The Story of Will and Ella

A Fairy Happy Birthday!

Welcome Home! By Monika Strand. 2021.

Monika Strand in an Author and Realtor based in California. She was searching for an appropriate gift to give clients with children on closing day for a home. This was such a fun book to create for her with a great message that the people are what makes a home, not the building. If you’re a Real Estate Agent, or just someone looking for a gift to give a family whos moving house, this is a great purchase.

Copies can be bought from…
https://www.monikastrand.com/product-page/welcome-home

Another chapter book form Neil Griffiths, about a colourful lady on a mission to brighten up everyone’s day!

Available for purchase here…

https://www.redrobinbooks.com/product/mrs-rainbow-to-the-rescue

Lemonade, by Marilyn Harary. Marilyn is a self publishing author I have illustrated a number of books for. When the lockdown took over the entire world, she contacted me with an idea to produce a free ebook that could easily be distributed, with the aim for helping kids understand the unusual situation they were finding themselves in.

She wanted it done, start to finish in one week! Holy smoke coming off my pencil lead! After an initial, ‘There’s no way that can be done!’ from me, I read the short manuscript and was so impressed by her mission and selflessness, I agreed to accept the challenge.

And that, my friends, was the fastest book I’ve ever illustrated.

Lemonade. By Marilyn Harary.

Marilyn is a pleasure to work for. Every illustrators dream for an author. To date (June 2020), the flip book has been viewed thousands of times in 35 different countries.

The artwork was created in Procreate on an iPad Pro.

Coming soon! The third in the Smarty Locks Series, by Marilyn Harary.

I had so much fun creating the monster characters!

Smarty Locks and the Bumpy Ride. By Marilyn Harary. 2017.

This is the second in the series for Marilyn Harary, featuring her character Smarty Locks. Another problem, another solution!

Created the same way as the Unforgettable Zoo, with a hand drawn pencil outline and colour added in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet.

While illustrating this, I was reminded of a school project I did when I was 15. It was for my Graphic Design class and I was creating a campaign to encourage children to wear a helmet while riding a bike. My campaign slogan was ‘Hey kid! Where a lid’. And thus my design career was set in place. LOL

This isn’t really relavant to the art, but it’s a bicycle related story. As you might know, I’m a Brit living in the US. I was having a discussion recently with friends about riding bikes over here and I explained that in Primary school in England, we had cycling proficiency classes, which ends in a test. I failed that test. WHO FAILS A CYCLING PROFICIENCY TEST?! The reason I failed? I turned into the wrong side of the road. Possibly foreshadowing my move to the States?!

https://www.amazon.com/Smarty-locks-Bumpy-Marilyn-Harary/dp/B078MV28LN

Smarty Locks and the Unforgettable Zoo. By Marilyn Harary. 2016.

Marilyn Harary is a self-publishing author based in New York. She contacted me about illustrating her first children’s book in early 2016. The character needed to be a stong young girl who was faced with a problem, and needed to figure out a solution. For the character design, she had just one requirement. She needed to have big curly hair! Now I’d had many perms in the 80’s, but that wasn’t big enough for reference! She sent me a photo of her sister when she was little, and it was so perfect! After a few different designs, in a few different mediums, Smarty Locks ended up looking as you see her today.

The illustrations were created with a hand drawn pencil outline, then colour added in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.

https://www.amazon.com/Smarty-Locks-Unforgettable-Marilyn-Harary/dp/0998050601/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=smarty+locks+and+the+unforgettable+zoo&qid=1611853817&s=books&sr=1-1

Damson the Donkey. Neil Griffiths. Published by Red Robin Books 2018.

My Grandparents had a Donkey when I was a kid. His name was Stirling. Funny name for a donkey. I don’t think he was Scottish, but maybe he lost his accent by the time they adopted him. Needless to say, I thought about him a lot when I was illustrating this book.

