the creative process

The creative process is a funny thing. For example, this weekend I had an idea for a new picture book. Contrary to the pictures accompanying this post, it has nothing to do with penguins! But the idea was led there by penguins.

It started when I bought a pair of penguin socks in New Look. I really really loved the little ice skating penguin on the socks so much that I bought three pairs.  Look how adorable he is!

Then, on Friday, I was making mini Christmas cards with Celestine. We made the usual, Christmas tree ones, reindeer ones snowman ones... and then I remembered my socks and thought 'penguins!'

I just loved the design of the little penguin so much that I painted some bigger ones in my sketchbook afterwards. And I though 'hmm,' this little penguin would make a good little character- though of course it was still a blatent copy of the sock penguin at this point.

Then, led by that thought another thought came and I developed the penguin into another character- still a bird but not a penguin. And I LOVED my new little character (which I am not going to show on here just yet) and a story idea for her popped into my head.  And so a new book idea was born.

And I just thought how interesting the creative process is. You never know where it's going to take you. You can end up with something completely different and surprising from what you started with.

An October Activity

Quite a while back I designed an activity to go along with Witch's Cat. It is a guide for how to make your own little paper diorama based on the kitchen scene in the book. If you have kids maybe it is something they would enjoy as an autumn/Halloweeny activity.

HERE is the link to where you can print out a pdf of the activity. I would suggest printing it out on card if possible.

This is what is included:

A little Witch's Cat character with lots of kitchen items, some of them left blank for you to draw in your own things. 

The table with the red spotted table cloth as seen in the book:

And lots of food boxes which can be cut out and constructed.

Not included in the pdf, not sure why they left them out, are a couple of other things.

A chair:
A saucepan:

 And also the background which you can print out and set behind the character if you so wish.

Harpercollins actually made a little video showing how to make the diorama which is on twitter. This is how theirs looked at the end:

★★★★★★★★★ 

Fairyland

Snippets of something I worked on recently. Not sure if I am allowed to put these pictures up here or not (they're just WIP shots)... I guess I'll take them down if so.

I was pretty proud of those light up mushrooms. It took me a while to think up how to make them and in the end I came up with a cunning plan involving tights and PVA. I was insistent to myself that they should light up, even if that meant they took ten times longer to make.

I love multicoloured stars.

Here are some more mushrooms but not light up ones this time.

As you might have guessed, fairies are involved. 

In other news I am working on a new secret project- only secret in that I don't really want to put it on the internet just yet. It's a personal project, a young fiction book and I am very excited about it. I got really inspired and just wrote it and now I am illustrating it in any spare time I have. I really believe in it! I will take it to publishers when I am done and see if they like it. Hopefully they will but if not oh well, it will have been good practice anyway.

Last weekend, apart from working on my young fiction book, we went for a walk near the place where we are moving to. We explored new bits of countryside there and discovered some new tracks which look like they will be really good for cycling. We also found a swing! I am so excited to move and be in our own place. I am expecially looking forward to decorating and putting up our rainbow chandelier that we got for our wedding.  I want to cover the walls in illustration too.  Hurry up house!!!

Celestine hasn't been modelling for me much lately as I've been so busy with my new project so she's decided to take her own photos. Or she thought she would until she realised that camera wasn't real. Poor Celestine, she got so excited when she fist saw it!

She's been busy too, doing her own thing, designing jewellery, seeing other tiny friends etc. She's quite the socialite.

Aaaaand that is all for now!

*back to work*

★★★★★★★★★ 

A few links

Just a few links- mainly just so I can keep them all in one place and remember them. 

Firstly I was delighted to get a starred review from Publishers Weekly the other day for I am a Witch's Cat! 

Also, I am a Witch's Cat was featured on the pageturn blog last week and there is a behind the scenes look at the process I go through to create the art. So if you want to see more of how I created the pictures in the book go here!

Also Jane Cherie wrote a lovely post about my work on her blog so thank you for that!

And also thank you to my friend Sian who wrote about my book on her blog too. 

Lastly I just want to say how nice it's been that so many of my friends and family have rushed to buy my book as soon as it was released. My cousin who is a teacher even took it into her school to read to her class! I really am so grateful for the support of everyone. Thank you! 

xxx

Princess Ballroom!

Last week I made a ballroom for the princess books.  It ended up being the biggest room set I have ever made! I thought it ought to be big though as it was a royal ballroom.

It was requested that the floor should be wooden which was something I had to think about how to make- because the floor was so big . In the end I found some very thin sheets of wood, cut them into individual miniature planks and stuck them down one by one. It didn't take as long as I thought it would and I was really pleased with the effect so that was all good!

Here's a close up of the floor:

It was also suggested that a grand piano could be included in the ballroom. I was very taken with that idea so went right ahead and created a gold glittery piano fit for a princess.

Here's how the whole ballroom looked. The pillars and panels were another challenge- something I had not tried before. I was pleased with how they came out though. I also used a string of fairy lights poked through the walls to create lighting round the edge of the room.

Again the flowers were another little challenge. I bought some cheap ones and then spent quite a while painting them (with Henry's help!) different shades of purple and then glittering them up.

I took a few shots without daylight to show how the lights on the walls light up. I think it looks more atmospheric this way. 

Here come some princesses!

 I especially like their glittery skirts:

I am looking forward to seeing how all this will look once it's photographed professionally and put into one of the books!

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I am a Witch's Cat cover

I thought I would show you the process behind creating the cover for 'I am a Witch's Cat.'

It was a long process. From my short time working as an illustrator I have learned that covers always take the longest. I think I have done a total of six covers so far and they always seem to be the most tricky to get right.

So the idea behind this cover was to have some sort of pumpkin field with little Witch's Cat frolicking around in it. Initially the idea was to have it as a daytime scene but you will see that changes through out the process. 

It started out with a sketch...

...and the sketch was tweaked until it was right. The line of washing was removed and so was the tree and green house.

Then I started to build the image in 3d. I began by drawing all the pumpkins.

And then painting them.

Then I made the base from a sheet of cardboard covered in crinkled tissue paper.

And painted it to give it texture.

Then it was time to arrange the pumpkins and character on the base.
 

And put some vines in between the pumpkins.

Then I painted the sky and took some shots!

The clouds looked too solid and the pumpkins at the front and back looked too out of focus. It definitely wasn't right at this point.

Tried it with a different background but there was still something missing. The editor asked if the pumpkins could be 3d rather than standing cardboard so I went back and made some 3d ones. 

Things started to turn around when I added some sparkle to the pumpkins. I suddenly began to feel more inspired about the cover and began to see it was looking much better.

But during the time I was sparkling up the pumpkins I had another idea and I wanted to try it out. What if instead of daytime it was night time and the title was surrounded by a big round moon? I tried it out.

I had to use about three (or maybe even four) lamps behind the moon to fully light it as it was so big! All the pinprick stars had to be lit too.

I liked the result. Luckily the editor did too but there were still a few changes to be made like lighting the moon up more and making the lighting more dramatic.

But we went with it!

And this as you know, is the final result:

It took a long time to get this cover right but I'm so glad I persevered with it. I am really pleased with how it turned out in the end.