Giraffe Attack and new Go Girl Releases!

September is an exciting month! I have three new books coming out! The first is a picture book written by Chris Gurney published by Scholastic NZ, "Giraffe Attack".
I had so much fun illustrating this book. Chris's writing is full of beautiful rhythm and rhymes. Here is a little passage from the book:

"Golly gosh!" said Dad, as the door went wham-ker-bang.

"That fierce and flustery giraffe is making things go clang!"

Jack heard the handle on the door go sneaky-creaky-clack

and raced to lock it good and tight to stop Giraffe Attack!

 

Character roughs

Above shows work process from rough to adding colour....

Like any illustrator I am inspired by everything around me. I believe I had my old house in my mind when I drew this house up for the book. I used to live in a country side in Nagano of Japan. We were surrounded by organic farms and dad built his first house here. I took above photos when I visited Japan with my sister 5 years ago.Had a funny feeling seeing other people living in our old house..

Finished illustration!

 

Also two more new titles has been released for the Go Girl series, published by Hardie Grant Egmont.

I have to have a different mindset when illustrating for series books compare to illustrating for children's picture book. I am focusing more on the characters, their emotions and how they flow from chapter to chapter. Also I tend to have much less time to complete a series book, so the whole process is more spontaneous compared to a picture book, which usually take months and months to complete. For picture books I tend to treat each picture page like an artwork on its own as well as part of a whole story.

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps: August Release

Rather a bit late post on the Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps August release! Better late then never....

August was a month of Football!

Being living in New Zealand, when Sparkle first briefed me for a Football Josh image I automatically drew Josh with soccer ball! Silly me. Anyway after the initial misunderstanding I came up with a Josh looking all buffed up, a nice change from his usual cool-street-boy-look!

Simonne Clay has created another wonderful card using the stamp! I am such a fan of her work!



Obviously Cheerleading Emily was a perfect duo match for the August release!

And here goes another wonderful creation by Simonne!



Lily The Littlest Angel:Has A Secret Cover

My editor at Scholastic has been telling me the two new Lily the Littlest Angel books has been rather successful amongst girls since their launch a couple of months ago! Here goes a post on the cover illustration for the second book in its series "Lily has a Secret". (can you guess what the secret is?)

 

Like the first cover I have tried out a few drafts. And image of Lily and the new kitten "Petal" on the moon popped in my head so I played around with that concept.

Playing around with different poses .... the last draft seemed to convey the most connection between Lily and Petal, so we went with that!

After the initial colouring I enhanced the moon more in the final version. Also changed Lily's mouth so that she looks like she is talking to Petal :)

The designer placed this on the background and walla!

The author Elizabeth Pulford has written a post about Petal and Frumplepuss in her Lily blog. Love finding out where the authors get their inspirations!

Billie B Brown Australia Tour!

It's been a while since I have last posted about Billie B Brown.

Firstly I want to share a wonderful news, I have been invited by Hardie Grant Egmont and Get Reading! to tour around New South Wales and Victoria for Billie B Brown events, with the wonderful author Sally Rippin! I will be in Melbourne from the 12th of September for a week then will be moving around libraries, bookshops and schools through different cities until the 24th. Hopefully I will have Internet close by so that I can keep you all posted on our schedule! I have been to Sydney (a few years for sister's friend's wedding) and Brisbane once (20 years ago when I was moving to New Zealand with my family). So I am VERY excited and a bit nervous about this trip!

Anyway some new book releases. Two more Billie books has been launched since I have last posted.
Firstly, " The Best Project"



Had fun drawing up Billie's special tower. Billie's dad and Noah also appears a lot in this book! :)
 
And the latest release "The Spotty Holiday"! Had so much fun illustrating this book! A new family member appears in this book. Will be posting more about it later on! Check out the cover process below!
 

Since I'm invited on a tour I have been busy making myself more accessible online so that hopefully the readers can learn more about the illustrator of Billie...

Feel free to join me on my new Facebook Page, and also check out my new Website!

Can't wait finally meet Sally, the publishing team and all the Billie FANS!

Lily The Littlest Angel: Winger O'Reilly and Book 2 Cast!

 

Winger O'Reilly is a new addition to Lily's cast. He first appears in the second book in the 'Lily the Littlest Angel" series written by Elizabeth Pulford.

He is such a groovy character!

The initial rough above was approved when I first designed this character.

 

When it came to working on the internal illustrations someone mentioned that he looks.. gay.

So I added facial hair and made his boots less pointy and more workman-like-boots! :D

So here goes the entire main cast for the second book, enjoying a nice pancake and tea party :)

Sparkle Creations 1st Anniversary Release & Hop!!!

Welcome to the Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps 1st Anniversary Hop! 

To celebrate a year of SCRS we are releasing 4 new SCRS stamps this month!
First of all I want to thank Sparkle for choosing me to illustrate for her beautiful store. And a big love to the wonderful DT, I am so inspired by all your creations. I just adore seeing all the black and white illustrations I do turn into magical creations in the hands of these talented people!

Being the illustrator for the store I thought I would show the work process for each of the new release, and how I coloured them up! :) ENJOY

Backpack Oliver

 

Coloured up Oliver

 

 

Pencil Rough

 

Final illustration used for Stamp

 

Bookworm Ruby

 

Coloured up Ruby

 

Rough

 

Final illustration used for Stamp

Ukulele Josh

 

Coloured Josh

 

Work Process

Hula Lucy

 

Coloured Lucy

 

Work Process

Sparkle is also releasing 2 new Karber Rubber Stamps! Rainbow Leslie and Reading Millie! 

They are ALL available in the store now!

We have assembled an all-star lineup consisting of our Current Design Team, DT Alumni and past/present Guest Designers. If you happened here by chance and would like to start from the beginning, the hop begins at the SCRS blog. Please see the complete list below.

We've hidden TEN single stamp prizes along the way and one lucky winner will win the ENTIRE July release! All you need to do is leave some comments at every stop along the hop.. You have until 11:59 PM EST on Sunday to leave comments for a chance to win! Winners will be announced on the SCRS blog on Monday. Good luck to all and Happy Hopping!

Thanks SO much for joining us!

Lily The Littlest Angel: Petal

 

Now that the books in the store I can show you more! 

Petal is a new addition to the wonderful Lily cast in the second book "Lily has a Secret" (Can you guess what the secret is?)

 

In the Manuscript the author Elizabeth Pulford described Petal as a small grey blue Kitten with big eyes. 

I love drawing animals, especially cats! :)