This Donkeys name is Damson. Damson trees are found in the UK, not so much the US. But, Damson is found under a Damson tree, and that’s how he got his name. I think it’s a good name. Being named after a Bigtooth Aspen, or a Honey Locust tree, wouldn’t have been quite so endearing. I digress.

This was the second chapter book I’d worked on for Neil. Artwork was all hand draw with ink and dip pen (which I love working with).

Head over to Red Robin Books Website to see all they have to offer.

https://www.redrobinbooks.com/product/damson-the-donkey/

The Dog with No Name. By Neil Griffiths. Published by Red Robin Books, 2017.

The Dog with No Name, was for author, Neil Griffiths, who I have illustrated many picture books for over the years. This, however, was my first chapter book.

I love dogs. When I was little, I had an imaginary dog as friend, rather than a person. He had to run behind the car when we would go on holiday as a family, because you can’t fit an imaginery dog (who mostly took the form of an Irish wolfhound!) into a small Volvo, already filled with 5 people and their luggage, heading down to Cornwall.

I had many rodents of all descriptions, but never actually graduated to a canine.

Oscar was my first dog when I was 38! He was a gorgeous 55lb bundle of love and fur. Next came Maeve, who rescued me during the 2020 lockdown. At 8lbs, she is a lot smaller, but still just as full of love.

So, illustrating a book about a rescue dog, couldn’t have been better. This time, I created the illustrations all by hand with a dip pen and ink. I love using these. I love the scratchiness on the paper and the texture of the slightly raised ink once it’s dry.

This was a fun project. I never though that an ink drawing of a massive pile of dog poo would be in my portfolio though!

https://www.redrobinbooks.com/product/the-dog-with-no-name/

Someone Special Personalised books are all about acceptance and inclusion. Both authors were teachers, and saw a great need for a book about kids with special needs. These books could be personalised with the child’s name, and people could also chose the mother and son, mother and daughter, father and son, father and daughter options, for printing.

I was honoured to be a part of this collection of books that help children with understanding and acceptance. See the full collection available at http://www.someonespecialbooks.com/shop.html

The fact that this children’s book about Jesus is ‘Coming Soon’ cracks me up :)

This is a project by a self publishing author, and is very close to production.

Self-publishing author, A.C Brown, approached me in 2015 to illustrate her adorable story of a grumpy star. He’s just trying to find his place in this life, like we all are!

The art was made with an ink and dip pen outline, then coloured up in Photoshop.

The book can be found at https://www.amazon.com/Twinkle-Its-what-C-Brown/dp/0984791418

How many books can you get away with drawing a seagull pooping on a parrot? This super fun book is one of my favourites. I love the fact that the first couple of spreads are greyscale and red, then it goes into full colour fun! I’ve worked with the fine folk at Red Robin books and author Neil Griffiths, for many years, and they know my style and sense of humour. It’s wonderful to be allowed to add those funny little parts to illustrations. Cracking yourself up drawing is the best!

These illustrations with created with hand drawn lines using a dip pen and ink. Then scanned in and colour added in Photoshop.

Sneezy Bear, by Neil Griffiths. Published by Red Robin Books, is a cute story about a hungry bear who keeps sneezing at all the wrong times! I hate it when I sneeze and scare my food away! These days if you sneeze in public, you scare everyone away!

This book was a part of Story Sacks ltd and could be purchased for schools. The bag usually consisted of a soft toy version of the character/s, a DVD, a board game,and other fun activites for children to use. I am fortunate to have the prototype of Sneezy Bear where his tummy rumbles and he sneezes when you press his paw! It’s so cute! The final toy bear didn’t have the sound effects, but he’s soft and fluffy and oh so adorable! Seeing your characters being made into toys is just wonderful!

This book also comes in a board book version, which is perfect fo little hands.

Illustrations were created with hand drawn pencil outlines and colour adding in Photoshop.

https://www.redrobinbooks.com/product/sneezy-bear/