Thursday 7 February 2013

Mum's the Word Publication Day


At long last, the countdown is over!! My debut children's book, 'Mum's the Word', written by the great Timothy Knapman and published by Hodder Children's Books, is out today!

HUZZINGO I hear you cry!

It's been emotional, guys. I hope you've enjoyed the few examples of development work I have posted up over the last week - if you would like to see how the book and artwork ended up looking...you'll have to grap a copy of the book, available here, at places like Amazon (are we allowed to advertise that place?!) and Waterstone's and all other good bookshops and such et al etc etc. Or, the few examples on my website. But yes...what a ride. What excitement. I'm so chuffed with this book, and really hope you all enjoy it. On to the next one, I guess...

See ya soon!

Wednesday 6 February 2013

One Day to Go!


One day to go before Mum's the Word is released!



Really?

Yes.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

The Development Continues


Some more ink and watercolour try-out pieces, trying to get the looks of the mother and puppy together, and the love they share. Ahh. The look of the dogs changed a bit from these drawings, but you can start to see the characters coming through.

Two sleeps before the release of Mum's the Word!

Monday 4 February 2013

Mum's the Word - The Revenge

Some more concept art and designs for 'Mum's the Word' for you there. Designs, I say!

Sunday 3 February 2013

Mum's the Word Progressing.


I know I've posted the illustration above before, and that it's on my website, but I thought I'd post it up again in context. This was a sample piece I did for 'Mum's the Word' before we had made the decision for the wolves to become dogs and the wildlands to become homely environments. Goodbye, little wolfies, hello awesome doggies.



This was one of the first 'samples' I did to get to work on the book, 'Mum's the Word', even before the designs in teh previous posts. And you can really tell it's one of the first samples. I mean...whoa. This is...different...to how the final book came out. I was using lots of ink and heavy line here, but we slowly adapted the look of the book to be of soft pencil, for that extra-sensitive touch. Not that I dislike it: it's just I haven't seen it for a long time and had forgotten how different the general look of this sample is to the finished project...it's inevitable, that the style will develop and grow during a project, but still, it's usally a shock when you look back over the progression. I still love using an energetic ink-line, but I realised during this process that it has its place, and perhaps my 'younger' children's book is not that place. You can definitely still see the playfulness and the mega-cutie-power that carried on through to the final book though. Max was growing wings! Or balloons. Do dogs grow balloons? I forget.

Four days until the book is released!!

Saturday 2 February 2013

Mum's the Word Designs mk.II


Here's some more designs for Max the puppy in Mum's the Word. This puppy's got a lot of adventuring to do.

Friday 1 February 2013

Mum's the Word Designs


And he gets an image in for today, with 5 minutes to spare! Hah - there is no way I forgot that I was meant to be posting some developmental stuff for 'Mum's The Word' every day until its release (on the 7th of February! Repetition - repetition), no way at all.

I have sketchbooks and enough watercolours pages to make more sketchbooks filled with designs for Max the puppy...he originally started life as a wolf character I had in mind quite a few years ago, and slowly became more and more domesticated and, well, puppy like. So we thought - chuck a collar on that wolf, he is now a puppy. A bit like sticking a fork in a potato when it's done. But with a puppy. And no fork. That would just be cruel. We (we, being the wonderful team at Hodder and myself)thought that making the character into a dog, and bringing him into a house environment instead of the wilds, would make the character and his relationship with his mother more recognisable and relatible for the audience, more cozy and familiar. Unless you live out in the wilds. In which case; I'm dreadfully sorry. Maybe next time. It's so weird to see these designs again - it feels like so long ago now that I did them...