New doodles

Going down to Cambridge tomorrow to support a friend in his MA interview (hes applying for the same course as me.) and after that, I'll be travelling up north! I was going to bring my sketchpad with me, hopefully I'll be able to spend the next few days enjoying the sights and doing some drawing...

Moustache Octopus

I've been working on a couple of Illustration projects these past few weeks which helps keep my mind busy-its probably best I didn't really show them on my blog for now so I thought I'd take a few photos from little square sketchpad.

One of the drawings from my book I haven't really scanned yet. Been trying to think of some British red coat soldiers to draw.

Just an abandoned concept from a bunch of ideas I pitched to the Sea City Museum. Below is the rough and this one is the more finished concept. I'm sure I'll finish this little drawing eventually. 

Play Pen

I now have a copy of Martin Salisburys 'Play Pen' a book I read and took out from my library a couple of times when I was attending Solent university. I honestly didn't realise the book was becoming a bit of a rarity until I looked for it on amazon a couple of weeks ago- it's certainly a bit pricey for a paperback.  


Re-reading it again though, it now feels kinda surreal that it's author will now be my tutor and several successful illustrators mention the MA children's book illustration at Anglia Ruskin and the bologna book fair.  Two very big events which will play a part in my life which begins this September.. I really can't wait. 

Sea City Museum

I finally went to see the sea city museum in Southampton today. I only took a few photos since the exhibit itself didn't allow any photography but it was really rewarding seeing the kids using my leaflets. Looked like the museum was quite popular too, the place was packed today!

a Photo of my museum trail leaflets which were posted to me a few  weeks back now. 

Heres a photo of me today at the museum! 

And I thought I'd just add a drawing that the council didn't seem to use. Shame though, I'll have to use it for something else. 

Accepted into Cambridge!

Things were quite excting last week! I attended my cambridge interview last Tuesday and had a letter arrive on Friday saying that I had a place on the Childrens book Illustration MA course at Anglia Ruskin! I start sometime in September and I really can't wait to see how it turns out!

Cambridge Interview

I applied for an MA in children's book illustration at Cambridge a few weeks ago and I attended the interview on Tuesday this week. I was interviewed by Martin Salisbury the head of the course and two graduates. I was actually told a little bit about Martin during my studies at Solent and I did borrow his book from my library a few times, its quite interesting actually...  (and its also become quite expensive on amazon lately, oh well.)

This is the book I read by Martin Salisbury. During our sequential narrative project at Solent, everyone seemed to borrow this book from the libary. 

The studio actually felt like my old Southampton studio. As for the actual interview itself, I'm really not sure how well it went...  Everyone was really nice at least and I think they seemed interested in some of the drawings I had brought along. Unfortunately, I'm a bit worried that I didn't really ask too many questions and I have a horrible habit of not being able to explain myself properly when the answer is clearly in my head... but its just a problem i've just had to live with. When Martin mentioned about the Bologna book fair and the close ties with Walker books, I started getting really excited about the course and kinda wished I would be one of the lucky people to be selected... but for now, I'll try not to think about it too much. I am grateful I was at least called for an interview and got to see Cambridge, its a place I've never seen before.

The Book of Marie Vendawn

Here are some updates on one of my book projects:  Marie Vendawn.  I tried setting a goal to finish some sort of dummy book by the end of this year but I guess I'm still being critical of the ideas I have. I'm going for an MA interview next week at cambridge (the course will cover childrens book design.) so I'm interested to hear what sort of feedback some of my ideas will get.

I really wanted to make something that feels 'different' compared to the other books and comics out there and I came about the idea of making one seemingly long image- liike a long journey

Sorry for the poor scan, but its three photos taken on my iphone pasted together.

I'm hoping that all the images can connect to each other like this. I also wanted to include some slightly strange looking animals (in this case, llamas.)

I'm still thinking of what places Marie Vendawn can travel to,  I didn't want to show the journey as being  easy.

And here, Marie Vendawn reaches the end of the world.

I did wonder if maybe there could be some hitchhiking involved but I kinda wanted the journey to  feel a little  bit lonely- I might rethink this drawing, or just get rid of it.

The Marie Vendawn character. I wanted the character to feel cute, but also very rebellious. This drawing is 'cool, laid-back & Ginger' according to Jessica.


I'm still wondering how this will work as a book- perhaps it can just be a concertina (which is kinda what inspired this idea) or maybe it could just be cut up into segments on each page? the feedback next week should be interesting.