As the months whizz by, the time has come for our daughter to finish preschool. I put this drawing together as a little gift for her teachers in the Butterfly Room, who have been wonderful!
National Writing Day
To celebrate National Writing Day I visited The Mount School York. My first school visit since last March! We talked about books, writing, drawing and what makes us happy. The pupils were so inspiring - they created loads of amazing artwork. Well done everyone, what a fun morning!
A Trip Underground
Playing with palette, place and people.
Light in the Night
I’ve spent a couple of evenings playing with light and colour, experimenting with painting in Photoshop.
More Parental Illustration Duties
I thought I’d create a fresh illustation to celebrate this year’s scarecrow trail at St. Paul’s Primary School, which will be taking place later this month.
Character Development
Here’s a little bit of recent character development, created digitally in Photoshop. It’s always loads of fun getting to know a new character!
Piratey Character Development
Here’s a little character I developed a few months ago, having fun with a limited colour palette. Like me, she’s a fan of stripes!
The Hachette Children's Novel Award 2020
I’m very happy to announce that I was shortlisted for the Hachette Children’s Novel Award 2020 in partnership with New Writing North (part of the Northern Writers’ Awards). I didn’t win, but it was a wonderful thrill to make the shortlist!
Character Illustrations for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
A few months ago I had the pleasure of working with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust again, this time illustrating characters for a quiz to find out which Shakespearean character you most resemble.
There are some pretty dark and interesting characters - Game of Thrones has nothing on the Bard!
Why not take the quiz yourself. Apparently I'm Cleopatra!
https://wh.snapsurveys.com/s.asp?k=157528368620
Sample Illustration
Here's a detail from a sample illustration that I recently completed. The chaotic kitchen was so much fun to draw!
Sketchbook Snippets
Here are a few characters I’ve been sketching lately.
Parental Illustration Duties
This weekend I squeezed in an illustration to promote a scarecrow trail at my son’s school. I’m working on a new, very enjoyable project for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust at the moment, which I look forward to sharing soon!
New Children's Range for Westminster Abbey
This project was SO much fun; illustrating kings and queens of the past for a new children’s range available from Westminster Abbey’s shop. If you fancy temporary tattoos, t-shirts, iron-on patches or even a micro jigsaw with my illustrations on, you can find them here.
Family Trail for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries
Better late than never... Here's the finished family trail that I illustrated in summer 2018 for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey, once again working with their fabulous Learning team. It was beautifully designed by Cartlidge Levene and is modelled by my four-year-old son, who was paid a fee of one chocolate coin for his work. (Photos by my better half, Gareth Brew.)
Westminster Abbey Family Day, October 2019
Here's a lovely project that I designed and illustrated for Westminster Abbey's family day back in October, marking 750 years since the consecration of Henry III’s Abbey Church. Working with the Abbey's brilliant Learning team, we highlighted various members of staff and their roles, encouraging visitors to engage with the Abbey as a living church.
Timmy, Brian and Lisa
It was a pleasure to create this illustration of Timmy, Brian and Lisa - three beautiful Jack Russells. Canine portraiture was new territory for me, it was a fun challenge!
Victoria 200
My first hand-drawn map! It was a delight to design and illustrate this trail for Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria's birth. I had so much fun drawing all of the details, especially on the statues. Hopefully many families have had just as much fun exploring the royal trail this summer!
New Illustrations for Westminster Abbey
Here's a lovely little project that I recently completed - the cover illustration for Westminster Abbey's 2018/19 family events programme.
Westminster Abbey Family Trail
Very happy to introduce this bunch! They'll be embarking on adventures around Westminster Abbey as part of its brand new family trail. It's going to be launched this Saturday as part of the Abbey's action-packed Family Day. If you're in London with little ones then come along!
The Klaus Flugge Prize
I'm brimming with happiness to have been longlisted for Most Exciting Newcomer to Picture Book Illustration in the inaugural Klaus Flugge Prize, along with some of my friends' wonderful books! Hurrah!
You can read more about it on The Guardian http://bit.ly/1WJSp6G or The Bookseller http://bit.ly/2109Xvq
