June 2012 Desktop Calendar

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I thought I'd try something a little bit different and include part of the initial sketch concept for this recent plasticine illustration. You might recognize the mouse hanging off the plant, he was featured in May's desktop calendar. If you would like to download this calendar to your desktop, simply click on the required screen resolution size above, then right click and "save to desktop".
Have a great June everyone. I'm excited to see our little garden start to sprout ;) Ahhh, the beginning of summer...

Proud Auntie moment! Skink on the Brink colouring pages

My brother-in-law sent me a cute FB comment today to tell me that my 2 yr old niece really liked the collages I made the other day, and he wondered if he might print them off for her to colour. Well, of course! How wonderful. :) Look at those expressive strokes, such confidence and flair! Here are her masterpieces below:

When her 6 year old big brother got home from school, he wanted to colour some too. After an hour of intense concentration he finally finished his great works of art. What can I say, I am one proud Auntie Suz at this present moment!*gush* I just love to see my nephew and niece(and my kiddos) being artsy- so good for the soul. I love his great use of colour and the attention to detail.  Here is his fantaaabulous creation below:

Aren't these great! Hmmm....I think perhaps a companion colouring book to go along with the picture book I am illustrating, Skink on the Brink(Fitzhenry &Whiteside) written by Lisa Dalrymple, might be a fun idea?! What do you think?

If anyone else would like to print the collages off as colouring pages, please feel free. Just click on the link and right click on the image then save/print.  If you do wish to print them off, I would love it if  you could take a pic of the completed masterpieces and share them with me, my email can be found on the right sidebar! I'd love to show them on my blog. :)

Some Collages of my rough sketches for "Skink on the Brink"

I know it has been rather quite on my blog lately, but believe me there's lots going on behind the scenes. As many of you know, I am in the process of illustrating my first picture, Skink on the Brink (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) written by Lisa Dalrymple, and it's due out in Spring 2013. It has been a very amazing experience so far! I am loving every second of it.
I have been wanting to share with you some of the sketches I have been working on during the rough sketch revision process thus far. So with the thumbs-up from my wonderful editor, Christie Harkin, I have created some collages from tidbits of my sketches, to give you a sneak peek of Stewie the skink, some of his adorable friends and other interesting characters. Keep in mind these are rough sketches, so there will be changes/tweaks during the revision process. ;)

Here we have a  collage of  some close-ups of the our little skink, Stewie. Isn't he a character? He is a fun loving, toe-tapping charmer, with loads of energy and perseverance.

And here we have a collage of some of the animals that Stewie encounters in the story. Some are friendly, and some most definitely are not...

I hope to be able to share more as I go:) Especially once I get going with the final plasticine art....I can't wait!! I'd love  to do some process posts, to show some of the illustrations from concept sketch to final art. What fun! Heeheee ;)



May 2012 Desktop Calendar is here!

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Happy May Everyone!,
I couldn't resist using one of the fun mice from a recent illustration I created for my children's nursery school annual fundraising gala. There have been quite a few "mice in boots" desktop calendars lately...hmmm, maybe I should change it up a bit for next month? This little guy was begging for a close-up. Their fun, exuberant personalities do bring a smile to my face, and I hope they do to you as well :)
To download please click on the required scene resolution above, then right click on"set as background". Easy peasy!
Lots going on behind the scenes, I hope to share some of it really soon.
Bye for now