Best of the web

Hi everyone!


I've been more or less chained to my desk working for the past few months, juggling three book commissions as well as a few other bits and bobs at the same time.  It's been great, but a little stressful! I can't wait to show you what I've been working on.


In the midst of all this crazy work, I got some really nice news last week.  Pocketchange shopping blog have included this page in their 'best of the web' section, promoting their choice of blogs they love and websites that their readers may enjoy. Hurray!

Win a signed copy of 'Crumble, Crackle, Burn' texture illustration book!

Good news!


To link in with this month's Creative Tips & Resources article I've written for Ten Paces and Draw, we have something very special to give away...


This month's article is all about using textures and custom brushes in digital illustration.  It's got a ton of pearls of wisdom from some amazing illustrators I've spoken to such as Kali Ciesemier and Andrew Lyons. 


It's also got some very shiny pearls about using your own found textures from designer and author of 'Crumble, Crackle, Burn' Von Glitschka.

Crumble, Crackle... is a great anthology of a variety of illustrator's work, tips and insight into using real world textures in digital illustration.  It's full of lovely visual work paired with a black and white screen of the texture used in that illustration.
The book also comes with a disk brimming with royalty-free texture shots!


So...sound good?

Well - Von has kindly offered us ONE SIGNED COPY to give away!

I do have to say though that, unfortunately, 

this prize can be shipped to the USA only 

sorry international friends! 

Right, so -
- You're interested?                                                    Check
- You've got a delivery address in the US?             Check  
- You've had a nosy at the article ;-) ?                      Check 


Let's go!
This giveaway is run via Rafflecopter and will be open for two weeks (until 12th July)
So just follow the easy options below for multiple entries into one big lucky hat!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tattoos and Magical Amulets

Howdy partners.

So, as you may know, I've been out-of-this-world-busy recently working on three separate book commissions at the same time, as well as a few other jobs on the go too.  Yup, no rest for the illustrator. 

However, in the midst of these slightly secretive projects that I can't really show you anything from I've taken some time out to create a few other illustrations just for the pure love of it.

First up - 'Amulet'

So, well yeah, I did say it was for the pure love of it, but this one is also for the Cheltenham Illustration Awards - themed on a collection of amulets and charms.

I ended up feeling really happy with the silhouette and shaping of this one, and general colours too I suppose - that said - I'm not going to let myself get my hopes up (as I usually do).  Luckily the judging for the awards is far enough away that I will hopefully just forget all about it. 

Here's a really scrappy process sketch and some inspiration for the illo.

 With the theme of the illustration - rather than thinking about the amulet as a physical object, I was focusing more on where one might be discovered, and by whom.  From growing up with adventure stories and an active imagination the idea of stumbling across a magical amulet is so tantalising - there's infinite potential for adventures to spin from it, which powers would you get? What would you use them for? How would it affect your life? Pretty exciting! 

Okay, well, second up - this lovely lady stemmed from a very quick slick of the brush with some Indian Ink. Every so often I like to break away from the computer and go a bit wild with ink or paint on paper. It's just refreshing, for your screen-wearied eyes as well as your soul.  Every so often something I really like will appear and I'll take it further into a coloured piece. I particularly enjoyed painting the tattoos on this Miss, definitely something you might see more of - illustrations within illustrations! 


So that's that. Back to work Emmeline, back. to. work. 
Hopefully soon I'll be able to share some of my commissioned work! 


Let me know what you think of these illos, leave me your words.  Speak soon, Emmeline.

ONE WEEK SUPER SALE

I’m having a one week SALE in my illustration shop.

All postcards 80p and sticker sets, like this one above my head, just one pound.

http://emmelineillustration.mysupadupa.com/

Reading in shadows

Well, a very good afternoon to you dear blog reader.


Just another little post for you today.


Yesterday I finished off another illustration, which, like the last one, was started many months ago and resigned to an unmarked folder buried in my freelance files.  It started off as a digital colour test for a painting I was planning to do, I did start the painting but it just ended up that the digital version was working better.  

Now, I'm all for physical painting; the smell, the mess, I love it. But there's absolutely no denying the convenience of the undo button and the millions of editable layers.
Sometimes, it's just a case of not having the time to dedicate to a full painting, which is a shame - but don't worry, I certainly won't give up on it.  In fact, I bought myself some indian drawing ink and have been experimenting with some dry brush painting recently, I'll show you soon I promise.


