Holly Swain Illustration

Pirate Day at The Book Nook

hollyswainillustration — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:12:25 +0000

It was Pirate Day at The Book Nook in Hove. Its an amazing independent shop with a fantastic selection of childrens books, lovely staff, tasty cafe and a very friendly atmosphere. They have loads of events and this saturday’s was a pirate theme. I was there doing some pirate drawing and there were lots of kids all in costume. Thank you to everyone, I had a great time and it was lovely to meet you all.

I drew a black & white Pirate colouring in sheet for the day. If you would like to download it for your kids, click below:

Its pirate day!

Happy New Year!

hollyswainillustration — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:20:28 +0000

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.

‘My Dads a Birdman’

hollyswainillustration — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:00:59 +0000

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!

The Animal Olympics.

hollyswainillustration — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:42:11 +0000

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.

Happy Halloween!

hollyswainillustration — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:00:14 +0000

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!

‘Contraption’

hollyswainillustration — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:22:54 +0000

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

Bear in love

hollyswainillustration — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:49:08 +0000

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…

Dip pen

hollyswainillustration — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:40:10 +0000

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.

New Book!

hollyswainillustration — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:07:19 +0000

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.

New roughs

hollyswainillustration — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:41:14 +0000

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..