Katie Clemingson

The next event at the Just Imagine book shop i went to was another insight into the professional world of children's book illustration featuring another guest speaker, Katie Cleminson a 27 year old freelance illustrator who's work has been published by Jonathan Cape (Random House Children's Books).

Katie graduated from North Wales School of Art with a first class BA (Hons). In her final year at college she was the only Illustrator from Great Britain to be chosen by the highly respected Bologna Illustrators Exhibition. Her work has been exhibited in London, Poland, Japan, Italy and Korea.
Katie uses a very unusual medium, a pippete with heavy black ink to achieve her desired outline of her drawings. she also uses Photoshop to scale and arrange images for publishing.
She also mentioned that she had won and been highly commended in the Macmillan Prize competition which i am now familiar with. Also has been the winner of The Booktrust Best Emerging Illustrator Award 2009 and name as on of the Booktrust Best New Illustrator 2011.
Her most recently published title, Otto the Book Bear has had great reviews and was released in July. I thought this story was adorable because as a child I always loved books that told of things such as toys coming alive at night, but the difference here is that Otto is an Illustration from a book and then he gets left behind while the family move house so he goes on an adventure to find somewhere he belongs which very fittingly turns out to be a library.

Other great titles by Katie include Box of Tricks, and Wake Up.

children's book shop

I have recently discovered a speciality children's book shop just round the corner from where I live. I decided to go to one of their monthly meetings and that week they had guest speakers who are employees at Walker books also a member of our group already published by Walker, (you may recognise such titles like, Where's Wally? and Going on a Bear Hunt). It was really exciting for me, I wasn't expecting so much information on how to break into the children's book industry and learning about how much effort and labour of love that really goes into making them. One book which had highly detailed drawings throughout took 7 years to complete and publish. I was relived to find out that deadlines were not an issue with them as they would prefer that the book was the best it can possibly be.
The thing I love the most about children's books is the variety of different artistic styles and clever use of simplicity, especially when it comes to the younger clients that may not be able to read just yet and so need a simple picture that reads well and is not too much information to take in. It made me feel like I stand a really good chance of being a successful children's book illustrator/writer because I feel my strong point is my characters they can be very expressive and can easily be related to by people of all ages. My backgrounds/ scenery may not be very good or practised but from what I have learnt so far backgrounds are not so important, a lot of books I have seen don't have a background or scenery on every page in fact the plainer pages tend to illustrate more of what the character is feeling and thinking more intimately with the reader.
I feel so privileged to have a place so enthusiastic about children's books so close to home I can see that I will learn a great deal from them and can't wait for the next meeting!

Macmillan children's book illustrator competition

I entered a competition in May which was an illustration competition for a children's book which influenced work for my illustration and printmaking classes.The brief asked that we sketch out the whole 32 paged book and finish and colour 4 paged spreads which could include the cover.I worked very hard on this project and only had a few weeks to finish it, unfortunately I didn't win or was highly commended by the judging panel but I had a look at the work of those who were at the exhibition in Foyles Bookshop, London to see what i was up against. The winner was Gemma Merino a student from the Cambridge School of Art with her story 'The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water' i thought this was a very good piece as it was in keeping with the age range of no older than 5years and the style was very lovable, i also found it was easy on the eye for a youngster which is always a good thing as many were confusing such as a piece by Emma Bennett (left) titled 'Sidney and His Shadow' which was mostly jumbled up text and small illustrations the l

ikes of what you would see on the side of a coffee cup or jumped up organic produce no offence intended but I do not feel that this was particularly good or suitable for a young child.

I liked all the pieces for their different and professional looking styles I really feel that I need to neaten up my finished pieces next time I enter even though the brief said that the book can be done in any media it looked like all the work exhibited was tidied up on Photoshop and I feel that this is where I failed. I also feel that I had seen these styles before somewhere and they weren't very original where as my style is my own and not to sound to sour but I feel that if my work was neatened up I would of won.

here are the rest that I liked at the exhibition.
Second Prize Elys Dolan 'Weasels' (Cambridge School of Arts)

Third Prize Jay Wright 'The Lonley Matador' (University of West England)

Highly Commended Sophie Burrows 'Pigs Can't Fly' (University of West London)

Art Nouveau

I have always had a soft spot for art Nouveau since i noticed my mum's Mucha mirror. It is a print on a mirror of a poster for a play called La dame Aux Camellias or lady of the Camellias in English. it was an adaptation of a novel by Alexandre Dumas it became a very popular play after its debut in 1852. Alphonse Mucha made this piece there is a heart with thorns around it in one of the corners of the picture which is representing the tragic love. I've always thought this piece is beautifully drawn especially the hand holding the camellias, i can just stare at the detail for ages and often do seeing as our mirror copy is in our bathroom. i have traced this picture with my eyes so many times all the folds in the garment are just exquisite and the starry sky backdrop makes it a timeless piece.

