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Gaia's blog. A place where I share work-in-progress, sketches, illustrations and other crafts
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It's May already and I forgot about the blog, I gave up on a new portfolio site for now and on Tumblr. I have been working a lot though, so hopefully this is a good excuse!
This is an old drawing, maybe some of you will remember it. It started as a watercolour and traditional collage and was then forgotten on my old external hard drive. I found it and heavily reworked it in Photoshop. The original never really met my expectations, but now she's quite a character. Maybe, she has a story to tell. For now we're both enjoying the rain, hoping spring will last a little longer...
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By:
Gaia Bordicchia,
on 5/5/2013
Blog:
I Piccolini
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At the beginning of this year I was called for a very fun project!
Pandistelle, one of Italy's most famous cookies turned 30 years old. To celebrate, Barilla alonside the nice people of creative agency "I Mille", called 12 artists to illustrate every month of the new year for their online magazine and Facebook page. Mine was for the month of April.
After illustrating "Tartarin de Tarascon" for Eli Readers, this past November the publisher called me again. This time to work on "Anne of Green Gables." The cover was my favourite piece, but here is also a small selection of the interior pages.
I worked on the illustrations in a slightly different way. The lines you see on the characters are the actual pencil lines of my roughs. I wanted to use a stronger graphite rendering, but time was against me. Hopefully on the next book!
This past 2012 was especially kind to me and I was almost sad to see it go...
New books coming out in the next few months (one I'm especially proud of!) others are keeping me busy while I write this post. Apart from work though, I hope my new year will be filled with good things and yours will be too.
I hope you'll chase bright ideas, discover new shiny interests, go on adventures, read good books and have enough time to sit on your favourite chair and relax. Happy 2013!
"The Princess and the Pea" was one of my favourite fairtales as a child. This summer I had the opportunity to illustrate a book for Editions Auzou based on this popular story. It will be published in January 2013 and will be part of their series of classical fairytales for young readers, called P'tits Classiques.
It was a pleasure to work with Editions Auzou again. They gave me permission to include these illustrations in my portfolio, even if the book will not be available for sale until the new year. More illustrations coming soon!
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This year I was very lucky to be involved in several lovely projects and commissions. One of them is for sure my collaboration with french company La Marelle. I've always been a big fan of their products. The print quality is excellent and they work with some of my favourite children's book illustrators, like Nicoletta Ceccoli and Marie Desbons. I was very pleased when they asked me to illustrate two sets of cards, a notebook and this lovely coloring book. You can find them all on their website --->
here
This past spring I was commissioned by Galison/Mudpuppy to create a new set of finger puppets with several cute mermaids, a merman and a seahorse. Creating a perfectly matching front and back image was not an easy task! While I love working on picture books and stories, I find these small licensing projects fun and challenging. I hope I'll have a chance to do more in the future. These little mermaids will be available in January 2013.
... and hopefully, will be revealed soon! In the meantime, enjoy the night sky. We had some beautiful, clear nights this summer, perfect for stargarzing.
I'm busy finishing a book for Casterman Jeunesse and it's full of tiny details! Still a bit to do, but it's getting there. It will be available for sale next spring. Sharpen your eyesight and be ready to look for those lost and forgotten objects or for a very elusive soft toy ... More soon!
Patience is a virtue I don't have. I become restless every time I walk into a waiting room or a post office. If I expect an email, phone call or parcel, after a short amount of time, I always consider a bad scenario (the AD hated my roughs, I'll loose my voice by the time the phone rings, the parcel with contracts is eaten by Morlocks.)
Yet, my friends think I am the opposite and sometimes they push me in one direction or another. Maybe because I tend to be very patient with those I care for. I can wait for quite a while.
The past six months were all about work and friends. Old ones returning, new ones and those who have always been near (answering my crazy emails or talking to me on skype during late nights of work.) In a case or two I got tired of waiting and I left, feeling as if I had nothing more to say or give. Maybe they will return one day.
On a work related note, "La Strada di Cioccolato" is finished and in the hands of Edizioni EL. It will be printed later this fall. I'm looking forward to a much needed holiday and then I will go back to work with a fresh mind.
Two nice book projects came in from France in the past three weeks. I'm very happy and excited for both, as they are very different. One is quite challenging, I'm working on the layouts at the moment.
