ellison sums it up nicely in this hilarious video. He makes a good point that when amateurs undercut professionals, it makes it harder for everybody because the value of the craft is driven down. He's talking about movies here, but the same thing applies to illustration and most creative industries. An article in a similar vein of placing a value on a creative person's time, was Josh Olson's infamous rant on the Village Voice,  I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script.

             I know that ultimately it's the illustrator's decision whether or not to do projects for free, but the truth is that it's a vicious cycle that affects the entire market. What I just don't understand is why it is always the creative professions that are so undervalued. We spend years honing our craft, practising tirelessly, acquiring expensive materials, and basically working our asses off until our portfolio is of a professional standard, then we give it all away for nothing. I know I've been neglecting my blog of late so hardly anyone will read this but I'll throw it out there. Any thoughts?
p.s. I thought I should add, doing freebies for friends is different, which I think is totally fine.

Update: Let me direct you to a brilliant blog post written in response to this by the not-to-be-messed-with Cassia Thomas!

Update no. 2: Another illustrator and mural painter has responded to this post and raised some interesting points about pricing and consumer expectation. Some artists and illustrators sell their work on places like Etsy at such low prices, it's difficult to compete. 

Kim Harte

I love Kim Harte's blog so I was delighted to be asked to do an interview with her. Here it is.

Book Sniffer

The Book Sniffing Pug and myself had a nice chat the other day over some Boney-Os and Jammie Dodgers. Read all about it here.

Follow me on Twitter

...or so says this obese vermin. I made a twitter badge last night for the sidebar of the blog, the only problem is that it's quite small and easy to miss. So I'll say it now, please click on the fat pigeon down at the bottom right if you want to follow me there.

Bologna, here we come

               This might be one of the last pieces of final artwork that I post from "Ruby and Oliver" as I don't want to spoil the surprise for when it comes out next year. It's one of my favourite drawings so far (but maybe that's just because it's new). Overall the imagery has softened considerably, which seems to have happened unconsciously. I think it's a good thing.

                        In a few weeks time, Ruby, Oliver, Rory and Mum are packing their bags and are off to the Bologna Book Fair. I'm quite jealous of them as I was there last year with my friend Laura (a seriously talented illustrator, check her out here: http://bit.ly/esWxLe) and it really is a beautiful city. I hope to get it all finished before then, but I still have a looong way to go. 

              Because it's final artwork it needs to look perfect, which means massive paper-wasting as I draw everything about a million or so times until I feel it looks right. Well, maybe not a million times but the other night I drew a picture thirteen times until I was happy with it, after which I was feeling quite frenzied and maniacal. Then, my boyfriend (hereafter known as Mick in case I need to mention him again) looked over my shoulder and casually pointed out that the dolls I had drawn looked more like little people than dolls, which meant the picture didn't make any sense. Oh, the joys of drawing by hand. 

Rejection Letter to Tim Burton from Walt Disney, 1976

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/02/giant-zlig.html

Edible Wild Things

A very funny Maurice Sendak quote:
http://bobulate.com/post/1189026655/once-a-little-boy-sent-me-a-charming-card-with-a

I'm cured!

     I'd been seriously lagging since Christmas where the book is concerned and I couldn't pinpoint what the problem was. I knew that certain aspects of the story weren't working and that the ending wasn't quite right. It was all a bit too sweetly saccharine and I wasn't sure how to resolve it while keeping the humour that was there in my original draft. I was getting so bogged down with the whole thing that I couldn't see the wood from the trees and my pace ground to a nasty halt. Then, on Monday I had a very productive meeting with my brilliant editor and designer and I feel so much better, hooray! I'm cutting and changing certain spreads that weren't working and I feel like the whole thing has just clicked into place. Sadly one of my favourite images will no longer be included:

But I'm sure I'll get over it, it's all for the Greater Good.

In other news, I swapped my blog header for a gun-smokin', lasso-slingin' Cowboy Cat. 

So it's Bye-Bye Monster Mudbath. Am I doing the right thing?!

    

You're never too old for a picture book

A great article on the topic:
http://www.carouselguide.co.uk/pdf/carousel43_praise-il18E567.pdf

A Bad Week

    Things aren't going at all well this week. It seems that the further along I get with my book, the more old information gets pushed out of the other side of my brain, Homer Simpson style. Certain things that used to come naturally to me, such as the colour wheel, suddenly seem very bewildering. Which colours go well together? Why is everything clashing? And why am I so compelled to make everything green?

I salvaged this from yesterday's wreckage of  (s)crap. She looks how I feel. 

Paper, paper, everywhere...

      You'd think that by now I would know which paper is right for me. I use watercolour, so it should be watercolour paper. I draw with fineliners, so hot-pressed (HP)  is better than cold-pressed. A nice heavy weight should do  - 300gsm. But it's just not that simple.
     I've spent so many hours and wasted so many pounds searching cities high and low for the right HP watercolour paper. There have been false alarms and premature celebrations when I mistakenly thought that I'd found The One. I remember one morning about three years ago, O'Sullivan's in Dublin I think it was, when I found The Langton (HP, 300gsm). I couldn't wait to bring it home and try it out. I was overjoyed at first - smooth with a little tooth, the pen seemed to glide effortlessly over the surface without a care in the world. Before long though, the cracks began to show. The colours came out too pale and the wash seemed to skim over the page in places, without sticking properly. Not to mention the fact that it didn't come in sheets bigger than 16 x 12 inches.

