Just a little update on my recent news! I'm partway through a commission for Oxford University Press which has been great fun... and also very exciting for me as they're a publisher that I've always wanted to work for. I've created an illustration for them based on one of Aesop's Fables... the story of the Travellers and The Bear. I'm only showing a little peek at the moment, and a glimpse of the colour-planning that I did to give the illustration a hint of old-fashioned story-book illustrations from the turn of the century. The illustration shows the moment that the bear leans over the traveller who is playing dead, and instead of eating him... it whispers in his ear.
In other news I attended the opening of Stuart Whitton's amazing exhibition 'Origin' at the Exposure Gallery on Little Portland Street in London. Stuart is a fantastic pencil artist, and being a pencil enthusiast myself I was very pleased to get a chance to see his originals at the exhibition. The exhibition continues until the end of October, 10am to 6pm, so if you get a chance do go along and have a look. You can see more of Stuart's pencil illustrations and portraits at his website here:
Talking of pencil... I'm working on pencil drawings of foxes for a personal book project at the moment. I realised that as my
Here are a couple of pics from a project I'm currently working on. I'm about halfway through illustrating this Indian folk tale, and really enjoying it! My colour-scheme of earth colours and hot reds, yellows and oranges was inspired by Dulac, one of those classical illustrators who I really love. And also inspired by India itself of course. You can click on these images for a closer look.
Just a little update on an event I took part in yesterday... New Cross Turn Left was organised by members of the Fleece Station studio (and others,) and it was a great sunny event full of comics and cake. The studio is part of the Old Police Station in New Cross... and there was lots going on including comedy, music, a theatre piece based on Gary Northfield's 'Derek the Sheep' ...plus thought-provoking art installations in the old police cells. Here are a few pictures of the event...
My handmade books were on display next to Katie Green's gorgeous zines, jewellery and mini original paintings on wood... click on the photo below to see in more detail or go to Katie's blog here:
http://katiegreenbean.blogspot.com/ I also had El Ashfield and Corinne Davies' great series of 'Ralph' books on display.
http://www.ralphisnotasuperhero.co.uk/Finally some photos of the event by my boyfriend and occasional collaborator
Sergio Galaviz, who was selling mini collections photographic prints, beautifully presented in string-tie envelopes.
2 Comments on 'New Cross Turn Left' Comics/Small Press Garden Party!, last added: 7/25/2011
I've just finished an illustrated map of Mexico for this wonderful website:
www.theydrawandtravel.comAnyone can submit an illustration to this site... you might be familiar with their sister site They Draw and Cook which invited illustrators and designers to submit illustrated recipes. (Mine is here!
http://www.theydrawandcook.com/recipes/roasted-butternut-squash-and-sage-risotto-by-katriona-chapman) The brief with They Draw and Travel is to illustrate a map of your favourite town, city or country, and to make it quite personal... focusing on places that you particularly love and also that are less well-known. Click on the map above to see it at full-size!
I found it very hard to narrow my favourite places in Mexico down to a few that would fit on this map... but I also enjoyed illustrating the aspects of Mexico that I particularly love (the amazing natural spaces and wildlife, the archaeological sites and the indigenous communities.) Some of the places I've included aren't necessarily less well-known, but they often get missed out because they're difficult to reach, or miles from anywhere else! But as I found on my first big backpacking trip around Mexico in 2003/2004... the absolute best experiences I had came from travelling as far off the beaten track as possible. Here are close-ups of a few details from my map...
Also related to Mexico: click on the image below to check out the section of my blog that documents my love of Mayan art
Also, click on this image to see the 'travel sketches' section of my website (which is dominated by sketches of Mexico!)
The alternative press festival yesterday and Saturday went very well... I met some great people and I'm going to share some of their fantastic work here.
A highlight for me was Elisabeth Fairman from the
Yale Centre for British Art buying a copy of my book
'The Garden', to add to the permanent collection of rare books that she curates :o)
Here are a few of my photos of the festival...
Here are examples of some of the work I enjoyed seeing over the weekend.
Ellen Lindner
http://littlewhitebird.com/Elli Chortara
http://ellichort.wordpress.com/Mike Medaglia
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Medaglia/11589937059Esther McManus
http://esthermcmanus.blogspot.com/
Elliot Baggott
http://surrealistetiquette.blogspot.com/
I've been busy lately and haven't updated my blog in a while... so here's a little round-up of my news. I've just completed a children's book commission for HarperCollins Big Cat, and as the book isn't out yet I can only show you a few snippets. Look out for more pictures when the book comes out in September!
I'm also working on a really fun project at the moment which ties in with my love of Mexico. Here are a few bits and pieces... a sneak preview of some of the elements that will be in the final piece (which hopefully I'll be able to post by the end of the week.)