My experience with children's publishing in France is very positive so far. Beautiful books, very nice teams of editors and a lot of creative freedom. The boardbook I've illustrated for Editions Auzou earlier this year, will be published next Fall. You can see a little preview
here.
There's also another "french surprise" that I can't say much about for now, but will be revealed in September. I hate to keep this under wraps and I usually don't write this sort of mysterious posts, but it's a small dream come true for me. I'm very happy about it!
September will also be busy on the italian front, as I will be working on a new title for EliReaders.
This time, a classic for their Young Adult selection. It's an exciting project, that will give me the opportunity to draw more grown-up characters and explore new colouring techniques.
A crazy, non-stop six months so far. I'm grateful, happy and surprised... I've waited for good things to happen and they finally arrived.
This is a little preview of a book I'm currently working on for Edizioni EL. I think it will be published later this fall. It's based on a story by Gianni Rodari, a very popular italian author. Sweet in every way...
This is one of the illustrations from the book "Tartarin de Tarascon" published by Eli Readers in March 2012. You can see more illustrations from the book in the Freatured Projects.
I enjoyed this piece very much and I decided to give it a space of its own.
Happiness. In italian the equivalent is "toccare il cielo con un dito" or "touching the sky with your finger tips". I especially like the french expression "boir du petit lait", maybe because I like milk so much. I will draw something based on this french idiom too. Until then, this is Cloud 9!
In this illustration I used a very detailed pencil rendered base and I've added digital colour and textures with Photoshop. You can see the original drawing in the
Graphite Section.
At the end of 2011 I've illustrated "Miss Doll Birthday Party" published by Clean Slate Press in New Zealand. Here is a selection of illustrations from this little book. The author of the book, Joy Cowley liked my characters so much, that she has created a series of short stories. The full series of 15 new titles will be completed at the end of 2012 and will become one or Clean Slate Press new Programs for Early Readers.
Small things in progress... It's hard to stay infront of the computer when it's spring outside. I've been forced by the rain and wind during the past few days, but this is my favourite season and it never lasts long enough!
I will try to update this blog more often now. Tweet less and blog more? Let's see if it works. What would you like to see? Leave me a comment and help me get into blogging again...
I'm almost ready for the Book Fair in Bologna. I leave you with Pollicino (Little Thumb -
Le Petit Poucet) and his bread crumbs!
I'm almost ready for the Book Fair in Bologna. I leave you with Pollicino (Little Thumb -
Le Petit Poucet) and his bread crumbs!
Last week I received a gentle nudge from two of my favourite illustrators and twitter friends,
Eric Orchard and
Charles Santoso "Update your blog!" What happened in the past five months?
I'm currently working on a book for
EliReaders. It will be printed and available next Spring, this is a small preview of one of the spreads. I'm very pleased with how it's turning out and I can say it was quite a challenging project for me, since all the characters are adults. No kids, no cute animals, no pretty princess... I can't wait to show you more!
At the same time I rediscovered my love for pencils. If you follow me on
Twitter you know I've been struggling with this for a while and now I'm finally pleased with the result. Here you can see the final illustration with digital colour. The base of the bear is done in graphite. I plan to do more in this style in the future. Some of my past attempts are on my
Dribbble.
In September I will finally set up a new website, it will have a different domain name and new work. This blog will stay right where it is. I plan to update it more often, post work in progress and hopefully play with Illustration Friday sometimes. I missed it! If you're still reading my posts, drop me a comment and let me know what you would like to see and thank you for following!
It's early, I know... I hope this blog will come back to life with the new year. Until then, Buon Natale! (Click to see a larger image.)
I meant to work on a new portfolio website during January, but time is flying. I'm busy finishing a new book for Edizioni EL . This is a small detail. As you can guess, it is one of Andersen's fairytales. More news soon!
I will be in Bologna for the Book Fair at the end of March. If you are a publisher and would like to meet me and see my portfolio, please get in touch!
Elegant, strong, beautiful and charismatic. Sadly, this project is not going to the final stage just now, but who knows if me and Evita will "meet" again in the future? I certainly enjoyed drawing her eyes and the jewelry!
To the market! I've recently finished a little book for Editions Auzou, a lovely french publisher. While I can't say much about the book itself, they gave me permission to show you a little snippet. I can assure you this will be a fun gift for every little girl and I can't wait to see it printed. I might even do a giveaway or two...
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What a marvellous cat ! I love the colors and he is so cute ;)