Bits & Pieces

August has been quite the busy month! I've had a lot on the go - a lot which I can't unfortunately share yet - so instead I will share a few bits and pieces of happenings this month.

From top:

- A little snippet of something I'm busy finishing up this week
- A self-initiated piece I'm working on in my spare time
- A piece I'm busy finishing colouring

Not only has this month been a pretty busy, one, but it's been a hugely growing, stretching, get-out-of-your-comfort-zone kind of month!

From left:
- Last week (19 - 23 August) I put on my teaching hat! I kicked off with a talk at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Town and Belville campuses and then lectured for the rest of the week at the Cape Town campus. It was such an amazing and growing experience!!
- Those who know me well will know that alongside a great cup of coffee, there is nothing better than a good book! So when I heard Exclusive Books was having a huge warehouse sale out in Belville, I couldn't resist! I managed to find some amazing design books at the fraction of the cost!
- Living it up at the Big Bottle Festival! Held at The Cellars-Hohenort Hotel, the festival had a bit of a Great Gatsby feel to it, with guests being spoiled with great wine and food! I'm still dreaming about the most fantastic curry I tasted there, as well as some quality reds..

I'm so excited about some amazing projects in the pipeline that are coming up...watch this space!

Stanley and the Lucky Book

(Click to view bigger)

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.

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.

It's A Shape Christmas - A Sneak Peek

Recently, I was very honoured to have been chosen to submit for this year's It's A Shape Christmas!

It's A Shape Christmas is an interactive advent calender, in which 25 creatives (illustrators, typographers, designers and photographers) are each given a particular shape to work with and give a Christmas slant to it. Each day a different creative's piece of work is revealed. There's a very cool video with more info on the It's A Shape Christmas project, created by Made By Shape and produced by Beata Sawka here.

There are some ridiculously AMAZING people featured this year: Lydia Nichols (Philadelphia, USA), Barney Ibbotson (Manchester,UK), Alan Heighton (Doncaster, UK), Chris Madden (Manchester,UK), Dave Raxworthy (London, UK), Emil Paun (Manchester,UK), Oliver Sin (Cheltenham, UK), Katie Daugherty (Kent, Ohio, USA) , David Ryan Robinson (London, UK), Timothy Joe Reynolds (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), Tom Nicklin (Chesire, UK), Mathew Lucas (Macclesfield, UK), Isabel Foo (Toronto, Canada), Dean Zappy (Manchester, UK), May Ninth (Manchester, UK), Laurie Pink (Manchester, UK), Cintia González (Málaga, Andalusia, Spain), Michael Thorp (Manchester, UK), Kat Loveday (Manchester, UK), Brandon James Scott (Toronto, Canada), Rui Almedia (Lisbon, Portugal), Daren Newman (Manchester, UK), Luke Drozd (London, UK), James O' Connell (Manchester, UK) and yours truly (Cape Town, South Africa represent!).

SO very honoured to be featured alongside such talented people!! They've all set the bar very high!

The Made By Shape team have also done such a sterling job on the design of the website - so functional and beautifully designed! Go check out their site for yourself!

Here's a sneak peek of a piece of my submission - I had so much fun creating it!

Can you guess what shape I was given and what I illustrated for it? ;)

I'll keep the full image a surprise until I have been featured on the website - they've actually kept our reveal date a surprise for all of us involved, so I'll wait in suspense with you! So very excited to reveal the final piece!! :)

Illustration Friday - Remedy

Problem: No bookends. Remedy: Two identical cats with a fondness for snuggling on bookshelves :) Inspired by a true story.

Some details of the illustration.