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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: John Shelley, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 33
1. Snow Fields in the Peak District
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By: John Shelley, on 12/4/2016
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  SNOWMAN, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag

John Shelley snow landscape

This is a really old piece I recently rediscovered in my father's loft, dating right back to the beginning of my career. It's a portfolio piece, never been published. So here's sharing! The bent church steeple was inspired by St.Mary's Parish Church at Chesterfield in Derbyshire, it's a hilly county!

2 Comments on Snow Fields in the Peak District, last added: 12/29/2016
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2. Themed topic: Foliage
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By: John Shelley, on 10/11/2016
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  John Shelley, foliage, THEMED ART, Add a tag

Here's a bit of greenery from my retelling of Jack & the Beanstalk, ジャックと豆の木 (Jack to Mame no Ki) for Fukuinkan Shoten in Japan a while ago.

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3. Themed art - Princess
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By: John Shelley, on 2/7/2016
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Cinderella, PRINCESS, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag


Some more work from a version of Cinderella I drew for Japanese publisher Hikari no Kuni many years ago. At the time I'd been researching the French Revolution a great deal and had large stock pile of art references of the late 18th Century. The setting is very much the dying days of the Ancien Régime, so sadly Cinders and Prince Charming may not have had long to enjoy their happiness!

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4. Themed Art: Monkeys
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By: John Shelley, on 1/18/2016
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Monkey, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag




I have to admit that monkeys haven't formed a large part of my children's portfolio, but here's a little sketchbook doodle from a while back!

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5. Themed art - Family
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By: John Shelley, on 11/9/2015
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Family, Cinderella, fairytale, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag


Two sisters and a step-sister, from a retelling of Cinderella published in Japan in 1994 by Hikari no Kuni.

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6. Themed art: School
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By: John Shelley, on 9/23/2015
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  SCHOOL, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag

Here's an old one! Though I class this in my children's book style, it's actually from a series of advertising posters I did for Dai Ichi Kangyo Bank (now part of the Mizuho group). Ah, good times!

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7. Seeing the Woods and the Trees in 42 Picture Book Stories from Around the World
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By: Marjorie Coughlan, on 9/11/2015
Blog:  (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  HarperCollins, Uma Krishnaswami, Houghton Mifflin, Kids Can Press, Kadir Nelson, Lauren Thompson, Groundwood Books, Tim Wynne-Jones, Orca Books, The Nightlife of Trees, Ram Singh Urveti, Books, Picture Books, Articles, Candlewick Press, Barbara Reid, Cornelius Van Wright, Best Friends, Allen Say, Bhajju Shyam, Durga Bai, Gita Wolf, Feiwel and Friends, Andrea Spalding, Amistad, Children's Book Press, Dianne Hofmeyr, E. B. Lewis, Connie McLennan, Frances Lincoln, Christy Hale, Anushka Ravishankar, Front Street, Dana Goldberg, AG Ford, Cheryl Foggo, Dear Baobab, Devashish Makhija, Big Bear Hug, Alan Marks, Cate James, Capucine Mazille, Dingo's Tree, Gladys Milroy, Breaking the Spell: Stories of Magic and Mystery from Scotland, MWD theme - Trees, 'Branching Across the World: Trees in Multicultural Children's Literature, children's books about trees, Caroline Binch, Big Jabe, Epigram Books (Singapore), Bulbuli's Bamboo, Bakame Editions (Rwanda), Alone in the Forest, Andrea Anastasio, Call Me Tree / Llámame árbol, Cézanne and the Apple Boy, Derek Blanks, Grandfather Goes on Strike, Grandma Lim's Persimmons, Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree, Janet Wilson, Magabala Books, Walker Books, John Shelley, Nicola Davies, Roseanne Thong, Tara Books, The Boat in the Tree, Piet Grobler, The Wishing Tree, Pratham Books, Simon & Schuster, William Miller, Laurence Anholt, Jerdine Nolen, Maggie Prewett, The Old Frangipani Tree at Flying Fish Point, Trina Saffioti, Second Story Press, ZonderKidz, Nicholas Oldland, Karadi Tales, Janetta Otter-Barry Books, John Kilaka, The Amazing Tree, Nina Sabnani, Sandhya Rao, Marjorie van Heerden, Out of the Way! Out of the Way!, Tulika Books, Uma Krishnaswamy, Qin Leng, Scholastic Canada, Sirish Rao, The Promise, Walter Lorraine Books, Under the Cherry Blossom Tree, Marcia Vaughan, Up the Learning Tree, Jin Pyn Lee, The Elephant and the Tree, Maya Christina Gonzales, North-South Books, Paula Wiseman Books, Picture a Tree, Proiti Roy, In Bon Bibi's Forest, Pulak Biswas, Priya Kuriyan, Ibrahima Ndiaye, The Magic Formula, Lari Don, Tiger on a Tree, Laura Carlin, Jill Milroy, The Magic Bojabi Tree, Sharon Wilson, Trish Cooke, Mita Bordoloi, Jainal Amambing, Oyez! Books (Malaysia), The Proud Butterfly and the Strange Tree, Lee & Low (US), Look Back!, Papillote Press, The Grandad tree, Irene's Wish, Running Press Book Publishers, Rebecca Page, Greystoke, judith Clay, Julie Stiegemeyer, K. S. Nagarajan, Neeta Gangopadhya, One Two Tree!, Rev. Lyndon Harris, Rosalind Kerven, Solomon's Tree, Sunita Lad Bhamray, The Busy Beaver, The Enchanted Forest: A Scottish Fairytale, the Forgiveness Garden, The Woodcutter of Gura, Thea's Tree, Under the Baobab Tree, Veena Seshadri, Victor Reece, When Ali Became Bajrangbali, Yong-Ha Hu, Add a tag

Trees are so much a part of our daily lives, whether we take them for granted or find ourselves fighting for their survival: so it is perhaps unsurprising that there are many stories from all over the world that feature trees, woods or forests as a central theme or ‘character’… … Continue reading ... →

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8. Landscape: The streets of Tokyo
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By: John Shelley, on 1/20/2015
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  LANDSCAPE, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag

Here's something to fit the landscape theme, or city scape in this case. You can tell it's an old picture as Tokyo Metro underground changed their logo many years ago!


