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.

Silhouetting Pinocchio

Here's some design's for the new brief, Silhouetting Pinocchio.



Side profile of Pinocchio character

Pinocchio running

Photoshopped baby

Photoshopped version of my baby design I did for the Summer Brief:

An interview with... Illustrators and Authors

Found this great website with a bunch of interviews with a bunch of illustrators and authors. I found some great illustrators from here to go in my reference file, so just thought I would share the link with you.

Visit: here

Summer Brief work

So, if you've read a couple of my last posts, I have mentioned about the summer brief we got set, to research and come up with a bunch of characters, and place them in a narrative. Anyway, these are the characters I came up with:


The baby (8-10 months old): Not yet walking, but crawling; always has to have her hair in a high ponytail; very mischievous (likes crawling off by herself)

The eldest daughter: 5 years old; loves motorcycles; scared of dog's (neighbour has a dog, and she can't go outside when the dog is out); a real daddy's girl; gets annoyed when people assume she's a tomboy, because of her love of motorbikes.

The husband/father: 38 years old; works as a diving instructor; born in Italy; lives in St. Ives; stuck in the 70s; got a close bond with eldest daughter.

The wife/mother: 42 years old; works as captain from boat husband works on; doesn't like how her husband is stuck in the 70s, and tries to change some of the house decor etc.

Uni + Pinocchio = start of second year!

So, yesterday, I started back at uni, entering the second year. It went alight, for a first day back. We were given a brief to silhouette Pinocchio. We have to choose a section of the story, and then illustrate it only using silhouettes. But the worse thing is, it has to be done digitally! Now, I have been thinking over the summer of what media I'm going to use in my work and photoshop and illustrator have made list as a quite possibly yes, because I like the way that you can get a flat colour on your work. Saying this though, it doesn't mean that I am completely happy working digitally yet, it's going to take some practice, but this brief will be a big help, I think.

Some more artists...

So, previously I posted some illustrators that are related to this summer brief. However, I haven't updated them since, so I thought I would now.

Tonic Zonjic

Paul Bennett

Louise Limb

Kathryn Elyse

David Byars

Malcolm Bowmer

Rebecca Morledge