This week I'm also preparing for the Alternative Press Festival which is taking place at the weekend in Conway Hall, Bloomsbury. I have a stall at the festival selling my handmade books (plus prints and cards and other fun stuff) ...I'll be there on Saturday and Sunday the 28th and 29th, from 10am til 4pm. If you're in London over the weekend, do drop in because it sounds like an amazing event! As well as all the comics, zines and art-books for sale there will also be all kinds of workshops and other fun things going on.
Finally... a month ago my garden once again became host to a litter of lovely fox cubs. This year the poor mother fox had eight cubs... a huge litter! Here are a few of my favourite photos of them, plus some photos of the ACEOs that I made in their honour. ACEOs are trading-card-sized original artworks. There are still three of the set I made available at my etsy shop! (
www.etsy.com/shop/sleepingllama)
3 Comments on Update!, last added: 5/24/2011
Last night's It's Your Write event at the V&A Museum of Childhood was great... I sold some books and prints, did a few swaps, met some great people, and saw the museum's amazing collection of toys. It was great to see toys that I remembered from my childhood (marble run!) and also toys from throughout history and from different countries around the world.
Ed Boxall, Lorna Crabbe
Mary Kilvert
Mary and I!
My stall.
Also at It's Your Write were
Mary Kilvert,
Ed Boxall and
Lorna Crabbe... they all do lovely work and I was lucky enough to go home with books from all of their stalls. I also got to meet the
Alternative Press, who I'll be seeing again at the end of May for the alternative press festival. They created an on-the-spot zine during the event, collecting content from people and photocopying/stapling it on the night.
New items on my stall were my Beautiful Birds colouring book (which is really fun, and suitable for kids & adults alike!) ...and my ACEO cards. I love the idea of ACEOs (Art Cards, Editions & Originals)... artists produce work that is trading-card size, so that people have the option of bu
This Thursday evening I'll have a stall at this very exciting event at the V&A Museum of Childhood... please do drop in if you can!
The fair is a celebration of the self-published, and includes art, music, writing, craft & performance... there are all kinds of talks and workshops too. There are discussions with people like Guardian investigative journalist Shiv Malik, Climate Rush founder Tamsin Omond and many more interesting folk. There are zine workshops with The Alternative Press, and you can knit & make badges & banners with The Craftivist Collective and Craft Guerrilla's Zeena Shah.
Some excellent illustrators will also have work on display, including Mary Kilvert and Ed Boxall... and I'll have one or two brand new illustrated products on display myself. Here's a sneak preview of one new project that I'll be making available for the first time on Thursday...
There's more info to be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105581689523338http://nothingbadmag.com/index.php/art/event-its-your-write/
Here's a little round-up of my recent news! A week ago I participated in the London Comics/Small Press Expo... it was good fun and I met some great people. It was really hard not to spend all my money on other peoples' artwork! Here's some of the great stuff I picked up.
These three ladies were a pleasure to meet, and have some lovely illustrations and book art that's worth checking out:
Katie Green,
Marisa Cherry Saunders &
Jess Bradley. I particularly enjoyed Jess Bradley's colouring book because I hadn't played with one of those in many years! Here are a few pages that I coloured while I was resting the day after the expo.
My friend Clint Green also had a stall at the expo, and his first comic project 'Taroch' sold lots & lots of copies! Here he is on the left with his illustrator Luke Orrin... check out Taroch here:
http://www.tarochcomic.com/The fair inspired me to start experimenting with artwork for a secret new book project. Here's a sneak peek at the experiment so far...
I've also just found out that I've got a table at the International Alternative Press Festival in London on the 28th and 29th of May. This sounds like a great event... more info can be found
here.
This Saturday I'm going to have a stall at the London comic and small press expo at Goldsmiths College, New Cross. It will be quite strange as I graduated from Goldsmiths about ten years ago, & even though I pass it almost every day, I haven't been inside since! It's also my first experience of selling my handmade books at a fair, so it's very exciting. I thought I'd show some of the bits and pieces that I've been working on to decorate my stall with. The expo lasts all day from 10.00 until 5.00, so any Londoners out there, please drop in and say hello! There'll be a lot of great stuff to see... there are talks and signings with guests such as the great Dave McKean. You can see a list of exhibitors and events here:
www.spexpo.co.uk/londonfaq
I've just finished this book cover illustration for a book of Medieval stories for Floris Books. They'll add a colour to the background when they create the final cover design.
I didn't sketch a lot during my recent holiday in Mexico... mainly because I went on a road trip driving from La Paz, Baja California to Los Angeles and back. Most of my time was spent in a car! But here are the few sketches that I managed to get done... plus a few of my favourite photos from the trip.
