New Art Print: Just be You

I have a new art print available in the shop.

This painting was created as part of the MATS illustration course I did. You can read about the process and see progress shots here.

A bit of wall decor... Example of "Just be You" framed 8 x 8"

It's such a simple yet inspirational and empowering quote. So many of us need a reminder that we don't need to try to be something else than our own unique, quirky and weird selves.

Just be you! Because everyone else is taken... :)

So from one shy person who at times can be riddled with insecurities, I'm finding this artwork is just as good a reminder to myself. 

I really enjoy my own company but am still learning how to completely own myself and be ok with who I am out in the wide world. I'm getting there slowly, the more I age :) 

I hope you like it!

You can find two sizes of this print here in the shop.

Jules :)

Creative Life Round Up

Hi there! My creative-life-round-up posts are just a round up of random creativity that's happening in my world at the moment. 

Christmas is a-coming! I have just finished this little elf for a special little niece in my life. Her mama has extremely good taste and loves all the same fabrics and colours I do, so basically I made this with her in mind! I got the pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. 

I chose to make the elf on the left, and I used real wool felt for the felt components. Real wool felt is SO much better than the acrylic stuff.

Aren't they just so cute!? I really would like to get this animal pattern and make each of these cute little animals too! They are smoochalicious!! 

Food. Food is always happening here, and no, it's not always this pretty! This was for the girls' birthdays not too long ago. Right now I'm starting my Christmas cooking. My first project was shortbread cookies which I just burned. *Cry*

The husband-man and I recently took a trip... BY OURSELVES... no kids!!! Into Melbs. (Melbourne.) We saw a show, had some dinner, strolled around the streets, saw a couple of celebs, and basically felt like teenagers again. We went on our first dates as youngsters together into the city, so it felt strange to be walking around there for fun again together post having children. We don't often do things without the kids, but I could really get used to more of these outings! I like some of the creative laneways that are covered in art. Should've taken more photos!

Here's a landscape painting I started that is really not my style but was compelled to do it from a photo I took when out walking the dog. I have to say it's quite refreshing trying out a different style and I'm happy with where this small painting is heading. 

And another painting I've started! I had an image in my head of a pegasus painting, it's not turning out quite how I imagined, but I'm happy with it all the same. Maybe I'll have to keep painting pegasus paintings until I get it right!? A whole series perhaps??

And here's a terrarium I made for a good friend!

Hope you enjoyed my latest creative life round up. 

Jules :)

Koby Cumulus Children's Picture Book released!

How exciting, my latest Children's Picture Book has been released!

Koby Cumulus, written by Melissa Doughty and illustrated by me :)

It's called Koby Cumulus and I've been blogging about the process (3rd and last blog post still due, but you can read blog posts one and two here and here respectively.)

The book turned out beautifully, and we were all very happy with the printing and the papers used. What a nerve racking experience to see the book you've been working on for the last 6 months appear; knowing that it's too late to change anything if need be!

The endpapers

Koby Cumulus is a 6 year old cloud who loves life... until he hears people grumbling about the weather.

It's a beautiful story about realising your own self worth in the face of negativity and rejection. Koby also has a mentor, who is his granny, so it'd be a lovely book for a grandparent to read to their grandchild! 

I have favourite parts of the book that I have illustrated, I like how this horse turned out and the ripples in the water. It reminds me of a book from my past that I can't quite put my finger on... 

And my favourite page is where Koby is sprinkling a light shower over some red roofed homes.

Lots of kids like the page with the rainbow!

Melissa has done a beautiful job of creating a story with a message of self confidence that can be used as a tool to help children become more resilient.

I'm so happy to finally share this with you all!

If you'd like to learn more about Koby Cumulus or purchase a copy head over to Published Panda where they have low shipping for the rest of this year.

Jules :)

The Making of an Illustrated Children's Picture Book: Part 2

So I left the last post about illustrating a children's picture book at the story board stage. You can read about part one here.

*Update. Things have been a little slow here lately on the blog. I have reevaluated my priorities and time commitments and for the rest of the year I will still post here, but not as frequently as I was. I will reassess in the new year and decide what direction I want to take with all my arty and crafty projects. I'm still producing tutorials, and will update here on my creative life now that my latest kids book is finished, but for the rest of the year it's going to be a bit slower here on the old blog! Ok, back to the blog post!*

After everyone is happy with the way the whole book goes together, it's time for the final roughs.

