Happy Halloween!

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog as it's been a crazy busy summer. I've been super busy on various projects (I finally finished my first ever book last week!) and getting appendicitis just after my last blog post didn't help didn't make things any easier! Amongst it all, I've been meaning to post these pictures.

This halloween all the Marks & Spencers halloween range of packaging and in-store graphics have featured my characters and artwork. It was a project I did earlier in year, and it was hard to wait until the end of summer before the finished results started to appear in-store.

Here's a lovely picture my agents took feature a sample of the products that have been available:

Below are some examples of the different characters and creatures I provided them with:

I'll post some pictures of the packaging soon, in the meantime here's a couple of shots of some of the various items on the shelves:

The Cardturner

'The Cardturner' by Louis Sachar is finally out in the UK, and with the cover I did for it, it marks the first professional Illustration job Ive done since graduating thats actually out there all finiahed and printed and stuff. Im very chuffed with it. I thought I'd put up some better pictures now that its out.

Like a Pokemon game the book comes in two different colours, the red one above, and the blue one you can see below. In Pokemon the red version is the fire version, and the blue is the water version, for this cover though it represents the two different coloured decks of cards you usually get, as its supposed to look like the back of a card (see my earlier post for the full description, here)

Below, is the back cover. This version is different from the actual printed version as it doesn't have the barcode, and the text is hand written by me, rather than the typed font used in the finished version.

On the finished frontcover, the central blurb is handwritten by me, as is the bit of blurb at the very bottom. I although the finished cover uses typed font, I also produced two hand written options for the authors name and title. Below is the sans-serif version:

Here is the serif version:

Im really happy with the finished item, and it was really nice to go out and see something I've done out there, all ready to buy. Here it is in the big Waterstones (other bookshops are available) near Piccadilly Circus:

Here it is in the Waterstones (other bookshops are available) in Covent Garden:

Here it is up north in my home town in the Waterstones (seriously, other bookshops are available) in the fine cathedral city of Lincoln:

My version of the cover is only for the hardback version published by Bloomsbury in the UK. The American cover is quite a different approach, using a photography instead. Its interesting to see the difference. Here it is:

If you're interested in buying a copy its available now from all good book shops. The amazon.co.uk link is here (other online retailers are available).

P.S. this will be the last blog post about this now unless something super happens to do with it. Ive gotten abit carried away maybe, mainly because its nice to actually have something from the last year that I can show. Hopefully I'll be able to post about some other projects soon. Well soon-ish....

My First (Audio) Book Cover

Today I got a nice surprise in the post, the audiobook of the Cardturner, with an adapted version of my cover used both on the CD cover and the C.D.'s themselves. I'd not given the audiobook any thought, so it was an especially nice thing to find amongst the post.

If anyone is interested the book is out on June 1st, the audiobook is due on June 7th.

My First Book Cover

A few weeks ago, I received my advance copies from Bloomsbury of 'The Cardturner' by Loius Sachar, which I have done the cover for. In all the excitement of seeing my first ever book cover published, I forgot to post any pictures.

The idea was to create something like the design on the back of a playing card, with elements from the story turned into symbols in each corner, instead of the traditional hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds. I created a kind of road map pattern for the rest of the design, again in reference to the story (click the picture to see the detail better).

The book will be available in two different colours, like a blue deck of cards and a red deck of cards. Below is the back cover which I designed to look like the ace of spades. This is not in reference to the track by the band 'Motorhead'. I tried to work in a few more story elements into the pattern, can you see a compass and a car wheel?

Im very happy with the final thing, its really exciting to finally see some of the work I've been doing over the last year finished, printed and ready to show about. Im really looking forward to seeing it in the shops. The book is released on June 1st here in the UK (heres the amazon link). I'll put up some better pictures once the book is out properly.

One detail Im particularly happy with is this, my actual name, in actual print, on an actual published book! whoop!

Bologna 2010

At the end of March the annual Bologna Children's Book Fair took place in Bologna of all places. To quote wikipedia's description of the fair "It is the meeting place for all professionals involved with creating and publishing children's books, and is mainly used for the buying and selling of rights, both for translations and for derived products like movies or animated series". While I wasn't able to attend myself, this was the first year that some of my work was over there. One place it could be found was on the cover for Scholastic's 2010 rights guide.

The illustration on the cover is taken from 'Super Amazing Mazes', a book I'm working on at the moment with Scholastic, which was amongst all of the other tops things inside the catalogue. They even let me do the lettering. I was really honored that my work was chosen for the cover, and It was lovely to see the finished catalogue. It was really nicely printed, with a glossy varnish used on the bear and the ground, which looks particulary swish.

Today my agents sent me an exert from industry magazine The Bookseller's coverage of Bologna 2010 which even mentions my book! Im very excited to have gotten a mention! Click the pic below to take a closer peak.

Adam B WIndow

One of the problems with finding things that I can post on my blog is that there is often a big gap between me finishing a piece of work and it actually appearing where it is intended to appearing. Here is a good example, a window display I worked on last summer for Adam B, a printers near Tottenham Court Road in Central London. Here are some pictures I snapped on my phone when I happened upon it all printed and all put up, last week.

Here is a distant view:

This is what I saw when I walked a bit closer:

The image goes across two separate windows. Here is the left window:

Here is the right:

Now I'm walking away:

Im further away now:

They also used the picture on a window along the side:

Here is the original:

I also did a black & white option:

Here is a photoshop mock-up that I made to show how it would look printed and put up. Im happy at how close it matches the reality:

Here is another mock-up:

Im not sure how long it will be up for, I think it my be semi-permanent for now. If you want to go see it, you will find it here.

P.S. This is my 100th blog post! Hooray!!!!

EDIT: Here are some extra photos that the Swishly talented Mr Augustine Coll sent me (he's the chap in the photos). Point your eyes at them then point your eyes at his website too (here).

Yuki Wallpaper(here)=Yuki Wallpaper (now)

Hello there. I've not posted here since Christmas, and today its Easter which is very bad and naughty of me. So to make up for it I am doing a blog now. I have been very very busy, but its just not really stuff that Im allowed to be showing around at the moment. As soon as I can show anything I certainly will. Here is something kind of new I can post up.

The last blog I did was a Christmassy desktop wallpaper, and I dont have any Eastery desktop wallpapers, I do have some Yuki-ery wallpapers. Yuki is one of my super talented friends and I made a big picture for her birthday (see this blog post). I recently got round to sending a copy of the file and edited a couple of different desktops for her, and she said I could share them on my blog. I hope you like them. Also you should really check out Miss Nishimura's website to see her illustrations.

Cheerio :-)