0 Comments on Mexico Images! as of 1/1/1900
I bought Ed Boxall's book 'The Gardener' at the Handmade and Bound Bookfair in London in November... and it's inspired me to do a series for this blog about people involved in handmade/small press books. Ed agreed to answer some questions about his charming and evocative books, and his Pear Box Press projects.
I'm very interested in why people self-publish, especially when (like you) they obviously work with big publishing houses as well and it's not for lack of success in the traditional publishing world. Why did you first become interested in publishing books yourself?
To be honest it was for ‘lack of success in the traditional publishing world’ that I self publish. I got into self publishing because Walker Books dumped me! My relationship with Walkers was the best thing in the world in that they taught me loads about making books and then by dumping me they gave me the passion to do it alone!
What do you particularly enjoy about it? Are there any downsides?
I can’t bear having bosses. I am allergic to working for other people for more than five minutes! So self publishing suits me very well and gives me a brilliant sense of freedom. I feel like I’m getting away with something. The established publishing world is a great big mountain that you assume you have to climb, but you don’t: you can just walk off and do your own thing. If you make something good, people will buy it. You don’t need an army of editors and marketing people to tell you whether something will sell.
The downside is simply the practicalities of distribution: I only have around 25 retailers, and that’s taken ages to build up as there’s always fifty other more important things to do than send off samples to shops.
1 Comments on Small Presses: Ed Boxall/Pear Box Press, last added: 1/17/2011
I'm currently working on a new handmade book called The Garden. This time it's a hardback book, and making the covers has been really fun (if quite time-consuming!) This book came about after a collaboration I did with my partner Sergio who draws fantastical line drawings in ink... he compiled a collection which I then coloured in pencil and bound into a beautiful concertina book which ties closed with ribbon. You can find out more at my small press blog, where I'm also giving away a free copy:
www.tomatitopress.blogpot.com Please stop by and leave a comment with your e-mail address if you'd like to win a copy of the book.
I recently added 'A Bit Lost' to my picture book collection, and it's one of my very favourite new books. The story is picture book perfection... very simple, but very funny and with gorgeous illustrations. The colours of the book are beautiful, and they're not afraid of using dark colours (which I like.) The whole design of the book is sophisticated and very pleasing to look at.
The characters are very appealing and full of expression, in spite of the simplicity with which they've been created.
There's a wonderful use of empty space on the pages, which give the illustrations room to breathe and helps to emphasise the smallness of the little lost owl. The compositions are flawless, and there's one half-page variation in page size at the beginning of the story which adds drama to the owl's fall from his nest.
0 Comments on From my collection: 'A Bit Lost' by Chris Haughton as of 1/5/2011 4:42:00 PM
I had a nice Christmas in the Scottish Highlands... I didn't do any sketching, but did go for lots of long, peaceful walks and drives in the snow. I saw some mountains that were just stunning... I'm a big fan of mountains! In fact the cottage I stayed in looked out over an amazing mountain landscape. Here are some photos of my Christmas.
Unbelievably... this was the view from our cottage!
Looking out the front door of the cottage... moon above the mountains.
Some people in Scotland live in very remote locations...
Kishorn Islands
Skye...
The mountains at Torridon
Some of these icicles were so big, I wouldn't have been able to get my hand around them!
I've just finished a job for Hinkler Books in Australia, 'Jo and Jess go to the Dentist.' I've made a little montage of bits and pieces from this book...
This is another favourite from my collection of illustrated books. I love Ojingogo because it's so unusual... it's difficult to even think of it as a comic or graphic novel, and it's pretty much impossible to say what it's about. The sleeve-notes describe it as "tossing aside traditional narrative conventions in favour of creating its own world, language and rules." The only words in the book are Hangul (the Korean alphabet.) I love stories that are quite surreal and humourous and beautifully drawn, and Ojingogo is a perfect example of this! I also like the Asian influences, drawn from Matthew's time as a kindergarten teacher in Korea. He thanks his former students at the back of the book and has even done little portraits of them. The book is also a lovely object... it's a great size and printed on beautiful paper. The cover has a nice texture, and the splash of orange on the inside of the cover gives a great accent to the otherwise very muted colour palette.
Here are some of my favourite illustrations from the book.
Today I completed this brand new illustration for a Christmas card. It's on sale at my Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/61995682/robins-christmas-card
View Next 25 Posts
0 Comments on Matthew Forsythe's 'Ojingogo' as of 1/1/1900
They should put your sketches in the window display!
Way to go, Katriona! A postcard for the National Theatre is a pretty big deal. Congratulations. :)