Stanley and the Lucky Book

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Recently I've been very busy working on a submission to this year's Illustrate It, entitled the "Lucky Book".

The story revolves around a very ordinary boy called Stanley who is given amongst many other presents, a book for his birthday. His life starts to radically change for the better after receiving this book.

Cape Town City Hall

There are so many amazingly beautiful buildings with so much character and history in my home town Cape Town, South Africa.

I was especially inspired to create an illustration of our City Hall, with Table Mountain in the distance. Built in 1905, the City Hall is iconic in South African history, as Nelson Mandela, after just being released from prison on 11 February 1990, made his first public speech from the City Hall’s balcony.

Hope you like!

Het Bos by Alain Grée

I've been meaning for a long time to share with you Alain Grée's amazing book,  entitled "Het Bos" which I was super lucky to win last year!!

For those of you not aware of Alain Grée's amazing body of work, he is an acclaimed French illustrator and author, having published over 300 books for a variety of editors primarily in the 1960's and 1970's, with each of these books in turn having been translated into 20 languages all over the globe! 

Born 21 July 1936 in Eaubonne, near Paris, he studied at the Ecole des Arts Appliqués and Beaux Arts de Paris in Paris. He has worked as an illustrator for "Pomme d'Api" and "Journal de Babar" magazines, produced children’s broadcasts on the French national television for two years and is currently working as a graphic designer and editor of advertising publications. 

Interestingly, he has a huge passion for sailing, having owned sailing ships and also having gone on many sailing trips around the world while working on his children's stories and illustrations on board the ship! He even worked as a journalist for "Voiles et Voiliers", a sailing ships magazine for 20 years!

I love how he makes such great use of vibrant colours to bring even the most mundane subjects to life and makes them absolutely fascinating to read about!
It is also so beautiful to see how much longevity Alain Grée's work has.

I'm so grateful to have won a signed copy of his Het Bos and for the beautiful postcards he sent along with it! So gorgeous!

Here are a few of his many gorgeous illustrations I found floating around on the interwebs:

A few of the many books he has illustrated.

Some spreads from his Trains book. So very beautiful!

One of the many desktop wallpapers he created! I love this one of France!

A beautiful fabric pattern entitled Paris / Indians, 8.00€ available at Mes Habits Chéris.

And finally, two beautiful Alain Grée prints, entitled Happy House and Elves in the Forest available for £10.00 each at the Anorak Magazine shop.

Alexander's Band

So in recent news, the brand new South African independent illustration representation service I was invited to join is LIVE!

Named after an optical phenomenon, Alexander's Band is the brainchild of Emma Cook, a well established and well known Cape Town illustrator with over 6 years experience and know-how in the field of illustration and business. She heads up a formidable list of Cape Town illustrator heavyweights including Adam Hill, Jade Klara, Simon Maclennan, David Maclennan, Joey Hifi, Alice Edy, Ryan de Carte, Hanno van Zyl and Gareth Jones.

I'm SO very honoured and privileged to have been asked to join such an amazingly talented group of illustrators - both humbling and SO very exciting!

My profile and body of work can be seen here.