The style should follow the story. I am working here on an image that places emphasis on the character The objects about him carry less meaning and have ben left as outlines. The image lacked depth till I put in the shadows. To add to the importance I want placed on the boy and the dog I encapsulated a part of them in a white halo. This is a working document and there are things that still need work - updated version will be posted over the next few days, it will be interesting to spot the difference. 

Just working up a new style - which seems to be working for this book in particular that deals with grief and death.

I like the contrast of the bright colours and simple indian ink.

This is work in progress. A part of me feels the character and the tree need to be more 'real' or 'correct'.

click on it to enlarge.

A little thought on pirates. When thinking of story ideas I like to turn things on their head, change scale and imagine the apparently impossible.

As soon as you do this, reality gets turned inside out: The radio listens to you, the stairs take you nowhere,  hats are boats, boats are hats, computers are really good as carpets, your lunch eats you and instead of binning the bits of you it does not want to eat, it makes something of them…that's enough! There are some ideas. 

Two characters here. The two are close friends. I have been re working the start of a story, making the relationship of the two main characters more 'real' for the reader.

Digital this time. It is a strange sensation looking at the screen while your hand, out of sight, creates the image. 

I have spent today doing character pieces. Developing a character who is bullied in one of my books. Interestingly I have chosen to work in pencil here and in a particular style. The character might not end up rendered in this way but it is good to 'get to know' them in detail before deciding to go more abstract.

Well - time away from the world of digital communication. Created this during a small 'limbering up' session this morning - funny how it takes a while to get the hand and the mind connected. This quick portrait done as the ink in the goats hair brush dried up. I like indian ink, but I think it has it limits.

I often get images in my mind that are completely disconnected from projects in my mind, but are usually bits from recent imagery I have seen blended with things I am pondering.  This image is one that has been in my mind for a while - having them parked there is frustrating. Best to let them out and then they can find a setting and details some details appear. These creatures seemed to end up here.

Off to deliver my portfolio yesterday. Took the leap. I had a great talk with the current art director at Templar and then sat on trains for hours to get myself to Random house and to Bell Lomax Moreton (literary agent).

The trains took ages - I imagined that it stopped at every mouse hole on the way.

Coming back into Dorking at the end of the day I wondered if you could illustrate a journey through the place names you come across.

England must be one of the best places in the world for place names.

Again working with 6 year olds - was not going to have a batch lot of red and white striped lighthouses - so they got on with designing and making their own. The lighthouses are meant to scare you away from something unusual...

Keep away from the dolls?

Keep away from here! Mummies!

Keep away from here - spiders.

Here are some 'grabs' from work towards a portfolio piece. I am just finishing off images to head up some manuscripts I have written.

I purposefully kept the character anonymous, I like the idea that Shaun Tan moots (thebirdking.blogspot.com) of allowing the reader to decide who the character is. The book intends to engage readers of all ages - the boy simply gets older through the book and this is denoted by the evolution of his form and the appearance of his face as he begins to have a relationship with himself. See the final piece below. I am looking to combine detail and ambiguity. The letters in the ballon could do with a little more contrast. 

The simplicity and texture in the character came from looking through the beautiful work of Grace Hawes who has some gorgeous and provocative images - http://gracehawes.com/Heart-of-Darkness-II - She was shortlisted for the folio Society's annual illustration competition. http://www.foliosociety.com. That would be worth submitting to. Which way is the boy heading - towards or away from the city?

I am finishing off a few illustrations to go in my portfolio (for submission) to suggest at the style of illustration for books I am working on. This image relates to a book about bullying and ways to overcome it.

A wee mix up of Year 5-6 work from yesterday. The children had to design 6 different faces - they then split them into 4, then they put 6 left eyes onto one cube, 6 right eyes onto another, 6 left parts of the mouth on another, then the same for the right. they then made a mask to frame them with. You rotate the cubes to get whatever face you would like. The class are still doing the maths but there are between 500 and 1000 different combinations! multiply that by 34 (number of kids in the class), we made a lot of faces that day. Anyhow - here are some samples. Thank you to Serge, Reuben, Amelia, Philly, Angel and Alexis.

Today at school with year 1 (7 year olds) we made creatures from the sea. I have pieced together a selection below - they are going to be milling around the base of a lighthouse when the project is finished.

I have taken to using coloured paper as a background when putting together drafts of double spreads - it gives you a tone to start with. It makes representing tone easier. I have used muted hues to suggest colours but the palettes for the books are far from worked out yet.

When not in the classroom - or getting frustrated with my own children filing a request every 30 seconds (cut this out?, can you do some 'go aways'? where's my snack?...) I have been drawing thumbnails of spreads for three books. Here are some of them.  Don't worry about the small girl and the detonator - she is blowing up an idea; I wonder what happened to it?

Designing the back of business cards today. Here are some of the designs. At the moment the characters do not belong anywhere. I tried to keep them simple.

I often read through Shaun Tan's blog (thebirdking.blogspot). He has some beautiful work that is always well executed. He has recently created some sculptures as illustrations for a book by Philip Pullman. I like the realm that Shaun Tan explores, hybridising machines with humans and nature.

The other night my daughter broke this light bulb, the third in two weeks. As I unscrewed it I was thinking of a way to remind her to be careful with her lamp. This now sits at the side of her bed. I find the face in he bulb a little unnerving.

I have a story in my mind that addresses issues surrounding identity. The story had become stagnant recently but I have realised that the main character (for reasons I will divulge later) becomes a rabbity type creature. Here are some images from today's work, preliminary sketches from photos - 

then work on the character himself.

 Finally I scanned them in and they ended up in a situation that non of them were bound for when I started drawing. The story does involve bullying.  The final image for me addresses a question of how much of western culture is born from the playground as much as the classroom. The collars, cuffs, cases and ties are there to ask how much our schools have really been able to progress?

Mulling over ideas for an album cover based on a short science fiction story.

I have a rabbity type thing in my head - out it comes.

and then later that day - my collegue wondered if I could help them 'draw people properly'. So we looked at how our bodies are made up and then put them back together. One of the pupils looks over the shapes and has a shot at drawing it .

Spent today with 6-7 year olds using robots to draw repeating patterns and exploring algebraic thinking.

Chatting with a friend about a character in a story of hers. A tiny, big eared mouldy being.

These are some double spreads from year one pupils 'mini books'. I love them. they drew patterns, shapes and textures on a3 paper . . . then we folded them, cut them up, re-arranged them and then put them into a mini book.

Currently busy setting this up - hoping to post soon - perhaps even this very evening. here's an image for starters. please visit my website <http://www.mcillustration.co.uk> for more information.

Just testing so here is an image for starters. some art work of an album cover.