Black and White experiment continued..

Another little black and white experiment...

An experiment in Black and White

I have been attending a great children's book writing course this past year, (the tutor is wonderfully funny writer Lou Kuenzler) and have been thinking recently how I would really like to illustrate some young fiction titles.

Here is an image I have been experimenting on in this style...

1000 Stickers for Girls

Usborne's 1000 Stickers for Girls - Written by Fiona Watt and Illustrated by me is now available to pre-order on Amazon.

This book is filled with lots and lots and lots of fun girly stickers and scenes to stick them in. Including mermaids, unicorns, princesses, pop stars, pets, a birthday party and a beach!

Tadpole Tea - a Photoshop experiment.

I have decided to do a little series of these images of Rhian and I when we were kiddy winks, as they're really fun to do and I'm full of ideas for them! This illustrates the times we used to fish tadpoles out of our pond with old teacups, to check on how many legs they had grown as they turned into little frogs.

I was very brave this week - experimenting with painting in Photoshop, instead of my usual Illustrator vector work and was surprised to find that I actually really enjoyed it... maybe even more than Illustrator! It felt like a much more organic way of working, less technical. I will definitely be keeping up the Photoshop painting along side using Illustrator.

The Famous Two

I finally had the chance to do some personal work this week, which makes me very happy!

This Illustration shows one of my big sisters and I when we were little playing in the garden. Rhian's favorite game was to play "The Famous Five" and go on adventures. Which mostly consisted of sending me into the scary garden next door to fetch an item she would have thrown into the undergrowth and try to run back without being caught by the yappy dog!

I was more of the dressing up playing with dolls type, so I was less than impressed...

Lots more updates coming soon, including "1000 Stickers for Girls" for Usborne Publishing and a couple of books for Parragon Books too!

Christmas Pocket Doodling and Colouring Book

Christmas is drawing nearer and nearer (82 days to be exact.. but who's counting?!) So why not check out this lovely Christmas pocket doodling and colouring book from Usborne that I had the pleasure of illustrating a few spreads for. The book is jam packed with lovely festive doodles and colouring spreads illustrated by Emily Beevers, Caroline Day, Antonia Miller and Myself.

Above cover designed by Erica Harrison.

Below are some sneaky peaks of my doodles from within the book...

1000 Fairy stickers

1000 Fairy Stickers is now available to buy online and in lots of lovely book shops!

Cover designed by Stella Baggott

This book is jam packed with stickers to place on the spreads within the book or wherever else the reader chooses to stick them! There are also some lovely label stickers to place on envelopes and presents! I illustrated this book along with the super Usborne illustrator Stella Baggott.

Here is a sneaky peak at a small selection of my spreads and stickers from within the book:

An example of how the stickers can be placed on my autumn scene.

A few of my other spreads and corresponding stickers.

...and here are some of the extra stickers i've illustrated.

More spreads and stickers of mine include a princess castle and a masked ball, to see these and Stella Baggott's lovely illustrations, grab a copy of '1000 Fairy stickers'!

The Usborne Girls' Activity Book.

Finally! The time has come, the first books I have had the pleasure of creating some illustration and design for are now available to buy in shops and online as of Monday 1st August. The books I am referring to are The Usborne Girls' and Boys' Activity Books.

These books include games and puzzles, yummy recipes, doodle pages and 200 fun stickers illustrated by me!

With illustration and design by Erica Harrison, Katie Lovell, Caroline Day, Emily Beevers, Antonia Miller, Jan McCafferty and myself. Written by Lucy Bowman, Rebecca Gilpin, James Maclaine and Louie Stowell.

Above cover design by Erica Harrison

I have so far only managed to get my hands on a copy of the Girls' book, so here is a sneaky peak of some of the illustrated sticker pages I have created for the Girls' book..

Fairy Woodland sticker spread.

Fairy Woodland stickers to stick on to the spread!
Penguin sticker spread.
Penguin stickers.
Build your own cupcake spread, stick on cupcake, then cupcake case, then ice and decorate!
Haunted house spread. Stick on lots of cute spooky ghosts!
Summer Garden spread. Stick on lots of cute bugs!
Cupcake, ghost and bug stickers.

My illustrations also pop up throughout the book on various puzzle and activity pages including some spy girls, doodled hearts and flowers and a yummy chocolate recipe!

A sneaky peak of the Boys' Activity Book will be coming soon...