So, what do you think of this entiiirely digital painting? My only negative thoughts about it were that it maybe ended up more polished than I had intended, the character in particular *shrug*.  I sort of had it in my head that it would somehow link to the last illustration I posted, as a sort of flashback from the previous woman to her youth (note the similarly coloured cities in the background & intense shadowing). However I haven't really developed this story yet and the styles are slightly different.  I really would like to illustrate a graphic novel at some point though (my mister's a dab hand at writing too), so maybe these will be a good platform.


I've had people say that the girl in this looks like me, and I suppose she does a bit.  It's not unusual for my characters to look like me or people I'm close to though, it's just the subconscious influences from the everyday.  I must say though, I would a b s o l u t e l y love to be there, reading right now.  At least I was, in a way, whilst I was creating this illustration.  Imagination is the best form of escapism.




Keep in touch, say hello!


Emmeline 

Guess what! I have a NEW illustration to show you (it's been so long since I could actually show anything, it's all been secretive book work!) I started this months and months ago but got too busy to complete it - until now! (obviously)

It's good to combine interiors/exteriors, lighting and non-facial emotion into one illustration- they're all areas worth practising!


What do you think?
Leave me a comment, yeah?


Short 'n' sweet.


Bye!

The Flyaway Blanket Gold Award

Exciting news!

My very first published children's book The Flyaway Blanket, which was released in November 2011 (written by Alan Peterkin and published by Magination Press) has received it's very own GOLD AWARD for bedtime stories in the Mom's choice awards for picture books!

See the winners list here!

I'm very excited to be able to say I'm a gold-award winning children's book illustrator now, it's fantastic and very encouraging indeed.  There's always the classic case of as your work gets older you don't like it as much, but getting feedback like this really makes me feel proud of how far I've come in the short time I've been working as a freelance illustrator. 

This news has also come at a time when my family has suffered a great loss, and so it's really lovely to have something we can all feel positive about and proud of come our way.

The Mom’s Choice Awards is an international awards program that recognises organisations and creative individuals who produce high-quality, family-friendly media, products, and services. The Gold award is the highest level of acknowledgment from Mom’s Choice Awards and I feel so proud to have been recognised for this in the children's book section!

If you fancy your own copy in paperback or hardback, you can get them in lots and lots of online shops (Waterstones, WHSmiths, Foyles, Sainsburys etc) as well as from the Magination Press website direct.

Get Well Bella

Last week I drew this to cheer up Bella, Hailey Restuccia’s four year old daughter fighting cancer.  Apparently she loves princesses, fairies and all things pink so it was a good reason for me to delve back into some girly drawing!

Sometimes it’s good to take time out to do something lovely for someone you don’t know.

Today today

Good afternoon peapods.

Today is the last full day to bid to get your mits on a completely one off piece of artwork, limited edition Florence and the Machine 7" vinyl and a slice of history....WHILST raising money for The Teenage Cancer Trust charity and supporting your, er, favourite illustrator called Emmeline?

What on earth are you waiting for?! Get here now.

I'm determined for it to raise at least £40, which was the minimum donation for the record sleeves sold at the exhibition.

Know anyone who might be interested? Jump on them. Pin them down. Direct them to the link.

Or not.

Just...if you could let people know that'd be over-the-moon-and-most-of-space fantastic.

Here's the full link. 

http://bit.ly/Ik5fEX 

Share it.

You're wonderful.

Secret 7" record sleeve exhibition

Hey Guys! As you may have heard, last week I was involved in the Secret7" charity exhibition. 

My Secret7" Record sleeve illustration.

You didn't hear? You don't know what Secret7" is? You don't know what I'm talking about?

Well, Secret7" is a collection of musicians, artists, record-label officionados, charity-doers and generally nice people who have gotten together to raise money for The Teenage Cancer Trust.

See that pink house? That's Alice Potter's work - she's wonderful.

There's my design in the middle!

Seven bands chose seven songs (one each) and artists were asked to create work responding to the tracks to be made into limited edition 7" record sleeve covers for vinyls of the tracks.

The thing is, the identity of the visual artist and the identity of the track were kept secret through the project, exhibition and sale of the records.  It was only when someone had paid for the vinyl that both were revealed! Ooh hoo hoo!

Tuesday the 17th was the private view/opening night for everyone involved and was held in the Idea Generation gallery in Shoreditch. I headed down from Manchester just to go and join in 

the exhibition shenanigans. 

Some really lovely illustrator friends.

Mark and Jamie of Ohh Deer fame.

Although a lot of the artwork entries were through the competition stage of the event, mine was submitted with Ohh Deer - and so I finally met a lot of the lovely, lovely others in the illustration collective and had drinks, and talks, and generally a ton and a half of good times.

