Holly Swain Illustration

It’s been a while, the run up to Christmas was busy.. but here’s a couple of new images.

Bird iceskating, never as easy as it looks (as I discovered this holiday!)

To all of you who have been blown about in the gales (and those who haven’t), Happy New Year ! May 2012 be a good one.

I’ve recently read ‘My Dad’s a Birdman‘ by David Almond. What an amazing book! So beautifully written and visual and touching and sensitive. I loved it. I’m now working my way through his other books, which are just as rich in imagery and extraordinary stories. The book is beautifully illustrated by the wonderful Polly Dunbar,but  I wanted to have a go myself. So heres the first of a series I’m planning..

“They were made of feathers and string and bits of old shirt and bits of bamboo and wire and thread and cardboard and feathers and feathers and feathers…He stood on tiptoes. He dreamed of flying like a swallow, like a swift, like a hawk, high above the house..”

David Almond you are a superstar!

I’ve just been playing with the idea of animals in the Olympics. So this could be the first of a few…I quite like the idea of some of the winter sports, but maybe thats just because its getting colder- actually a lot of my characters seem to be wearing more layers as the cold season approaches!

Its back to the ‘not’ watercolour paper- I didn’t get on with the other paper at all.

I’ve been doing some cards for birthdays. Happy belated birthday Hels!And Happy birthday Mum!I’ve been busy making rice krispie spiders and gory gingerbread skeletons for Halloween, but managed to fit in this little fella. I’m trying out HP paper too- not convinced so far,I think a few more experiments are in order.

Happy Halloween!

Here’s a new picture for illustration Fridays topic, ‘Contraption’.

Here’s an anniversary card I’ve just done.  I’m still experimenting with watercolours, but finding them much easier to use than my concentrated Dr.Ph.Martin’s.I’ve been doing a number of ‘birds in jumpers’ sketches, and my husband thought these were funny so he tweeted them, (or is it twittered- not sure). It was suggested that I did a bird in a pringle tank top, so here it is, and on its way to you Nick, thanks for the suggestion!I could quite get into golf shoes…

Its been a while, so here’s a bit of a catch up. I’ve been trying out some new things, mainly different types of line with a variety of pens and have ended up going back to my dip pen that I used to use long ago. I’ve also combined that with having a go at watercolours, rather than my usual concentrated watercolour inks, and I am loving it!

I’m even trying to brush up on computer skills, mainly so I can blog a bit more frequently, but also so I don’t get overtaken by my children’s knowledge. Kinda scary.

Its been a crazy time! ‘The Mysterious case of the missing honey’  by Claire Freedman is now out. A great story and I had a lot of fun working on it. Heres a pic of the frog spread not quite completed.

‘Captain Bones’ is now not being published..but onto bigger and brighter things!

I’ve recently finished a book for Andersen Press called ‘ The King Who Wouldn’t Sleep’, due out in Sept this year. I’ll add some sneaky pics in the next post.

Considering one of my new years resolutions was to blog more frequently, I’m not doing so well! All I can say is I’ve been busy. I’ve been reworking roughs which I think has improved the book and characters. Heres a few spreads.

A reworked version of the mermaids party- a bit cropped at the left but you get the idea.

This is the pirates surprising the mermaids, with Lazy bones being stolen away by the squid.

One of my favouite spreads in the book-the pirate conga! Much improved from the previous rough.

I’m now waiting on comments from the publisher to either rework or hopefully start some artwork..

I actually was organised this year and have made my own Christmas cards.  They were printed by moo who did a lovely job!

I’ve also found time in between Christmas shopping and reworking roughs to have had a bit of a play.  I bought some speedball rubber stamp block and printed some cards too.  I’d been wanting to have a go at using it for a while, and have got quite a few ideas  for how to incorporate it in my work. The snowflakes were a stamp that I bought.  Speedball was very easy to cut, much easier than lino, and I shall definitely be using it again.

Happy Christmas!