With this book, some of the pages were shuffled around and text needed to move and new quick roughs needed to be done. It is in this stage when you see the images with the text that something you feel needs to be changed will become apparent, where it might not have been before.

A section of a rough from one of my favourite pages

The text is a huge part of the book and needs to not be an afterthought. I designed where the text would go in this book, and had a lot of help from a designer. The space for type is allocated before the final roughs are done.

Looking through kid's picture books is interesting to look at the amount of space type takes, the placement, size and font choices. You'll see wavy text, enlarged text, bold text, hand written text. The choices are varied, just as the illustration choices are.

I do my roughs to scale. I did mine larger than the final book would be, so I can fit more detail in where needed.

Some pages need more nutting-out than others. Some I wrestle with and redraw parts, and I also use my scanner and photoshop to help me rearrange parts of the roughs if it's not working for me on paper. Modern technology!

Some come easily. I'm sure this is similar to the workings of many different creative pursuits.

Things that I have to keep in mind when doing the roughs are character continuity, and keeping the style throughout the whole book. I also nut out landmarks or features if there are a few pages that will feature the same area. You want the same colour & shaped roof on the same house on different pages for example. Notes are helpful for you to remember things when it comes time to render the final illustrations.

I read and reread the text, as it's easy to miss out on little details that you thought you would remember.

Once the roughs are all done they are scanned in, edited and compiled into a PDF for viewing by the publisher. For my last kids book, I made a little dummy book which I loved. It was great to be able to pick it up and hold it and flick through the pages and get an idea of the final look and feel of the real book.

Extra detail is added into the final roughs, and I like little surprises such as continuing themes that aren't in the text of a book. It's great to think of all your characters (and even background characters) as total individuals so you can make them unique in their expressions or what they're wearing.

Taking breaks is important. Minds go stale and tired, and after a break I return fresh with new perspective.

So many tea breaks :)

If I get a bad case of the fears, also known as procrastination, I remind myself that no matter what I do, I will always be better off sitting down and doing an hour or so of work. If will learn something. I will progress, even if just by a tiny bit. Even if it's a stuff up, it's a stuff up that needed to happen as it is part of the process. This mindset has helped me deal with procrastination a lot. No matter how dull and practical and unmystical that is!

The cover design needs some in-depth thought and a fantastic illustration. I'm hoping mine lives up to the task! It is after all the first thing you see, and it either catches your eye or it doesn't. I did a couple of different layouts, and it was funny that in a survey to some little people they all chose the one I liked least! Considering it's for kids, we decided to trust those fresh untainted opinions, and that they knew best.

The next instalment will be regarding painting the finals, and the final book will be on it's way very soon! Stay tuned!

Next up... painting the final illustrations

Catch part one of The Making of an Illustrated Children's Picture Book here.

Jules :)

Happenings...

Hello! My book project is nearly done, so I will be back babbling on here again in no time. I am dreaming up lots of outdoor crafty projects, as I want to get outside and away from the computer now that the weather is warming up. I'm thinking mosaics! And cement! I have caught the cementing bug :)

We have mostly an Australian native garden here but I still manage to find some colour for a vase

Spring has arrived in the land down under and it is a sight for sore eyes. I think the winter just gone was the coldest ever, or maybe it's just that I'm getting older? I'm not built for the cold.

Another reason for getting outside more is this little guy:

Meet Archie! The cheeky fluff- ball bundle of mayhem! Our newest family member.

And in honour of our not-too-long-ago-passed previous fur babies, I have finally made them memorial stones for their graves in the backyard. That was a project I'd been meaning to do for a long time. I have made it into a tutorial too, as I couldn't find instructions online specifically for what I wanted, so stay tuned for that one.

Another thing that's been taking up a lot of my time is cooking. Miss 6 has been put on a special diet by her integrative doctor which is similar to the paleo/ gaps way of eating. I'd go into why, but don't really want to get into finer details but I will say that I think functional/ integrative medicine is the way of the future! I'm doing the diet too as I just feel so much better when I eat this way. I do it mainly to tackle some niggling health issues that I have. I always believe in addressing the root cause of issues and asking the question "why?" Because I'm never satisfied with "it just is." :)

The authors healed ailments such as eczema and OCD through diet, and this just fascinates me no end.

