Love You, Mum available now

Just in time for Mother's Day, Love You, Mum is now available in book shops within Australia (I found it up on counter at Dymocks) and retails for $9.99. If you are looking for a unique gift for the Mum to Be or want to give a mother or child you love something different, then you might find this little book is the answer. It features a range of realistic Australian Animal illustrations, each page with a Mum and Bub interacting in some way and giving each other a bit of love. :)

Signed Hard Cover Copies of Let's Count Kisses now available

Hachette are no longer going to be doing reprints of Let's Count Kisses in the Hard Cover version, only as a soft cover, so I have stocked up and bought the last 100 copies still available. You can get your very own signed and personalised copy of Let's Count Kisses on Ebay This 32 page flap book is geared for the 0-2 year age group and is perfect for bed time reading. It would make a fabulous gift for a child or grandchild and is a celebration of native Australian animals and butterflies.

Let's Count Kisses even has its own dedicated website with more information about the book and the species names of all butterflies illustrated within the book.

I Love You, Mum sample illustration

This is a sample illustration for Hachette Australia for a planned children's picture book, drawn with coloured pencils and markers (the sky and mountains) on drafting film. I love drawing animals on the drafting film, but one of the things I have always struggled with is getting a nice smooth sky using pencils on film. Last week I invested in the airbrush system that goes with the Tria Markers (Copic have a similar system) and used the markers that I have had for years and it worked like a dream. First time I attempted it, it didn't go so well - the key is to work from light to dark, so as to get the smoothest transition. I did the sky on the back of the film, working right across the page and then used methylated spirits to remove the marker from behind the koala and tree trunk. The mountains were also done using markers and a base coat of pale green was applied to the grassy area. The rest of the illustration was worked from the front using coloured pencil.

Let's Count Kisses Personalised Prints







 



You can now get your very own personalised prints to go with the Let's Count Kisses Picture Book (Hachette Australia). These books are available on-line and in most book stores and would make the perfect gift especially when teamed up with a framed print with your little one's name or personal message printed on their favourite illustration from the book.
For more information about how to get a personalised print please visit either my Etsy Store or Ebay Store and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or special requests.



Let's Count Kisses now available in shops

Let's Count Kisses should now be available from most book stores (within Australia). If you are interested in getting a hold of the book and your local book store doesn't have it in stock, then they should be able to get it in for you. Outside of Australia, hopefully it won't be too long before it is available on Amazon. For more information visit Google books http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Let_s_Count_Kisses.html?id=gimjpwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

My Gift to You

Opposites - High and Low - My Gift to You

26cm x 51cm

Coloured pencil on drafting film

This is a sample illustration for another book for Hachette publications, and seemed appropriate to post at this time, as we are in the midst of a season of giving and sharing. Hope this puts a smile on your face and that all my blogger and internet friends have the most wonderful Christmas, full of peace, love and joy, and a truly fabulous year in 2012!!!! xxx

Let's Count Kisses - Children's Picture Book

It is with mixed feelings that I post all these illustrations onto my blog. This has been the most rewarding and satisfying of projects to work on, and I feel a sense of elation that for my part, these illustrations are pretty much completed, but also a sense of sadness that this lovely project has come to an end. Hachette will be publishing this picture book as a flap book which is why the spreads are so long - most of them need to cover three full pages. Let's Count Kisses will be available in shops from May 2012 and is targetted at the 0-2 year old age bracket as a combined counting book and bed time book for parents/grandparents to share with their little ones.

Special thanks must go to Geoff Walker who kindly allowed me to use his beautiful butterfly photographs as references for these illustrations http://australianbutterfliesphotographed.com/defaultIframe.htm.

I apologise also, for the long stint with no postings, but working on these illustrations has left little time for anything else, and hopefully I can now catch up on a bit of networking and blogging.

A Kiss for Koala

A Kiss for Koala

8x10 inches

Coloured Pencil on drafting film, with a digital background

You never can tell where life takes you. After six months of having no illustration enquiries, out of the blue, I had three in one week which has meant a busy couple of weeks. I spent the first week working on an illustration for a cider ad, with a donkey in an apple orchard - all went smoothly and the client was happy, so I was thrilled to bits.

I was also contacted by a publisher wanting to know if I'd be interested in illustrating a children's picture book!!! This was a sample illustration that I completed for them, based on their brief. I've learnt not to get too excited when these opportunities come along (in case they don't pan out) - just take it a step at a time and hope for the best!!!

Final illustration in Platypus Life Cycle Series

Life Cycle of a Platypus - Mother nursing her babies.

This is the final illustration for the series of four on the life cycle of the Platypus for Macmillan Publishers. It is amazing how few reference photos there are for platypus even on-line, which is obviously why Macmillan had to call on the services of an illustrator, however I did a fair bit of research for the project and hopefully have achieved some level of accuracy. These illustrations will actually be within small circular frames, so they will be cropped further, but so long as the kids get the general idea. :)

More Platypus Life Cycle Illustrations

Platypus mother lays her eggs in a burrow

Two adult platypus mating

I'm having a very constructive weekend in terms of work. We have a labour day long weekend, and so far the weather has been quite wet and miserable (which I really love) and all the men in our house spent yesterday glued to the TV watching the AFL Grand final and then today watching the NRL Grand Final, which left me with not much to do but work. These illustrations aren't due until Friday, but happily I am now well ahead of schedule and only have one more to complete, which means I can also spend some quality time with the kids during the school holidays this week. Both these illustrations were done using Corel painter and Paint.net.

Platypus Life Cycle Illustration

Platypus Life Cycle - Young Platypus swimming freely

Drawn with Corel Painter and Photoshop

This illustration is part of a series of four I will be doing for Macmillan Publishers for a book educating young children on Australian Animals. The life cycles of all the other Australian Animals have been depicted using photos, but the platypus lays it's eggs in deep burrows and are extremely sensitive, so getting photos in this instance is much more difficult. Platypus are also extremely hard to find in the wild. I have seen a couple at Taronga Zoo, but because they are nocturnal mammals, the tank was in darkness with only a touch of light and no flash photography was allowed. The only other time I have seen them is in a sanctuary in Tasmania, where they were swimming freely in a creek. We visited Jenolan Caves on Sunday, and there is a beautiful walk along a creek bed where platypus have been spotted, but they were all very shy and didn't appear whilst we were there (having four noisy boys in tow probably didn't help!).

They are the most fascinating animals and researching them for this particular job has been an intriguing exercise.