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I've just finished an unusual (for me) book for British publisher Frances Lincoln Ltd, a non-fiction lift-the-flap for young children on the human body. Outside-in was written by Clare Smallman and first released in the mid 1980's with illustrations by Edwina Riddell, but for this new edition I was asked to completely overhaul the book to appeal to a modern readership.

The text and layout were pretty fixed, but it was an interesting project to approach. Many spreads consist of pictures of children, with a flap to reveal the working body underneath, thus...






























































However there are also some vignette scenes like this.....














In the illustrations I tried to achieve a balance between accurate depiction of children with just enough character and distortion to make a fun book. Outside-in will be co-released in the USA by Barrons, I'm not sure of the exact release date yet.

This was an interesting project quite different from my usual output. In Japan I established my career illustrating fairy tales and dreamy aspirational images, the UK seems a lot more gritty. After researching wasps and fleas for the "Nasty" book, I'm wondering what other in-the-face projects might be next!

Apologies for the laxity in text posts recently, it's largely due to approaching deadlines, however here's something for this week's Illustration Friday topic "craving".

It's a spread from the picture book １２の月たち (12 Tsuki-tachi, or "The Twelve months" in English), first published back in 1991 in Japan. It's a classic Slovakian fairytale of evil stepmother gets rid of kind girl Marushka whose beauty surpasses that of her own ugly daughter by sending her out into the depths of winter snow to fetch unseasonable things. First its violets, then strawberries, and finally apples. Each time the frozen girl is helped by one of 12 old men in the woods, each representing one of the 12 months. In the end the greed and craving of the old woman and her boorish daughter sends them out in search of fruit themselves, their rudeness to the old men inevitably leading to fatal consequences, and happy end (for Marushka at least).

The book, released by Miki House in Japan, has been through several reprints already, and is to be released again later this year, thus one of my biggest selling titles in Japan. Sadly, no release in the West.... yet!

Something fitting for this weeks theme. It's from Maho no Kasa, a translated version of Rose Fyleman's story "The Magic Umbrella", published by Fukuinkan Shoten in Tokyo 1999 and reprinted 2007.