screen printing

World Illustration Awards

I was amazed, and very happy, to hear that I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE! is shortlisted for the Association of Illustrators’ World Illustration Awards. Just being included in the exhibition at Somerset House is a bit too exciting.
It’s especially exciting as the book isn’t even out yet: Walker will publish I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE! on May 3rd and there’ll be a book launch at Gosh! on the 10th. This is Natalie and Alphonse’s second adventure, following ALPHONSE, THAT IS NOT OK TO DO! and I’ve just finished the artwork for their third escapade – so I’ve got to know these monsters very well.

I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE! is about what happens when Natalie struggles with learning to read – and how she and Alphonse find their own solution (involving an ambitious elephant and a caterpillar driving a truck). I’ll be sharing more about the book, especially on Instagram, in the run-up to publication.

Once I was a child, sometimes I was a rabbit

Last autumn the Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF) invited me to make some pictures for the Chen Bochui Illustration exhibition. The theme of the exhibition was ‘Once I was a child’ and being short of time I decided to interpret this very simply. I did some doodling about my own childhood and the thing that kept coming up was RABBITS: toy rabbits, real rabbits, rabbits in books, drawing rabbits,being a rabbit, eating rabbit food… I really did like rabbits.

This screenprint shows the best of my several rabbit costumes, which was a turquoise towelling hoodie with foam ears sewn on by my mum. It felt quite strange and self-indulgent to make a character so directly based on myself.

I also made a print about playing rabbit football with my brother (no actual rabbits harmed – or involved – in the playing of this game) and the two were shown during the fair in November alongside work by over fifty illustrators from 13 countries – so it was lovely to hear my pictures had been given second prize!

All the pictures are now part of the collection of the Baoshan International Folk Art Museum: their website shows all the winning artwork and some information on the exhibition.

Original screenprints for sale

Online gallery Children’s Book Illustration have started selling some of my original screenprints. Six prints for The Girl with the Parrot on her Head (from the same editions as the prints used in the book) are available now – including a few of the soon-to-be-seasonal scootering spread.

ALPHONSE, THAT IS NOT OK TO DO!

Here is an advance copy of my second book, ALPHONSE, THAT IS NOT OK TO DO! to be published by Walker in March 2016.

I have been drawing monsters for a very long time and am so excited to see some of them (almost) about to be loosed into the wild… I’ll write more about the book closer to publication, or there’s a little snippet here.

Prints for Material

Material of Shoreditch, London, recently began selling a range of my little screenprints. The prints feature monkeys and blackbirds – some based on the same drawings as previous monkeys and some I was trying as prints for the first time.

The monkeys come in various colour combination NewMonkeyMusing2 s and think about various things.