A Christmas Story...

So, after finishing the Pinocchio brief (finally!), we were given a new brief, which was titled 'A Christmas Story'. We can literally do anything we want for this, which I like the sound of. I'm working with ideas now, so should have it nailed down to what I'm doing by sometime next week.
Anyway, while I've been researching for this brief, I've been looking at what's in the market now, and illustrators/artists who use Christmas as one of their themes in their work. I've really started to look forward to Christmas now, so I can't wait Christmas to get here! (I've even got a countdown on the wall of our living room!).

Theses are some of the illustrators I have been looking at:

 Above: Betsy LePlatt "Joyful Elves"

 Above: Kerry Meyer "Letters to Santa"

Above: Chloe Inkpen "Zoe and Beans: Zoe's Christmas List"

Above: Emily McCann 'Angels'

Silhouetting Pinocchio final scenes

These scenes illustrate what is happening in chapters 33 to 34.

Pinocchio, having turned into a full donkey, is sold to the director of a company of buffoons and is taught to dance, and to jump through hoops. One night he lames himself, and is then sold to a man, who plans to make a drum skin out of him. The man ties a rock to Pinocchio and throws him in the water to drown him, but the a swell of fish turn up, and eat him, going down the 'bone' but it's the wood of his body, and swims back up to the surface. While swimming away from the man, Pinocchio is swallowed by the whale.

The Adventures of Pinocchio - line drawings

These are the line drawings for my illustrations for the Silhouetting Pinocchio brief. Remember, they will all be in silhouette.

Pinocchio lames himself at the circus...

Pinocchio is thrown underwater to make a drum skin, and the fish eat him, turning him back into a puppet...

Pinocchio is eaten by the whale...

A Weekend in The Lakes

So, this past weekend (29th to 31st October) I went up to The Lake District. We stayed in this gorgeous cottage/barn conversion in this REALLY out-of-way village called Kirkland. The cottage had a log burner and a balcony! (You can't get much better than that, right?!) Some pictures (you'll have to excuse the bad quality, I only had my phone on me):

The fire lit:

And, of course, being a Illustration for Children's Publishing student, you can't not go to The Lakes, and not visit The World of Beatrix Potter attraction. So, of course I had to go. (I've been many times, but it's always nice to go again).

We also went to visit the Beatrix Potter Gallery on the Monday, but get this right! It closed the day before and isn't open again until February 2012!! So I was quite annoyed at that! Anyway, after visiting The World of Beatrix Potter on the Saturday, and spending the weekend up The Lakes, what better film was there to come on television, but Miss Potter! So that was how I spent my Sunday night, watching Miss Potter, and falling in love with her drawings all over again.