Daisy Hirst illustration

Further bears

Posted on 15th May, 2014 by Daisy

Just some bears, three but not The Three. Or at least, I didn’t think of Them until now.

Posted in Blog | Tagged animals, bears, printing, screen printing, The Three Bears | Leave a comment

Here is first smidgen of the screenprints for my second book for Walker: it’s about some monsters called Natalie and Alphonse, and will hopefully be published in 2015.

Natalie won’t always look this concerned, but, like The Girl with the Parrot on her Head, this book does sort-of feature an angry little girl – and a cardboard box. Hum. So, next book: cheerful little boy and the gelatinous dessert. Or, peaceable giant squid and the macrame lampshade.

Natalie and Alphonse grew out of these red and blue monsters, or shrank out of them in fact as they have got quite a bit younger. I am only just beginning to make the pictures and there is an awful lot to work out. When I last made a lot of simple monster-on-white prints, I found I was getting quite obsessed with their few bits of furniture or fruit: now it’s the same with Alphonse’s pushchair – he’s got five upholstery options. Oh but, I do very much like to draw monsters. NYAHAHA!

Posted in Blog | Tagged blue, books, buggy, characters, incidents, monsters, pushchair, red, screenprinting, stories, the girl with the parrot on her head, Walker | Leave a comment

Napkin Bolognese II

Posted on 1st April, 2014 by Daisy

Following on from last year’s snakes and skates, here is what a heap of illustrators, in Bologna for the bookfair, got up to during dinner at Trattoria Rosso (Bar 51 now has cloth napkins – pah!). First a shape game that turned into a story:
Then some shape-game people:

Then just some folks:

And some weirdery:

I don’t know why the class of 2012 (Zack, Trudi, Becky) are being so possessive of that second-to-last one – they were surely outnumbered by 2013 (Vic, Suzanne, Steve, Elena, Emily, Hannah, me), if not by staff and very welcome outlanders (Paula, Ariana, Saskia).

It was lovely to see Cambridge illustrators’ books – just published and not quite published – all over the fair, two graduates in the Illustrators Exhibition, and too many hundreds of other beautiful books to get excited about. And it is Quite Grand to see your own book there for the first time too. It is sometimes a bit intense though, and you worry that maybe someone has gotten hold of your squeegee and you better go home and see.

Posted in Blog | Tagged animals, Bologna, Bologna bookfair, Cambridge School of Art, doodles, drawing, games, MA, monkeys, monsters, napkins, people, restaurants, shape game, squeegees | Leave a comment

Banoffee jam

Posted on 15th March, 2014 by Daisy

Another jam comic – that’s me first, followed by Becky.

Posted in Blog | Tagged banoffee, Becky Palmer, cafés, cake, comics, comicsjam, games, monkeys | Leave a comment

Fortunately/Unfortunately

Posted on 15th March, 2014 by Daisy

Fortunately, last year Becky and me played this game by post. Unfortunately, only Becky could draw bears:

Posted in Blog | Tagged animals, bears, Becky, games, incidents, lizards, mirrors, snakes, stories, umbrellas | Leave a comment

BEARS BEARS BEARS

Posted on 25th February, 2014 by Daisy

Is most of the text of Bears, by Ruth Krauss and Maurice Sendak – that’s a good book. Anyway, here are some bears:
I have never been very happy with the bears I’ve drawn before, so I thought I’d investigate the world of long-nose bears. And I like it.
Bears of the long nose genus
Okay so some of them are geese. The maths is because he rode over a list I was writing.
Then I screenprinted one bear for birthday purposes, though I’m not sure he’s got a proper grip on that balloon.

Posted in Blog | Tagged animals, balloons, bears, birthdays, doodles, drawing, geese, ideas, long-nose bears, pen and ink, screenprinting | Leave a comment

Monsters again

Posted on 31st January, 2014 by Daisy

Eeshk, because I finished a book, I now have to make a new one – this is like actual work with my brain, or should be. It is quite scary to be back in the early development stages again, after over a year, although (with a lot of help from most excellent people at Walker) it is just beginning to feel like it might possibly be possible in the end.

These monsters were originally invented for our MA show catalogue, but now they need another book to live in. For one thing, a brand new mountain of amazing graduates is about to take over the world: their London show is at Candid Arts, Islington, from 11th-15th February.

Posted in Blog | Tagged books, Cambridge School of Art, doodles, exhibitions, incidents, MA, monsters, problems, shows, stories, Walker Books | Leave a comment

COMING not very SOON: a book!

Posted on 14th January, 2014 by Daisy

Apparently I am delivering my first book to its publisher tomorrow, so I thought it might be time to say I have a publisher. Walker will publish The Girl with the Parrot on her Head in 2015, which is just grand and the luckiest thing. It does not make me feel like this:
I haven’t written on here about this story since January 12th, 2012 when I handed its first incarnation in for marking as part of my MA. I re-started work on it with Walker last February and it has been dead innerestin turning it into an Actual Book. It even has endpapers – though they are of course inferior to John Burningham’s Avocado Baby masterpieces, which are my favourite ever. I am going to miss Parrot Head, especially this colour parrot red:

Posted in Blog | Tagged books, colours, girls, inks, parrots, picturebooks, printmaking, prints, publishers, screenprinting, stories, the girl with the parrot on her head, Walker | Leave a comment

Christmas jam

Posted on 2nd December, 2013 by Daisy

Would probably be full of things I don’t much like – orange peel, plastic cherries, giant sultanas like squidges of snot, mmhmm – unless it was a comic, such as this one Becky and me are making for advent (though even this may contain sultanas). Becky goes firstmost, me next, and then we take turns for ages like persons trying to get their pink or orange cheese well into the beginnings of Boxing Day. Happy Advent to You!

Posted in Blog | Tagged advent, Becky Pamer, Christmas, comics, comicsjam, elves, Father Christmas, games, musicals, pies, reindeer, Santa, stories, Sweeney Todd, theatre, thespians, winter, xmas | Leave a comment

The Nature

Posted on 5th October, 2013 by Daisy

Recently I went to Finland with Becky to see the moomins and their house. Apparently, Finland also has wolves – luckily I did not know this or I might have stayed home and looked for a man with a load of bricks. So here is the first of two comics we drew, which tells more or less what happened to us in Helsinki. The next instalment can now be found on Becky’s blog. A few things may be obscure, such as how all brochures and some humans said the Finnish thing was to go and “be in the Nature”, how there were many gigantic inflatable ice-hockey players in Helsinki’s Narinkkatori, and how the wading stanley is an avid philatelist. Oh and the Finnish dinner is not really part of the story.

Posted in Blog | Tagged adventures, animals, bears, birds, comics, Finland, games, Helsinki, holidays, ice hockey, incidents, inflatables, moomins, Nature, pancho villa, people, stories, travel, wolverines | Leave a comment