My favourite cook book at the moment Life Changing Food

Mmmm veggie seaweed crackers and baba ganoush- from the book

Gluten free sausage rolls with homemade tomato sauce (both in the book) with a side serve of steamed cabbage and kombucha

I just wish I could eat this way and not have to make all of it. And the dishes are mountainous! I've started asking the kids to help me with washing up, and they can earn a bit of pocket money on the side.

So combined with puppy mayhem (it's like having a baby again!), masses of cooking, and the kids book I've been working on, things got a little crazy busy. I'm looking forward to chilling out a bit more in the warmer weather and focussing on what's important, and not trying to do everything and be everything to everyone. I think as mama's or even women we can easily get stuck in that trap, until we realise we must do some tweaking for everyone's sanity and ease back on some things. Hence the break from the blog. And I decided, that was OK.

Here's another little snippet from the book:

This dog is quite small within the illustration I did for this page, but I'm interested in enlarging parts I've done so I can see individual line marks and colours. I love seeing brush stories and paint marks.

I'm at the stage now where I'm touching up and editing images, so... nearly there.

Catch you soon,

Jules :)

Children's Picture Book Review: Gaston

Time for a creative children's book review! I love beautifully illustrated children's books. I'm always drawn towards the illustrations in a book first, but then a creative interesting story is icing on the cake. I have always collected children's picture books, I did before I had kids, and I will continue to do so when they've grown up.

This post contains affiliate links. Read more at the bottom of this post.

Today I'm looking at the book Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrations by Christian Robinson.

Gaston

This is a fun children's picture book with stylish illustrations that Miss 6 had me reading over and over. It's a clever book involving two families of dogs in France. I'm assuming France because there are names like "Antoinette" and language like "oui oui" in the book. And I'm pretty sure the dogs are french poodles and french bulldogs :)

Two puppies get switched at birth and are somewhat misfits within the other family; but that dynamic feels natural to them. It's a book about being different and fitting in anyway. The story could act as a discussion prompt with kids about being who you are: an individual, complete with all your quirks and flaws.

Seemingly simple graphic-style pictures, the expressions on the dogs portray their emotions well. The stylised shapes of the dogs really make me smile.

Christian Robinson's illustrations have me in awe and wonder. Some people are in awe at super realistic technical illustrations, but I am in awe when an illustrator can really pump a lot of style into the artwork, yet still portray all the emotion that's needed in the story. That's a real skill. The illustrations are just gorgeous.

The story is super cute, the illustrations are super cute. Adorable!

I had a poke around at Christian Robinson's website, which I enjoyed looking at, and can be found here: The Art of Fun

Gaston can be found here.

I would love to check out some other books illustrated by Christian Robinson. I think I'm a bit taken by his illustration style!

Josephine

Rain

So cool. I think his illustrations have a vintage feel to them, but they also look modern at the same time.

I hope you enjoyed this book review! Happy reading...

Jules :)

*Affiliate Information: Affliliate links help me earn small commissions on products (at no extra cost to you), which helps support my love of blogging and sharing creative things. I only ever recommend or link to products that I'm genuinely into.

Creative Life Round Up

Here's a creative life round up, where I show a bunch of random shots from my crafty, arty & creative life.

Here I am testing out my new (but old) rug hooking tools. Which I guess are more like punch needles. They have quite a big opening in them so that I can use them with wool. I love the texture of hooked wool, and I love using wool with variations of colours within the ball.. it gives extra textural interest. And, this craft is fast! Which is great for an attention deficient crafter like me :) This effort is from one evening in front of the telly.

A bunting in progress upcycled from a thrifted wool scarf. I've also made some little upcycled tassels to use on this bunting too.

Hanging some of my collected lampshades up. I still have more to hang. I thought it might inspire my husband to get them hooked up electrically when they're all just hanging there from string and thumb tacks. Maybe!

