My Secret Elephant

Hello!

2009/03/17 at 2:45 pm | In db | Comments Off

Welcome to My Secret Elephant – my picture book illustration website and blog. I’m currently working on my 6th picture book and blogging the process as I go along in a series of posts called new book beginnings ~ db.
Current illustration stage: final drawings

new book beginnings ~ db

2009/11/23 at 10:35 pm | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | 1 Comment

Sunbirds ~ colour test

new book beginnings ~ db

2009/11/22 at 5:53 pm | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | Leave a Comment

I’m doing a happy dance – I have an extension on the book which means I can stop with the stress-induced book illustration nightmares. phew.

new book beginnings ~ db

2009/10/22 at 11:21 am | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | Leave a Comment

More details from the last page spread sketch, a little further along in the drawing process.

(pencil on tracing paper)

new book beginnings ~ db

2009/10/21 at 12:03 pm | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | Leave a Comment

this is a detail of the other side of the spread I posted yesterday.

new book beginnings ~ db

2009/10/20 at 1:45 pm | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | Leave a Comment

pencil on tracing paper sketch detail from the last spread of the book. still got a long way to go.

My reference is from a bunch of photos I shot at the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens a few years ago.

In addition to the swans, Kensington Gardens is also home to Peter Pan.

CCBC Picture Book Art Auction

2009/10/20 at 9:55 am | In children's book illustration | Leave a Comment

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has a brand new website up for the Take Home An Original: The Art of the Picture Book auction.

This year’s live and silent auction will be held at the National Gallery of Canada on Tuesday November 24th, 2009 and full details, including ticket info, are on the website. If you are not in Ottawa between November 10 & November 24 to see the artworks in person during the preview at the National Gallery of Canada, you can see them online here.

The auction benefits the Canadian Chidren’s Book Centre, a not-for-profit organisation “dedicated to encouraging, promoting and supporting the reading, writing, illustrating and publishing of Canadian books for young readers”. I can’t say enough good things about this organisation. They provide a wealth of information and support for the Canadian children’s book industry and I encourage anyone interested in kidlit, whether as a librarian, educator, parent, author or illustrator, publisher, bookseller or book lover to learn more about them and the projects they are involved with.

The time has (almost) come

2009/10/19 at 2:50 pm | In CT, Picture Books, children's book illustration, sketches | 3 Comments

Here’s a little look at some sketches and a fraction of an illustration from part of a book I finished illustrating 1 1/2 years ago and have just heard will be coming out early next year (2010). In the interest of not counting too many chickens until the ink has dried and the bindings are glued, details will be sparse. But in the meantime – yay!

new book beginnings ~ db

2009/10/16 at 12:05 pm | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | Leave a Comment

These are photos of my inspiration board that hangs above my desk. I put this together for this book project to remind me to focus on line, composition and pattern and to spur me on when I get overwhelmed and frustrated with what I’m working on. I didn’t consciously choose them for the colour scheme, it just worked out that my selections fall into the earthy colour palette I’m obviously partial to.

I’ve been given or have bought various art cards over the years; one of my favourites is the lovely dog drawing (Study of a lurcher by Jonathan Trowell), bought while on holiday in Totnes last summer.

Spurge, Withyham, 1909 by Charles Rennie Mackintosh + map of London

A lady and a young man by Isoda Koryusai, Late 18th A.D + $.42 Lunar New Year stamps

new book beginnings ~ db

2009/10/10 at 10:27 am | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | Leave a Comment

rough colour and medium tests

new book beginnings ~ db

2009/10/08 at 5:31 pm | In Picture Books, children's book illustration, db, illustration process | Leave a Comment

I had a few minutes the other day to play around with some ink and wood block stamps I bought Maiwa Supply a while ago. This isn’t the style I’ll be using for the book, but it gave me some good ideas for other things – and for the approach I’ll take when I’m ready to start adding colour to my book artwork.