It's been a while since my last blog post.. I used to love reading blog posts and forums, if you're reading this, hello! 👋 I wanted to share a lovely project I was lucky to work on last year. I created a black and white illustration titled 'Stargazing' for the Book of Hopes, a collection of stories and illustrations on the theme of hope, edited by Katherine Rundell and published by Bloomsbury in answer to the pandemic, with proceeds going to the NHS Charities Together. The book provides words and pictures to comfort, inspire and entertain children. The ebook is available to read for free on the Literacy Trust website. The Book of Hopes 'Stargazing' I loved working on this illustration, not only as a welcome distraction in a worrying time, but also to find a home for a little character which had been popping up in my sketchbook for a while. I've nicknamed him the 'Snoogaloo'. Here he is in my sketchbook: As you can see in the top picture I've al...

Congratulligator Dramallama

I've been wanting to work on some entirely digital illustrations for a while, so I was quite pleased when I finally found the time to do so this week! I ended up drawing these animal and dino scenes. It was so refreshing to push myself artistically - and really focus on colour and texture. It also felt oddly appropriate to label everything (perhaps it's just a phase?!) Anyway, here they are:

For World Book Day this year I visited my old school (eek!) with the super talented Michelle Robinson  for a fun day of 'Monkey's Sandwich' activities. Incase you didn't know, 'Monkey's Sandwich' is our shiny new book published by Harper Collins. Here it is: And incase you've never seen our faces, here we are! We had a great day inventing, drawing and constructing some crazy sandwiches, reading stories and generally monkeying around. Here's our towering sandwich featuring squirty cream AND mustard... Looks tasty, right? For me, the best part of the day was live-drawing some absolutely  bonkers sandwiches, fuelled by the * interesting*  and * unique*   suggestions from the kids. Yes - there's an octopus, T-Rex and a car in this sandwich... (please excuse my bad case of Illustrator's 'claw hand') We also learned 'How to draw Monkey' step by step, following this handy sheet:  ...

I've always fancied illustrating the Jungle Book, so I did. 🤓🐍🐻🐅🌴📕 It was great working with a slightly 'wackier' colour palette - mixing bluey purples, hot pinks and zingy greens. Anyway, here are a few illustrations and a speculative cover. Enjoy!

Just wanted to share this illustration I did for the wonderful Highlights magazine. It's for a great little article about Owney the Mail Dog, the US Postal Service mascot. It's always fun drawing trains! Checkout highlights.com

Because this marsupial means business. A Day In The Life Of Business Koala: The commute The coffee The calls The number crunching The filing Lunch The presentations The meetings The research The second coffee The big decisions The printer error Home time Bed time Repeat.

This year I decided to visit the Bologna Children's Book Fair. It's been three years since I last went as a final year student back in 2013. It was a hugely different experience this time round, I had more industry experience, more work in my portfolio and an excellent Agent to go with. I found walking around the halls a bit overwhelming. There are so many Publishers and different disciplines. It really made me consider where I fit in the picture. Where does my work fit now? Where could I take my work in the future? Where do I want my work to go in the future? It was great to chat to everyone and especially nice to meet so many new people. I really appreciated the feedback and guidance on my work, especially book ideas. I took a couple of new book ideas with me. I had a mad rush preparing promo material, but I'm glad I had something to leave behind. I thought the penguins looked quite funny on teenie-tiny postcards. Anyway, here's a snap of the 'I...

I re-read Peter Pan a little while ago and decided to draw a few things Neverland, just for fun. Anyway, this is what I came up with!

:-)