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9. Grandparents tsunami
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By: John Shelley, on 11/29/2014
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  GRANDPARENTS, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag

Something a little different from me this month - for a feature about the effect of an aging population on the health service.


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10. Themed Art: Autumn
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By: John Shelley, on 10/5/2014
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I re-discovered this as I was sorting through artwork for my exhibition. It's the opening spread from The Three Billy Goats Gruff, a series I did for KiddyCAT magazine in Japan.... way, way back. The title etc ran across the left, hence the open space. It was at a time I was invariably approached by Japanese publishers to work in an authentic "traditional European" children's book style, hence the nostalgia!

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11. Themed art - Birthday
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By: John Shelley, on 9/8/2014
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I'm not sure if I've posted this one before, birthday images are a bit thin on the ground in my work. It's from Tim Wynne-Jones' The Boat in the Tree  (Front Street, 2007 - now Boyds Mills Press).


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12. Exhibition in Tokyo
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By: John Shelley, on 8/24/2014
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Here are a few shots of my current show in Tokyo, many thanks to those who offered advice on printing, here's how these smaller images worked out after painting.








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13. Spring Flowers
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By: John Shelley, on 5/2/2014
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Here's another image from my newest book Cringle, Crackle, Crack, due for release in the US through Holiday House later this year (I think!)


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14. Bear - Work in Progress
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By: John Shelley, on 3/6/2014
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  THEMED ART, work in progress, John Shelley, Add a tag



Here are three unfinished bear images waiting to be coloured, from Crinkle, Crackle, Crack!, my current picture book project.

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15. Charlie Bone Cats
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By: John Shelley, on 2/6/2013
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  cats, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag

I don't have many works where cats form the central theme of the image, but often they're in the background or part of the narrative, like these text illustrations from the Charlie Bone novels (Japanese edition), where three mysterious cats are an important part of the plot.



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16. Elves
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By: John Shelley, on 12/2/2012
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Watercolor, ELVES, John Shelley, THEMED ART, Add a tag

I don't have much in the way of Christmas Elves, but the woodland and brownie varieties are a different matter. This is one of two pieces I produced for a Japanese children's calendar back in the day.


John Shelley

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17. Yellow Dandelion Summer
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By: John Shelley, on 7/9/2012
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Some will already have seen this as my email summer greeting. Here it is on the blog, minus text.

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18. Brownie Annual
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By: John Shelley, on 5/29/2012
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  animals, FOREST, John Shelley, Add a tag


Sorry for interjecting on the current Zoo theme,  I just wanted to show some of the work I created last week for the UK Brownies Annual, as discussed recently.

Here's the endpapers...

 

and some of the inside spot illustrations... 
 


3 Comments on Brownie Annual, last added: 5/30/2012
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19. Golden eggs
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By: John, on 4/11/2012
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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This is so hot off the drawing board I haven't even posted the artwork yet. But I thought it matches the 'egg' theme, even though there are no eggs in the actual illustration! This is from Jack in the Beanstalk, for Japanese publisher Fukuinkan Shoten, due for release in September.

2 Comments on Golden eggs, last added: 4/12/2012
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20. Bologna Book Fair – SCBWI Duelling Artists
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By: Aline Pereira, on 3/21/2012
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Kathleen Ahrens, SCBWI, Eventful World, Chris Cheng, Paul O. Zelinsky, John Shelley, Bob Barner, Serena Geddes, Lesley Vamos, Add a tag

We didn’t manage to be there for the full two hours but the SCBWI stand at the Bologna Book Fair was even more the place to be from 12.00-2.00 today, when authors from across the regions read their own unpublished manuscript and two (later, I think, three) illustrators battled it out to draw the illustrations.

We caught most of Paul O. Zelinsky (on the left) and Bob Barner (right) working up a frenzy with a fun counting book from Kathleen Ahrens (and John Shelley on guitar!). Whern it came to 10, they pulled the flip charts together and joined forces…

Then Lesley Vamos (left) and Serena Geddes (right) illustrate a story written and read by Chris Cheng:

Sadly, we had to leave before the end but you can see pictures of the whole session on Chris Cheng’s blog.

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21. Dragon
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By: John, on 2/3/2012
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Here's a dragon from the vaults, in fact my very first trade picture book, The Secret in the Matchbox, waaaaaaaaaay back!

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22. Halloween Ghost
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By: John, on 10/30/2011
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I've never actually been asked to illustrate a ghost, just one of those juicy commissions that have yet to find their way to me. But here's my most recent sketch, part of the marathon of doodles I've been posting to my blog every day.


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23. Teacher trauma
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By: John, on 9/25/2011
Blog: the dust of everyday life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I know we should be posting picture book illustrations, but I hope I won't be sent into detention for showing a B/W text illustration, it's from the Japanese edition of Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors.

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24. Holiday online
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By: John, on 7/18/2011
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Not specifically children's book illustrations I have to admit, but it shows the kind of shenanigans I regularly worked on in Japan quite well. It's a magazine editorial about booking holidays online, currencies etc. Gimme some of that sunshine now please, its cold and rainy in the UK!

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25. Birthday Cake
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By: John, on 7/1/2011
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It's been a while since I've posted! Here's something topical, from a non-fiction book on the workings of the human body. This was part of a section illustrating breathing.

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