Not being able to find an affordable jacket I like (in Australia) that is also warm I went and ordered a copy of Ottobre Magazine which has some jacket patterns in it. I'll get my Mum on the case when it arrives. She's an excellent sewer. I'm planning on getting her to make some lined jackets for me so that they will be nice and warm, plus how cute will patterned fabric for the lining be?

She also better get ready to sew some dresses for me. I have ordered this dress pattern designed by Dottie Angel. How awesome are they? Hoping to have some made up in time for spring when some warmer weather will be welcomed with open arms.

It's school holidays here now, and our first creative project saw us making some iced cookies. Check out how bad great they look! ;)

We eat more along the paleo/ healthy lines here, and I am yet to find an icing recipe that is easy to make AND use. I cannot master whipping coconut cream (I have ruined quite a few batches) and even this one I could not get to work. It was so clumpy to use but still tastes good I suppose. Looked nothing like it looked in the cookbook! This icing was made from cacao butter, coconut butter, honey and nut milk. 

The search continues! 

Other creative and crafty projects that we would like to do on the holidays include finishing some previously started projects and starting some plaster animals that will appear as a tutorial on my blog in the near future.

My final MATS illustration project has begun, which is a crazy eclectic mix of icons inspired by collections (I chose a quirky doll collection and beads). Right up my alley! I love that for the last project we get to go a little crazy. I will post the finished project here when done.

Miss 8 recently entered the Young Archie portrait prize. This is her mixed- media piece. I helped her with the planning but every step was completed entirely by her. I suggested a plan of attack: 

-draw your portrait in pencil on plain paper

-create some decorative papers to use for collage

-paint/ fill your background on your good paper (watercolour paper)

-glue your collage pieces onto the background

-transfer your portrait drawing onto the background using carbon transfer paper

-render the figure. She used acrylic paints and coloured pencils for the figure. 

The last step was to sign and varnish. 

The only thing I helped with was reassurance along the way, enlarging her drawing to transfer onto the watercolour paper, and some colour mixing tips when she got stuck. I believe having a plan & breaking it down into little steps removed some of the overwhelm of trying to create something good to enter into a competition. That kind of pressure is heavy!

That's it for now. 

If you've enjoyed these pics, I do the most sharing of my creative life in picture form on Instagram. Come join me there!

Yours creatively,

Jules :) 

Make At That Sells: Children's Picture Book Illustration

So, I have finished the children's book illustration part of the Make Art That Sells course that I am taking. I have one assignment to go. I'm doing MATS A which has five illustration components: bolt fabric, home decor, children's books, wall art & the gift market. You can find some links at the bottom of this post for the illustrations I've done for this course.

So, on to the children's book illustration part! We were given a story to illustrate called "The White Cat".  We could illustrate the cover, or an internal page spread. I chose the latter. It was an old story (I'm guessing it was old) and was quirky in the way that older fairy tales usually are. The cat is a princess under a spell, and that prince there is riding a wooden horse (the horse is also under a spell). 

This particular part of the story where the prince was riding a wooden horse and the cat a monkey appealed to my love-for-the-strange. As my kids say "you love weird, don't you Mum?" Yes, poppets, I do :)

My favourite part of the illustration is the cat riding the monkey. Here's the rough pencil drawing for that part..

The next picture is from when I was about halfway through drawing & painting the illustration. I used coloured pencils, and acrylic paint with medium. You can see here my enlarged rough that has been taped together. I like to enlarge my roughs on computer to the size I want to paint the illustration, then print it out in sections and piece it all together. That way I can work as large as I want.

I put variations of colour into the tree & the monkey. And because the story seemed vintage-y to me, I wanted the colours to have a vintage children's book feel to them. I think I was channelling a picture book from my past with this. Not that the illustrations are similar at all, but I remember the feel I used to get when reading that particular book and I think I was trying to capture that.

Detail

I'm really enjoying the MATS class and I only have one more assignment to go! I'm learning a lot, and growing and expanding with each new assignment. I love checking out all of the other students' work in the class galleries, and the tips and advice sprinkled throughout the course. 

If I had the time I'd just sit around doing online courses! 

You can check out my other illustration projects for MATS A here:

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- home decor illustration

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- surface pattern design

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- wall art illustration

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- gift market illustration (coming soon)

Jules :)