Nicholas Darby's cover - Uni buddy, ex-housemate and Ohh Deer artist.

Ben Farrell and Dave Taylor - Talented graphic designer buddies.

The sale of the vinyls turned out to be a roaring success, with over half of them being snapped up within the first day.  It's not surprising really though, there were some blooming fantastic covers (including a few by the likes of David Shrigley!).

HOWEVER! I still don't know if mine did get sold, I'm hoping it did (if you got it let me know!)- but if not it, along with any others that didn't sell during the exhibition - will be put up on the Teenage Cancer Trust ebay later this week and will be sold on there.  It's all about raising the money for charity anyway, so I'll try not to feel too bad if mine didn't sell there!

This man looks quite cheeky doesn't he? What has he done?!

I hope this was, in fact, interesting for you to read.

If it was, and you're at this point in the blog then I have some good and sort of secret news for you - I've almost finished my second children's book, but the publishers have asked me to do another one and there's the likelihood of another one after that! Yippee! It's good to finally feel a little secure and have some work to keep me motivated.

I hope you're all doing well, keep in touch.

Emmeline 

Sneaky looks, words and pictures

Good Afternoon everyone!
I've been a very quiet little lady recently I know - it's been a very busy time indeed.


I've been working on a new children's book 'The New Year Child' with Far Far Away books. It's a great (and slightly odd!) story, very magical and full of stars and space/cloud scenes.  
I finished illustrating all the colour pages a few days ago (pending a few changes) and so now I'm indulging in my first days off in over a month and a half- there's so much time now! I'm mostly using it to climb through the pages of 1Q84 into Murakami's world.


I can't really show you any of the artwork at the moment (except these teasers teehee!), but as soon as I can I will of course! 

It's been good fun and good for my motivation. I spoke to the MD of the publishers today and we've been talking about the likelihood of other book projects shortly - which is great, great news!


We recently moved into a new little flat (as me and Andrew had been living at his parent's house for 10 months!). It's, well, cosy...but we don't need anything bigger at all. We're slowly filling the place with bits and bobs but our bed is still just a mattress on the floor (everyone comments how Japanese style it is!) and I've been working on a tiny fold out metal table for the entire book.  We did finally get a fridge last week, we'd been using a one foot high camping fridge for about a month and a half - there was an awful lot of food tetris that had to be done there.


'Shhhh!' I hear you say, 'I just want to see some drawings!'. Well, if indeed you did say that, here you go...

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Amy Millan from the band Stars (incidentally, one of my favourite bands, go and listen to them) who wanted to commission me to illustrate a painting for her daughter and nephew's first birthday.  I felt absolutely honoured to do it and it was really nice to do a full gouache painting, without a hint of digital- back to my roots!  Amy told me when she saw it she cried because she loved it so much. You can't really get a better response than that can you?
I'm really happy with it and it was a lovely commission to work on. Hurray!


That illustration is also now up on my website, as well as some new downloadable tear-sheets of my work (on the about me page) and a photo of my real life face instead of a drawing.
You can also get 10% off all the pretty postcards and sticker sets in my shop with the code SPRING10 until Friday, so let everyone know about that if you can!


Oh! I recently jumped over the 10,000 views on my blog hurdle - that's amazing, thank you all so much for supporting me.


For now, that's all.  I'll hopefully get back into the swing of other illustration work again soon.  There's some hard and very upsetting things going on with my family at the moment so I'm at least going to take a week off to be with them down in Cornwall.  I'm hoping things will get better and I'll post lots of illustration updates for you soon.


Have a lovely week, okay! x

I M P O R T A N T bad news.

Hi everyone, it's been a while - I've been very, very busy moving into a new flat and working on a new children's book which will be out later this year!


But, important, bad news first...


I found out today that someone's been impersonating me on the website grain edit and writing crude, offensive and potentially reputation-sabotaging comments on articles about people's work.
There's one for almost every article it comes up with on Google for Emmeline Pidgen and grain edit.


I'd like everyone to know that it was DEFINITELY NOT ME writing those comments!


Someone's been using my name and website address to make it look like I'm writing them, but seem to have ignored the fact I'm nothing like that, have better things to do and have a reputation to keep as a children's book illustrator!


It is rather stressful thinking that potential clients, publishers, employers etc might see those search results and think twice about working with me.  I'm hoping that all the positive internet presence I've built up over the years will over shadow it and no one will believe that it's me writing them.


I've contacted grainedit and hopefully they'll be able to do something quickly. I hope they'll make their commenting system a little more secure too...


Please remember I'm nice!


Emmeline x