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!

Further Festive Developments...

My Christmas image in progress, background and robin now added!

It's that time of year again...

I've got Christmas tunes on in the studio, the tree is up and I'm going to tuck into the first mince pie of the season later today. It's officially Christmas Time!

New Fox Spread

Here's a spread from one of my own stories, currently work in progress.

Dog Doodles

Sketched these today on an impulse and I'm quite happy with how they turned out. I think the little Scottie may even work as a character somewhere, he looks cheeky enough for it!

I'm still here...

...I've just been rather busy. I have a load of lovely projects lined up for next year and I'm currently working on something new for the fabulous folks over at Barrington Stoke (sneak preview above). I don't often get the chance to work in black and white so I've been enjoying the opportunity!

New Promo Piece

I've been busy, that's my excuse for the silence on here! I have a few exciting new projects on the go, but I thought I'd share my new promo piece with you. This is currently being printed as a lovely postcard that will be winging its way to certain publishing peeps in a few weeks time.

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...