My Little Angels process

Hello!

With the publication of my latest book last week, My Little Angels (written by Melanie Hibbert and published by Rainstorm) I thought I'd share a few pics of the process of how the cover came together.

This was the first book I illustrated since having my little daughter and I found that time - previously taken for granted - was now a precious precious commodity to have every available moment squeezed out of!! I thought this would be a good time to try something I've avoided (for various reasons) for years: entirely creating a book on Photoshop.

Pre April 2016 my work process went something like this:

Much too time consuming to fit around a small person's unreliable and ever changing naps!

So this book was my first attempt to create a whole book entirely on the computer (with the exception of the pencil drawings) - a process that requires no wet brushes...no bits and pieces of paper lying around..no mess or tidying up and can be picked up and put down in an instant!

So here it is. The process of creating the cover for My Little Angels

Compositional rough - where I rough out the general idea. This I have been doing on the computer for some time as I find it the quickest way to get ideas out of my brain! I find this stage much harder to do with real paper and pencil for some reason.

Pencil rough - scanned in drawings and assembled to create the design.

Let's get 'painting'! Scanned texture background, Photoshop brushes.

Trying a different background colour and the Publisher requested different wings...

Bigger wings and slightly older angel

 Last minute edits at the request of the publisher: added in halo, even larger wings, a glow behind the angel, removal of the boy's hat and a faint rainbow in the background.

I've yet to get my hands on a real copy but I'd love to know what you think of the new style!

Festive Forest

A little flyer I designed the other week for my church. It was fun to do something different for a change!

A busy week!

Phew! What a week! Is it only Wednesday??

Yesterday I spent a fabulous day with the brilliant children of Year 2 at Heene First School in Worthing. We had great fun drawing detectives together...here are some of my favourites!

We also designed our own characters - I didn't get to photograph many (there were about 78 of you so I'm told! That's a lot of photos!) but here are a few fun ones that were created...

And this morning for World Book Day (I know, I know, it's tomorrow...) I went to Davison High School, also in Worthing, to speak to a hall full of Year 6s! Thank you everyone for being so kind, that's the most people I've spoken to in one go before!

The big crowd of students from different Sussex schools listened very patiently as I told them a bit about being an illustrator and how I work. Then we did some more fabulous character designs - what a talented bunch! I didn't get to photograph everyones work but here are some little gems I spotted:

And thank you all for having me!

Antonia x

Highlights

Good morning!

This is a little illustration I did last summer (a lifetime ago!) which was in the February edition of the delightful US based Highlights High Five magazine for children. The text read:

Blue square, red square, blue square, red.

Grandma's quilt is on my bed.

Red square, blue square, red square, blue.

I know what comes next, do you?

 Can you spot some patterns?

Recent Roundup

A little roundup of the bits and bobs I've been working on over the last couple of months. And of course the illustrated ice bucket challenge!

Here's my contribution to the ALS/MND ice bucket challenge!

The dad of a childhood friend lost his battle with MND when we were only young so I am glad to be able to take part in raising money for the MND Association and their brilliant work in supporting families, raising awareness and funding research to combat this devastating disease.

We've all seen it so I'm sure you're aware, but you can text ICED55 £5 (or other amount) to 70070 to donate.

x

Summer so far...

A bit of a roundup of the last two months. This time last year we were using up a few abandoned sparklers with some of our loveliest friends on our last evening in Lincoln - for tomorrow was moving day! We'd have been there almost ten years by now.

Lincoln, we love and miss you, and Sussex, thanks for taking us in!

Summer has arrived!

Hello! I don't know about you, but I feel a bit like summer has crept up on me and suddenly we're in the full bloom of June!

This little girl and her elephant are my latest little friends!

I'd love to know what you think of her!

I also had three appointments last week to share my portfolio with some publishers. Having been about 2 years since I last did the rounds, when I got out my old black ringbound folio I felt it looked rather tired. Time for a new one!

After a little bit of research I discovered (not to my surprise) that all the nicest portfolios are rather expensive, so I decided I'd make a new one. Here are a few snaps of the making of it. (I was going to take shots of the whole process - but basically couldn't be bothered to keep stopping and starting...) It was great fun and I'm rather pleased with the finished result!

What do you think?

little people

To round off the week - here are a few little people I've been working on. They're pleased to make your acquaintance!

New Project!

Hello!

Here are a few little snapshots of the work I've been scribbling away at over the last few months.

I'd love to know what you think!

Little Knitting Dog Blog

Border Terrier Lola illustrated for the lovely Louise at Little Knitting Dog Blog!

And some initial sketches and typo ideas:

Thanks Louise, it was a pleasure designing it with you!