Little Crocodile loves books...

and so do I! Happy World Book Day folks!

CHOO CHOO!

The illustrations I completed for Driver Dans Story Train will be airing on Thursday the 1st of March at 5.50pm on Cbeebies. If you manage to catch it, I hope you enjoy it and I hope my patterns don't make your TV turn funny...

A boy and a Bear

It's nearly Bologna time again which means time for the portfolio makeover. A very much needed portfolio makeover! This piece was actually drawn up months ago but I never got around to finishing it until today. Take that usual lazy sunday!

Period Features

Today I braved the snow and traveled to a little shop in Leek called Period Features. They have the most beautiful things and the shop itself is like stepping back a hundred years. If you have a love for old style things its most definitely a place to visit. I came home with these - a Lolita hand painted tray by Nkuku and a vintage style notebook, although if I had bags of cash I would have tried to buy everything there!

New workspace and drawings

Now that things are settling in the shop, I have been able to pick up my pencil after what feels like ages. It's great to be drawing again and even more so on my brand new AMAZING and SPECTACULAR desk -



Its a restored early 20th century bureau with original lock and key (perfect for hiding away a days mess!). And here is what I've been doodling recently...







Lots of smiley crocodiles!

Have a great weekend all!

Longnor Post Office - My first home!

Myself and Ste's first home in fact, and the reason why I have not posted on here for sooo long!



We've actually been running the Post Office and shop for over 4 years now but we never thought we would get the opportunity to buy it. We completed on Monday! :-)

For the past few months all our time has gone into the business. We have bought new equipment which has allowed us to introduce new products including lots of local cakes, pies, meats and other tasty things and essentials. Its all been VERY exciting, not good for the diet...but very exciting!



The building has been in Ste's family since 1979 but was first built in 1810 and as far as I know, has always been a Post Office and General Store. I have been told that the upstairs was used as a store for corn and for hay. The horse and cart would back into the garage and then they would pull the bales up through a trap door which is now in our living room! As for other original features, there are very few upstairs but who knows what we will uncover when we start to decorate.

Our plans are to make it look like it does in this old photograph and to turn the garage into another business. We think something illustration focused would be just spiffing...

And the winner is...

Sorry I am a little late with the results and thank you to all who entered.

The winner is... dah dah dah dah dah dah daaa - aaaa...

Frann Preston-Gannon!
Congratulations Frann :-)

Please send me your address and soon crocodile and his little hat will be on their way to you. I hope you have a good stock of bourbon biscuits at the ready, you'll be needing them...

Hooray it's a GIVEAWAY!

In celebration of reaching 300 followers I am giving away this happy little fellow.



His favourite colour is green (obviously) and his favourite biscuit is the Bourbon biscuit although occassionally he does like to mix things up with a custard cream.

If you would like to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment after this post. The winner will be announced on Monday the 8th of August sometime after 10am (GMT)

Good Luck! and thanks ever so much for following :-)

Today I painted a...

Bear! Bears are definitely on the brain at the moment...

In the sketchbook...

Mainly Bears (I do LOVE bears!), a dog and a little girl who is rather pleased to have such an unusual friend. I would be too!







and when I'm not sketching Bears, these days I am at my desk doing this:



writing stories. Writing stories with my new blue/black ink cartridges. I love the colour of blue/black ink, especially on cream coloured paper, there's just something very lovely about it.

Chicken Licken

Ahh...deadlines met so I can now update my blog guilt free. Hooray!

I recently illustrated 'Chicken Licken' with Oxford University Press and below is the cover artwork, well a couple of versions of it in fact.

This was my original design -



and this is the revised cover -



I have noticed that the cover has now been amended further. You can see a pic of the final cover on Amazon here. The tree appears to have sprouted some more leaves, how magical!

The book is part of the Traditional Tales series and is out in September this year. If you happen to come across it, I very much hope you enjoy it :-)

Website

After a jolly long time being indecisive, my website is now up and running.

If you fancy a peek you can do so by clicking HERE.

Driver Dan's Story Train

I'm over the moon to tell you about the new project I am currently working on. It's a book for A Productions which will by read by Driver Dan (Driver Dan's Story Train) on CBeebies.

My illustrations will feature in the storybook section of the programme and then afterwards the children get to step inside the book and interact with the story. Very exciting!

Tweet Tweet

Hiya folks. Just a quick post to notify you of my twitter page. If you would like to follow me then you can do so by clicking here. Thank you muchly.

India-

Holiday snaps from India! I had such a great time and arrived home to some smashing news on the work front. I am hoping to get briefed tomorrow, will share all when I can!

The Beach -



Lucky the Elephant -



My sister and me taking a ride on the lovely Lucky -



Beautiful hand embroidered sheets at the night time Bazaar -



Book eating cows on the Beach - (yes, you did read that right!) -



Sleepy dog on a Bridge, the perfect spot for a snooze apparently...



Beach no.2 -



and lastly a pineapple! Who knew they grew like this!
(hopefully it's not just me that didn't!...tum tee tum...)

Where I am...

Hello from India! *waving*

I am currently visiting my super duper sister in Goa for 2 whole weeks! It was all very last minute which meant that the past few weeks were extremely busy ones and featured me flusteredly hurrying around wrapping up projects, replying to emails, organising my visa and vaccinations, sitting for a well needed hair scissoring and most of all, cuddling Cindy and reassuring her that I will not be away for very long...

*for those of you who haven't met Cindy on this blog before, she is my, very needy, teeny tiny yorkshire terrier.

What I have seen of India so far has been AMAZING! The beaches are beautiful and the food is fantastic and of course the weather!! its so hot here. After spending the best of yesterday on the beach though, my shoulders are now sizzling, so today I am in my room, caked in aloe vera and catching up on some bits and bobs. Heres something that has been sat in my drafts folder for 2 weeks and that I had hoped to post before I left.

Mr Bear.

He is a new character for a new story I am writing. I'm rather excited about it to be honest and therefore couldn't resist showing a sneak primary sketch.

I have also been catching up with the lovely comments left on here and just want to say a big thank you for all your very nice words! It really makes my day, especially considering the lack of blog activity on here recently so thank you.

I will be posting some photos of my holiday when I return and if my sister and I stick to our plan they should include elephants and dolphins. Exciting!

'The Tail of the Whale'

Hooray!! The second printing of 'The Tail of the Whale' is now available in bookstores!

If you quite fancy embarking on an undersea adventure with the comfort of staying dry and toasty warm then now you can!

Amazon shoppers can click HERE.

Workspace

I LOVE nosy-ing at the workspaces of fellow illustrators so I thought I would share with you my own little set up - It has nothing to do with the fact I've spent the morning giving it a spring clean and it's now SUPER tidy!...honest...



And this is the satchel I was tweeter-ing about a while ago. I love it! and it will be ideal to transport my sketchbooks (and travel sweeties) *ahem* to meetings next month :-)

New work -

With the Bologna Book Fair speedily approaching I have been glued to my desk everyday for the past few weeks. Here are two new pieces which will soon be on their way (I wish I was going with them!). I have also been wrapping up a book with Oxford University Press which has been great to work on and now (!) it's finally time to dive into my new Fabriano sketchbook which I have been desperate to do since the postman gave it to me weeks ago. Yippee!

IF - Reverse