Drawing, drawing, drawing...

I've been busy in my studio this week working on some lovely new projects for Usborne. Frankfurt Book Fair creeps ever closer and I'll be glued to my desk until I get these finished!

First Circus Sticker Book is now out in stores!

This is the first book I've illustrated for Usborne and it has some very sweet stickers (I'm always a sucker for a sticker!). I've attached my versions with the stickers in place here, but you can view the actual pages at the Usborne website here.

New Book Jacket for Pocket Mountains...

ToucanBox Box

I'm back from the USA with a tan and a lot of happy memories. But here's a project I finished just before I headed off for my honeymoon. It's a new box design for ToucanBox and it's pretty cute! 

Andrew Bird Poster

I don't normally enter in this kind of thing, but I'm a big fan of Andrew Bird's work and I was instantly inspired by the brief. If you like clicking 'vote' buttons visit the website and vote for me. Or for someone else, that is okay with me too! 

New designs for UK Greetings

Here are two of my latest card designs for UK Greetings. These won't be in print until 2014, so it'll be a bit of a wait to see them in the flesh!

Roughs & Finals

I thought I'd just share a little look at my working process with you today. Here's an example of one of my rough pieces and of the final artwork. I normally start with a sketchbook and pen to rough out the elements of a piece and the key characters (these look like crazy scribbles and I rarely share them with my clients!). I then work with a digital pencil to create a fairly neat file to send through to the client for approval and feedback. Once we've worked through any changes I move into colour, keeping a layered file in case there are any further adjustments or colour tweaks at a later stage. This example is a commission from ToucanBox, which I'll be popping up on my website when I get a chance to update it!

Vikings Ahoy!

It was a bit quiet on here last week as I was busy scribbling away on a project for the lovely folks at Storlann. Here are a few of my favourites...

The Finished Version

Animal Olympics

There were going to be a whole set of these, but due to weddings and work schedules I just haven't had the time. Perhaps next week...

New Mug Designs

I've been busy extending my hand-lettered mug range for McLaggan Smith. They aren't up on the website just yet, but should be soon! 

Lovely new Pocket Mountains jackets

If you're familiar with my work you will know that I illustrate the jackets for a series of walking guides published by the wonderful folk at Pocket Mountains. I've been working with them for quite a few years now and they're always great fun to draw and look fabulous on my bookcase (they have their own entire shelf now as I've done so many!). The Run Edinburgh book is from a different series by the same publisher and is something entirely new...

It's been a bit quiet on here...

...because I was doing this instead of drawing! Normal service will now resume.

Frank Fox's latest incarnation

Yesterday I decided to try and combine my sketchbook drawings with my character experiments on-screen. I'm also trying out bringing back some line-work, although this is all digital. So far I'm liking it.

Oh, and I'm experimenting with alternatives to my dots-for-eyes approach...

Today's Doodle

I'm tempted to do some baking this evening, it's just been that kind of a day...

McLaggan Smith Mugs

Last week I received some gorgeous sample mugs in the post from the lovely folks at McLaggan Smith. I've designed a little range for them and you can check the rest out on my website here or buy one for yourself here!

Singing Squirrel

Before I head off for the weekend, here's a squirrel singing Karaoke. He's a character from the book I'm currently writing/illustrating.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Here's a little something I drew earlier this week (he's available to license, just drop me an email if you're interested). I hope everyone has a fabulous bank holiday weekend. I also hope the sun keeps on shining up here in Edinburgh, because we need the vitamin D!

The (in)Famous Frank Fox

I've finally, almost, got the words all sorted on my first story, I'm just taking a few out and shuffling the others around a bit. It's been taking up a lot of time, I really do think words are much harder than drawing pictures - but I'm much more used to picking up a pencil for the purpose of doodling rather than writing! I've started sketching out my supporting cast and giving them personality traits and quirks in my mind (they don't really have huge parts in the story, but I like my characters to be well fleshed-out!).

Usborne Circus Book

The sticker book that I illustrated for Usborne is up on Amazon. I drew the artwork for it earlier this year and it'll be published in September!