Merry Christmas everybody!

For those of you finishing up for Christmas today - hooray! For those of you, like me, who'll be at your desks until Christmas Eve - not long to go now!

Circus Fun!

Currently finishing up roughs for the lovely team at Egmont's Banana Books.

Festive fun!

Working on my Christmas mail out today...

From my sketchbook...

Here's something a little different from me, this is a direct scan from my sketchbook coloured up.

It's Friday!

The end of the working week (well mostly, I do sometimes carry on into the weekend when there's a lot to be done!) and I'm reaching the final stages of my latest project for National Trust Scotland. These happy kids are from the sticker pages that go with the Culzean Sticker Book that will be published next year.

What I've been up to...

I've just finished the rough artwork for a new sticker book for National Trust Scotland. Starting on the colour stage, hooray!

Pachyderm Parade

I've been thinking about repeat pattern designs today...

Oh Deer

Today I was sketching some deer for a book I'm working on for a client, when I accidentally got carried away and coloured them in. Occupational hazard that one, I'm now behind schedule!

Wintery Weather

I'm not a huge fan of Winter, I much prefer warmth and sunshine. Having said that, the strong appeal of mugs of hot beverages, awesome knitwear and new boots does make up for having to wear two cardigans and a scarf in the studio.

New Usborne releases, although you'll have to wait a while to see them!

I've got a couple of new releases for the lovely folks at Usborne due in the next few months. They're all up on Amazon now, which is always exciting to see!

The first one up is Fairground, followed by my first Noisy book - Noisy Circus and then the Market Sticker Book. 

Today's doodle...

Okay, so this one is a doodle from my sketchbook all coloured up. I've not been feeling well today and haven't been able to focus on my actual client work, so I thought I'd do a bit of colouring in instead!

Busy, busy, busy!

Phew, another book delivered and just on time! Having a quick break today to work on some other lovely projects before starting a new book tomorrow.

New Usborne titles

I'm currently working on some lovely new books for Usborne, so I'm going to be posting infrequently again! Here's a little preview of one of the characters...

Barnyard in progress...

This one is still under development, but I thought I'd share it with you here. It's a scene from one of my own stories where the main character discovers just how messy a farm can be!

Frank the Detective Investigates...

Today's sketch, part of a character development for a foxy detective!

BIG teeth!

Thought I'd share one of my more recent pieces. I'm having a breather this week from my book briefs so I'm getting on with other jobs for clients and fitting in some time for personal projects.

How Brave is That?

Last year I was commissioned to illustrate a new series of books written by Anne Fine and published by the wonderful folks at Barrington Stoke. They are intended for reluctant and struggling readers and I'm responsible for the cover and interior artwork. A few weeks ago my copies of the first book in the series arrived and they look fabulous! The next is due in July this year and I'll be starting on the artwork for the fourth fairly soon.

Marching Band

I had a little bit of time to doodle today and started on the rough for my dog marching band drawing that I've had in my sketchbook for weeks now. Just as I was about to go to colour my resident Graphic Designer suggested I try something slightly different and use my rough linework as the basis for the artwork (like a screenprint). So here it is!

I'll be colouring the rough up shortly in my usual style, so I'll pop the finished other version up for comparison once it's done.

Me Hearties...

It's been all quiet on here recently as I've been busy moving the entire contents of my house, my husband, my two dogs, my ancient cat and my studio down South. We've officially left Edinburgh and are now in limbo as we decide where to head to next. So if you don't hear from me for a while on here, that's why!

Wedding Loveliness!

I don't do many of these, mainly due to a lack of time, but here's a private commission from earlier in the week for a wedding gift.

How do you follow up a pig on a vespa?

How about a panda on a scooter?!

Something a little different...

Here's one of my personal projects illustrating Scottish words.

Pete coloured up!

Pirate Pete

I finally managed to get some time to work on one of my own stories today after the pre-Bologna rush! Here's the main character from my latest text and his main method of seafaring transport. The words are all done on this one, just working on some pictures before we start sending him out into the wide world to meet people (i.e. publishers!).

Pig on a Vespa

It's all go, go, go over here on the run up to Bologna. As ever I can't show you what I'm currently working on, but I can show you this doodle from my lunch break yesterday...

Say It With a Raccoon...

Character Sketches...

This little gang are from one of my own stories, yesterday I managed to squeeze in some 'me' time to work on my own projects and got them all coloured up. Thought I'd share the rough and final stages with you all.

Howling at the Moon

I started this doodle last year, but due to various projects I didn't have a second to finish it off until today!

New Series for Barrington Stoke

I've just finished the first three (I can only show two of them here due to publishing dates) jackets and interior illustrations for a new series of books, written for reluctant and struggling readers, by one of my favourite childhood authors Anne Fine. They are being published by the wonderful team at Barrington Stoke and so far they've been great fun to illustrate. I'll post some of the internals at some point, although I really should update my website soon to showcase my more recent work - it's on my epic 'to do' list!

Busy, busy, busy...

So, I've been busy and I haven't had time to post on here. This is a good thing, but I feel like I've been neglecting this space! As a way of making amends I've popped the illustrations above up on here, they were commissioned by the lovely folks at National Trust Scotland. They're the only project I can share with you at the moment, the rest are all books in development and won't be in the public glare for quite some time. 

Happy New Year!

Apologies for the silence over here. I've had a lot of work to do, in fact I still have, but I wanted to say that I'm still here!