        Last year I discovered its close relative, The Langton - Prestige (HP, 300gsm) peeping out shyly from under the Rough Grain pads in a London shop. "Hello you," it cooed invitingly, "Try me out, look at my fetching peach cover". It was making its debut on the market, and it was sooo good. The colours blended beautifully and it had a delicious grain. But of course there had to be a catch - it was so new that it came only in a small size. I called up Daler Rowney and tearfully begged them to hurry up and start manufacturing Prestige in larger sheets. They told me where to go.
              Two months ago, I thought that all my worries were finally over when I tried Fabriano Artistico Extra White (HP, 300gsm) [see picture]. It  had the right amount of tooth and was the right shade of white, it behaved itself impeccably when colour was applied and it came in gigantic sheets. It seemed like my long search was finally over. The following week, I went back for more of the same but when I brought it home, it was different. Creamier. Smoother. All wrong.
     Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the one with the problem. Or maybe other drawers out there agree that it's a minefield out there.  The search continues...

If only we could write our own reviews...

...I still couldn't write one as nice as this. It's from the lovely people over at Illustration Rally: http://illustrationrally.blogspot.com/2011/01/artist-58-sheena-dempsey.html

The Magic Tiger

Here is another piece I was asked to do featuring a little girl and a tiger. It took me ages to get this drawing right, I made about ten attempts at it. The rainforest hates me.

Tick Tock

During the last couple of weeks, I've been inundated with Christmas commissions and I'm frantically trying to finish them before it's too late. They are mostly variations of previous work (as below). Ruby and Oliver have been put on the back-burner but I will need to give them some attention over the holidays I think. So much to do!

Hello You Creatives

A blog did a micro feature on my work, see it here.

Christmas Pop-Up Market Extravaganza

Don't forget to pop down to the Pop-Up Market in London Bridge this Thursday and Friday. There is so much quirky and interesting stuff for sale, gorgeous jewellery, cool stationery, homeware and even single speed bikes. And of course there's me, I'll be there selling my wares - Gicleé prints (see below), Christmas cards and original hand-drawn watercolour drawings. I'll also be handing out free stickers (!) Go to www.ourworkshop-market.co.uk for more info. 

Are Picture Books Dying?

I read an interesting article via a friend of mine Ali Berthon's blog (she does great work, check it out here). The article is about picture books and how parents often have a misguided attitude towards them. Picture books are for everyone people! Read all about it here.

The Forgetful Elephant

I made this elephant drawing to go with the monster drawing (above) and gave them to my two nieces, Jane and Emily. They're both so cute I could eat them up, they live in the US and I really miss them. 

Snow-Rats and Snow-Cats and warm woollen mittens...

 Here are a couple of Christmas card designs which I'll be selling among others at the Christmas Pop-Up Market, 9th and 10th of December in London Bridge (www.ourworkshop-market.co.uk)

Christmas Market et al

I'm going to be part of a Christmas market on the 9th and 10th of December in London Bridge where I'll be selling prints and originals, framed and unframed as well as Christmassy stuff like cards and (hopefully/maybe) wrapping paper. I'm told there'll also be things to eat and drink so come on down! There's loads of cool crafty stuff for sale, check out all info at:  www.ourworkshop-market.co.uk

       On the drawing side of things, things are slowly but surely getting there. I'm still grappling with the line and wasting forests of paper, but that's the story of my life. 

Book-shopping in Herne Hill

I was lagging a bit during the week so I decided to check out Tales on Moon Lane this morning, a children's bookshop in Herne Hill. I was aware of its existence for a while but had no idea that it was so close to where I live. I usually order books online but you can't really beat being in a real live bookshop, especially this one because it has such a cosy atmosphere. I bought these books:

The expressiveness of Quentin Blake's line is something I'm always attempting to emulate in my own work, it looks oh-so-deceptively-simple but is actually almost impossible to pull off. I had to get another Mini Grey after reading about her this week and then I got greedy at the till and impulse-bought Up and Down. I couldn't help myself, it was arranged in an irresistible Forrero Rocher display behind the counter.

And then some...

 I'm still working away on drawings for my book and will be for the next few weeks. I need to rough the whole thing out - I say rough but it actually needs to be very detailed, in full colour and almost finished-looking so we will know exactly what changes to make.
    I really can't get over how slow I am though, it's baffling! Everything seems to take me an age. However, I just read an interview with Mini Grey over at Hot Cross Mum (check it out here) and she says that it takes her a week to do a double paged spread. She's one of my absolute heros, I love her work but I really hope my spreads won't take that long!

Update 23/04/12: Pah! One spread a week, I should be so lucky. The finished spreads are taking me FOREVER as they all need to be perfect. However, I was recently comforted by a quote I found in Quentin Blake's book Words and Pictures:
"It's not impossible for me to find myself at the end of a session of work surrounded by expensive sheets of watercolour paper with a small face bearing not quite the right expression in the middle of each." 

Monster Mudbath

I finally got around to making a drawing for the top of my blog...it's only taken me about a year.