I haven’t been on Illustration Friday for ages and miss the community feeling of sharing your creativity. It’s great getting feedback and lovely to see everyone else’s work. This artwork were for a little boy who loved pandas and a great promotion piece to get personalised commissions.

My Cheeky Tooth Fairy

After much consideration and help from my lovely friends i have given my tooth fairy a name!… Meet Pearl (Thanks Becca)
She is the character for my new picture book idea. She is a cheeky trainee tooth fairy. I will be finalising sketches and words as I am sat on a sun lounger sipping cocktails in Tunisia. Even on my time off i am still working even in my head as I close my eyes ready to go to sleep.

My friends have made several other name suggestions and I am also going to create some friends for Pearl… Peggy and Floss… Thanks Jan!
I’m very excited to get my mockup book ready to show to agents and publishers. I have a good feeling about this little minx!

Magpie Books

For all budding artists and illustrators this is a chance to get your win a copy of my recently published book Oscar.  I came up with the idea about Oscar because my cat was always hungry and no matter what he ate he always wanted more.  So the story is about Oscar’s adventures in space visiting the space cats and feasting on lashings of cream and milk on the moon.

Read reviews on Palimpsest Press’ blog.

The competition is for anybody who loves to create and draw.  The brief is to create a piece of artwork about your pet or an animal’s crazy adventure or it can be an illustration of Oscar; an alternative illustration of his space adventure.  Artwork can be traditional drawings, paint, crayons, pencils or it can be 3D or digital or a photo.  Just be creative! You need to either post your work on this blog or email me with your creations.  All entries will receive a free downloadable black and white print to print and add colour to.  Competition closes September 1st 2012

As Oscar has been published in Canada I have a pile of books to sell in the UK.  Anybody interested in ordering please email me.  I will put a link to buy the book in the next few days.

Alongside my stationery brand Smogarella© I have begun to develop a range of products such as t-shirts under the brand name Smoggie©. Although it is very much in the beginning stages I have added two t-shirt designs to my shop. I am going to add lots of cutsie animals and fairy tale themed t-shirts over the next few weeks! For now you have the opportunity to buy my Wolfie or Little Red Riding Hood t-shirts.  Available for adults and children.

Please take a look at my new brand Smoggie©

Been a proper busy bee updating my website. It’s not quite there yet as I need to add more photos and lots more text about my new venture called Smogarella©! I will explain a little more later once I am up and running. I am creating a new brand of wedding invitations and I in the process of designing cards and other wedding stationery like save the date cards etc. You can view my brides and grooms on the Smogarella© link. Basically you can choose a bride and a groom that will appear on your stationery. I am also going to do an even more personalised service where I will paint the actual couple. The package will include the original artwork for the couple to frame as a keepsake and another memory of their day. Watch this space for more developments!

For commissions please visit personalised artwork

Prices starting from £250 for an original are quoted by email: sprestonillustration@me.com

I have lots of new ideas and I’m planning to start selling prints on my Etsy site. I’m also hoping to try and get some new commissions and expanding my audience.  I have also started to design digital based characters and have a great commission with Salford City Council to raise awareness of improving healthy lifestyles.  I have designed a couple of characters that will appear around Salford very soon and there are more in the process of being created.

Im also painting a few illustrations for a yoga book which I will share once finished.  I’m really enjoying this work as I have been able to be really imaginative with it and feel very happy with them.

This is the first time I have used WordPress for my blog and not quite worked out how to add new pictures yet! Will get to grips with it very shortly

Aaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggh!!!!

I screamed and jumped about my studio when I got THE email!!! It was Ladybird books asking me to work with them on updating their fairytales. They asked if I would do The Three Little Pigs!!! It has to be one of the most famous books ever and I am now part of it. They actually sent me a mock up of one of my old illustrations to show me how my work would look on a cover of a Ladybird Book. That sent me over the edge ha ha!!!

I actually had a blind panic as I looked at the white expanse in my sketchbook thinking OMG OMG whatever I draw may not be good enough. I’m guessing this is what writer’s term as writer’s block. Well I had illustrators block. Usually I am so excited at a commission I have to draw there and then but this time I couldn’t.

Eventually I gave myself a talking to and said I told myself to stop being silly and to treat it exactly how I always do and forget it’s for a book and just draw for myself. And that is what I did. I sent them about six variations for the front cover and they really liked them. After a couple of sketches later I was ready to paint the cover.

They then sent me the art directions for the whole book and I read the opening paragraph and it took me back to the original book when I was a little girl. It had come full circle from my parent’s reading to me as a child to me copying the pictures and colouring them in with my amazing crayola crayons… I loved them I had the lot!!! mmmm the smell of them were amazing lol… to actually drawing for Ladybird books!!! As you can see I am over the moon!!

I have been working constantly on the illustrations and over the last two weeks it’s been 24/7 painting. When I was feeling tired and fed up at times living as a painting hermit I thought about the book printed all colourful and new in bookstores ready for a pair of tiny hands smiling when they would say I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in!!! And I would suddenly get a new burst of inspiration.

It’s all painted now and I am just awaiting feedback for any changes that may need doing. And then it’s printing time.

And no rest for the illustrator… I am now working on another Ladybird title… The Elves and The Shoemaker. And guess what I can’t wait to start painting already!!! I’m just crossing my fingers there will be another one for me to illustrate after this one

Ladybird,pigs,three little pigs, children,books,illustrations,illustrator

Since January I have become a full time illustrator yaaaaaaay!!!!
MY DREAM CAME TRUE!!!!!

I have been working solidly since January and have work up until August time. I literally haven’t had the time to start promoting myself yet ha ha!!! I’m not complaining… Not many people can say they love their job. How many people can put on their Facebook status… Painting in my pj’s today!

I have had several commissions including some educational work with Oxford University Press and greeting cards companies.

OSCAR
I was so excited when my publisher from Palimpsest Press asked me to do a picturebook based on the paintings she had seen of Oscar for their new imprint Magpie Books.

It was an idea I had ages ago and I ended up submitting one of these paintings to Images competition and it ended up in their yearly annual and exhibition.

Sooooo I sent in my story idea and with the help of talented Jordan Troutt the story of Oscar was ready to be illustrated. It will be ready to go to print very soon. I can’t wait to see the actual book. It is based on one of my two cats Oscar who is really greedy and fat. So the character Oscar is wanting more milk and takes a journey up to the moon to share a milky feast with the other cats.

http://www.magpiebooks.ca/

Now it is live I now need to promote myself big style! Next step is to get some promotional postcards out there and post post post to publisher and companies who would find my illustrations useful!

I am really pleased with my little girlie icons and have framed two of them in my newly decorated smaller bedroom as I have uprooted my studio from the box room to the main bedroom… More room for ever growing artwork!!!