Bags of Books, Lewes

It's been a busy week! On Thursday I was in London where Open Very Carefully was awarded Best Picture Book in the Waterstones Children's Book Prize (!!!), and on Saturday I was at Bags of Books in Lewes for a book event, where I tried out my new crocodile onesie (verdict: success, but must watch where I swing that tail). I think this might just be my best week ever. Thank you for having me, Bags of Books!

Use Your Imagination Book Cover

My new book with Nosy Crow has been sent off to the printers. It's due for publication in August 2014, which seems a long way away. In the meantime, here's a look at the cover!

Blackwell's Crafternoon

On Sunday I was at Blackwell's for part of the Love Charing Cross Road festival. In my Colour & Count books with Blue Apple Books, I go over some basic printmaking techniques, and I was at the festival to demonstrate printmaking using everyday items such as leaves, play-doh, cardboard, and poster paint. The event was open to adults and children of any age and artistic skill.

There was lots going on at the festival including free face painting across the road in Foyle's, so I decided I'd better get my war paint on before getting down to business.

Sarah at Blackwell's had done a fantastic job of getting things together together for our crafting session.  I think the bubble wrap prints are especially awesome.

This is a print I made using cardboard, in case you can't tell, it is a sad elephant.

Francis' crafting skills put me to shame.

Skills.

Lovely ladies having fun. Photo by Luke Rhodes.

Thank you for having me, Blackwell's! See you next year!

New Cards

Spring has finally sprung! I've been working on a new set of cards to celebrate.

Personal Favourites

I own a lot of picture books. Books with great stories, books with great illustrations, books with gatefolds, pop ups, lift the flaps, long ones, short ones, tall ones, wide ones, so many that I have started making new shelves on my book case by stacking books horizontally on top of the vertical ones. I never grew out of them and I know I never will. It would be impossible to make a Top Ten list.. but here are a few favourites:

 Rhinos don't eat pancakes by Anna Kemp, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie

 Mr. Peek and the misunderstanding at the zoo by Kevin Waldron

 Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch

 I am an Artist by Marta Altes

 The General by Michael Foreman, text by Janet Charters

 Augustus And His Smile by Catherine Rayner

 The Arrival by Shaun Tan

 Big Rabbit's Bad Mood by Ramona Badescu, illustrated by Delphine Durand

 The Cockerel and the Fox by Helen Ward

Wave by Suzy Lee

T-Rex Process

What a varied past couple of weeks, I've been doing a couple different samples for publishers, and of some unusual subject matter (maybe I should say, unusual for me). Here is a T-Rex. The publisher wanted flat colour with texture on top, and a ferocious character. I hope I ticked the boxes!

Cardinals

It's been a few months! If you haven't already, and you'd like to, please 'like' my facebook page, Nicola O'Byrne Illustration, which I update almost daily. I have been trying a couple things out for a publisher. The text is lovely but a little tricky to illustrate. The feedback I got for my first sample was that it was lacking in personality and the relationship between the papa bird and the chick wasn't developed.

I've tried to simplify things down and zoom in, hopefully this works better. 

Scandinavian Style Cards

New Style!

In uni I was always concerned about style. Mostly because I didn't seem to have one, or at least not one that I could see. I put this down to the fact that I'm inspired by lots of different things from Japanese ukiyo-e to Brian Wildsmith's heavily textured work; sometimes my work would go one way and sometimes it would go the other; it doesn't worry me so much anymore as I think the main thing is to being able to reproduce a 'look' if you want to. Over the past 2 years I've been developing a couple different styles with the help of publishers and my agents, and today I've done a sample in a new one. Hope you like!

The Mighty Artichoke

I have been racking my brains trying to think of a good ending for my second picture book with Nosy Crow. Today I decided to take a break and do a bit of printmaking instead. The mighty artichoke.

Printing Press

I am the proud owner of a tiny new printing press! I was eager to get stuck in so I printed off 4 small black and white illustrations. I'm really happy with the way they came out so I'm thinking of starting something a little more ambitious.

Greetings Cards

I received some great news on friday, one of my cards has been licensed to a UK greetings cards company! This is my first success with art licensing, and hopefully bodes well for the future. You can view my full range of greetings cards here.

Open Very Carefully Preview

I've just seen on the Nosy Crow website that they've put up a preview of my picture book, 'Open Very Carefully'! I'm very excited about it,  to take a look for yourself please check out this link:

http://issuu.com/nosycrow/docs/ovc/7

This book is available for preorder on Amazon, here:

http://amzn.to/NNYf1u

Count & Colour Books

I have 2 new books available for pre-order on amazon! They are counting and colouring books published by Blue Apple Books (USA), suitable for ages 3+. Publishing date is 12th Feb, 2013.

You can find this one here: http://www.amazon.com/Count-Color-Swim-Nicola-OByrne/dp/1609052994/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1346407761&sr=8-5&keywords=nicola+O%27byrne

And this one here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Count-Color-Fly-Nicola-OByrne/dp/1609053427/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1346407827&sr=8-4

Christmas Cards

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas cards, here are a couple I am working on.

Keeping busy

Is it really already August? I've been on holiday in California, but now I'm back at my desk working away, here's a sneak pee of work for my upcoming deadline. If you haven't already and would like to, please 'like' my Facebook page, Nicola O'Byrne Illustration, which I update regularly.

Stickers

Today I am drawing stickers for an activity book.

Colour and Count

Oops! Was it really almost 2 months since my last post? If you haven't already and you'd like to, please 'Like' my Facebook page Nicola O'Byrne Illustration, which I update weekly.
Here are a couple of process shots from my second 'Colour and Count' book with Blue Apple Books (USA).

Rain, rain, go away..

I know we're in a drought, so all this rain must be a good thing, but Arnie isn't impressed with the weather forecast this week.

Neglected blog

I've been busy the past month trying to finish off a project and getting out samples and things for potential new ones. Here is a hint of things to come :D