Another Art Nouveaux Artist i really liked was Aubrey Beardsley his works were predominantly black and white illustrations which echoed the Japanese woodblock print style. He was probably the most controversial person to be associated with art nouveax as his drawing although very decorative they had a more dark theme a more perverse appeal. grotesque erotica became more his thing later on in his career before his early death from tuberculosis.

Emilie Strange

There used to be this character called "Emily Strange" back in the days when I was a bit of a goth and I suppose some people might call me strange now, come to think of it. I have purple hair, which I love, although my Grandad thinks I look like a Gypsy and will become a pavement artist hoping people will throw a few pence into my little hat. I used to have a needle phobia for which I had to see a psychologist as I needed to have blood tests regularly for medication I have to take, but I got over that and am now fascinated and have to watch them closely whilst they take my blood. I am so over my phobia that I have also had my lip pierced and wear a lip ring and have recently had my tongue pierced, but am currently talking with a lisp and am unable to eat solid food very well. Had spaghetti bolongnaise tonight for tea which got wrapped around my tongue piercing which is too long for the depth of my tongue, but they have to allow for the swelling which you get for the first few days after having the piercing, but its the dribbling which is most embarrassing. I will be going back soon to have the length of my piercing reduced to a more manageable size and hopefully I will be able to manage a medium rare steak then. I would love a tattoo next, but I am not sure that it might be that I am challenging myself to see how far I have got beyond that initial needle phobia or was it simply a case of medical test vs. fashion accessory?

One 'L' of a driver

My Mum used to be a driving instructor and was teaching me to drive. I say used to be, as she has gone back to working in an office now. I don' t think I was totally the reason she gave it up, but I may have contributed to it. I never got to the stage where I was able to take my driving test as I was too lazy to learn the highway code and take my theory test. I just enjoyed getting into the driving seat and kinda pointing the car in the direction I thought I should go and putting my foot down. I had no fear, I don't know if that was because I was not fully aware of the dangers on the road, or hazard perception as my Mum would keep pointing out to me as she braked on the dual control and forced me to slow down and grabbed hold of the steering wheel in order that I gave additional clearance to the parked vehicle on the left. The other thing that I found annoying about driving is the fact that she insisted I wear my glasses all the time. She said I would not pass my test if I didn't wear them as they would make me read a number plate at a given distance before they would even let me take the test. I'm not cool about wearing glasses all the time which is another reason that I would probably not make a good driver as I don't notice signs much without them and I would probably get lost. Sat nav would obviously help, but it's possible I might miss that one way street sign and go up it the wrong way so I resigned myself, for now, to be a pedestrian, besides, most of my friends drive anyway, so why bother, I can always have that drink when we go out and it's a cheap round for me as they are driving.

Pole Dancing

I am learning pole dancing to keep fit, but I actually love it and have found that I'm pretty good at it. I've tried the gym which I found boring, swimming which bleaches the purple out of my hair and ice skating which is hard on the ankles as a means of keeping fit and although I was not bad at ice skating, despite a couple of fractures, I had trouble with the jumps as I have doggy knees which are too flexible and don't lock in the correct position so had to give that up.

My doggy knees, however, don't prevent me from performing on the pole and in fact, my extra flexibility is an asset. The only problem I have encountered so far, apart from the bruising on my arms and legs, is the blisters I get on my hands. It's ok if the pole is well polished, but last week, I hired an hour at a club to practise with my friend Rosie who comes to classes with me and the pole was a bit rough to say the least. Next week I will have to take some Mr Sheen with me and give it a bit of a rub down first. I've also realised that I need to do a few weights to strengthen my arms, especially when you are trying to do the fan, which is a move where you are upside down on the pole and you fan your legs open, this is not for the faint hearted! However, its always a good thing to have another string to your bow, so if I don't make it as an artist you may well be able to see me perform as an "artist" - Spearmint Rhino - here I come!