Open Sketchbooks (part 1)

Many thanks to all our illustrator members who generously responded to this month's call-out for sketchbook pages. Here's the first instalment of selected images - more to come shortly! 



Open Sketchbooks is a glimpse into the working process of artists, how we experiment, think through our ideas, stretch our imagination and observe the world. Rather than finished illustrations, this is a glimpse at current work in progress, free doodles, rough drawings, and sketches from life. The response has been tremendous, we received a very full in box of submissions, more of which will be posted later this month. Here then is the first group of images we selected. 

So, what have our illustrators been working on lately?

Gaia Alessi - character studies for a children book I am currently developing, provisionally titled Canny Olive and Little Bruno, character study for Bruno the bear.
Gaia Alessi - character study for Olive the bunny. Twitter, Instagram
Diane Green

Heather Hodge - The Greenwells, working image for a family portrait commission.
Heather Ryerson - character studies of children. I made these while brainstorming what the main character of my picture book would look like, just to get some ideas flowing. It's helpful for me to limit the colours in an initial sketch in order to focus on form and expression.
Heidi Rivolta - sketch for a children's picture book project.
Helen Maier - Getting to know a family of mung beans for a round-the-world bean adventure book I'm working on at the moment. Instagram
Jane Heinrichs - Sketching St Mary Abbots in Kensington
Joanna Scott - working layout for a children's book called Foxgirl's Night Games. Foxgirl only comes
out when Night comes by, so she is attempting to wake up her Tweepy Tweep friends in this sketch.
Karen Thompson - Character doodles and colour experiments - Ogres!

Karen Thompson
Katherine Lynas - I was feeling very stuck so, instead of not drawing at all, I did this doodle. It freed me up and helped me get past my block.
Katherine Lynas - A character study for Sprout, who was then used in a series of illustrations for my portfolio. Facebook
Katy Dynes - Scottish sketchbook drawings
Layn Marlow - Early sketches for a possible puffin story. Twitter
Lorna Murphy - Studies for client book of Arabian tales
Selina Moore - This is from an idea that's still in progress. 'It's time for an adventure. I've packed sandwiches.' Twitter
More sketchbook work to come in Part 2!

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John Shelley is the Illustration Feature Editor of Words & Pictures and Central East Network co-coordinator. 
He's illustrated over 50 books for children, many of them published in Japan where he lived for many years. His latest title Crinkle, Crackle, Crack is out in Japan and the USA.   www.jshelley.com




1 comment:

  1. Thanks for putting this together John, I love this feature.

    ReplyDelete

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