Anne Wilson illustrates a newly released book on endangered animals fighting to survive.
'Red Alert!' is written by Catherine Barr, published by Otterbarry Books and explodes with rich artworks by the wonderful Anne Wilson.
It takes 15 endangered creatures from the IUCN Red List - a database listing over 88,000 of threatened species which describes the global status of animals, plants and fungi. This book helps readers learn about the 15 featured creatures and what we can do to help them. Buy it here.
Kristyna Litten is back with her third picture book creation for Simon & Schuster and she doesn’t disappoint. Ziggy and the Moonlight Show is a touching interactive game of hide-and-seek - exploring the world of animals, colours, patterns and shapes.
There is something extremely calming about Fiona Woodcock’s artwork — I would describe it as the hygge of picture book illustration — because each time I read one of her books, I feel so relaxed and content, gently swept up by the subtle colours and textures she creates. A Dot in the Snow is beautiful, uncomplicated, peaceful — and yet dramatic in composition of scale and landscape.
Illustrator Fiona and author Corrinne Averiss have been nominated for a Kate Greenaway Medal for Dot, and so here, Fiona talks about her creative process.
A Dot in the Snow, published by Oxford University Press and nominated for a 2018 Kate Greenaway Medal.
FW: As soon as I heard the title and Corrinne’s concept for the book — the idea of a little polar bear spotting a dot in the snow, I was totally captivated and knew I wanted to work on it.
My initial brief was to do something “artful,” which as an illustrator is a real gift!
I spent my Christmas watching wildlife documentaries to get my head around bears and snowy scenes. This was invaluable and helped to spark off compositional ideas for the landscape spreads.
We decided early on that it was important to highlight the environmental impact on the melting polar ice caps with the cracking ice spreads. This influenced the character design of the young polar bear cub Miki and we resolved to have him on all fours, rather than anthropomorphised on two legs. This slightly naturalistic approach seemed to help place him in the snowy world, where he has to contend with all the perils of the harsh environment.
I did lots of printmaking experiments to create the landscapes, printing with rubber stamps, and polystyrene from a pizza base was great for ice. I then composited all the elements digitally.
As well as the relationship between the characters, I was keen to capture their relationship with the environment, the filmic potential and the sense of space and distance covered on Miki’s epic adventure.
Corrinne sent me a link to this Björk track which she listened to whilst writing the book. It then became my soundtrack whilst illustrating it and we played it on a loop at our London at the Bright Emporium!
My huge thanks to Fiona! LM
If you’d like to work with Fiona, you can reach her via her agent, Arabella Stein here.
If you’d like to know more about Fiona and her picture books, click the link below.
Fiona Woodcock — From Art Licensing to Children’s Books and Beyond…
The BBC recently aired a documentary, Life in Polar Bear Town, which you can see here.
Photograph courtesy of the BBC. See more here.
Rachael Saunders’ has added another gorgeous design to the Radley collection. Her latest design features a beautiful Autumnal scene with the Radley pups at play.
Kristyna Litten’s charming illustrations for the PIG-TASTIC Gracie Laroo series, written by Marsha Qualey have just been published by Capstone in the US. Gracie is a shooting star on the synchronized swimming team, the Water Sprites.
He has a dashing hat. He has a packed lunch of fish finger sandwiches and he is very keen. Meet Mr. Penguin - Professional Adventure and er… penguin is like Indiana Jones meets Hercule Poirot in the first book in a new series written and illustrated by Alex T. Smith.
Adam Stower’s expressive pencil drawing brings to life Piggy Handsome: Guinea Pig Destined for Stardom! Written by Pip Jones are published this month by Faber and Faber.
