Latest mischief.

My Book finally came! This one I ordered for myself as you can see, does not have my name on the cover, making this the only copy like it. The rest that are publicly for sale have my name on the front.

My previous blog had the link on it for the website where you can buy my book. 

In the meantime a friend of mine asked me to create a picture of Jay & Silent Bob for them to give to another friend as a x-mas present.  Below is the finished image! ... with a watermark of course.

Shnoochi Boochies! Peace out people. x

Book Ending.

Ok, lots going on!

Just finished my Greg the giant gets a cold book, this is book number 4 of my childrens picture books.

Here is the link if you want your very own copy!  http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/greg-the-giant-gets-a-cold/18737838

I hope you all like it. I sure had fun making it!.

Now thats done and dusted I get to start some brand new drawings, some of which are collabs with friends.

More info to come, watch this space!.

.. peace out..

Update on Art and Progress.

Since my last post i've done a fair few things but not as much as i'd like to have done.

One thing i've done is try to design some simple x-mas cards that could be printed and sold in packs of four, these are some of the designs.

..next thing i've done is enter a competition on deviantart.com to design a t-shirt based on the deviantart logo. Here are some of my idea's/entries.

..also the 'SECRET PROJECT' has been finished! but will not be reviled just yet. :) I'm ploughing on with the GREG book and hope to be finished for x-mas or new year at latest.

Frantic

For the last 3 - 4 weeks I've been franticly working on a 'secret project' that will not be reviled until the right time. What I can tell you is it IS arty and I should really wear a thimble... also it's almost finished.

But while that's under way i've started simple ideas for x-mas cards, here are two I did today, both water colours.

  The only thing about water colours is the printer is terrible at picking up the right colours and texture, if there's a way of changing this some one please tell me.  I'm going to keep working on more ideas and when I have four I'm happy with I'm going to post them for sale as a package deal.

Also I've only just realized that the deadline for the Sketchbook World Tour project is VERY close, so I will be doing my best to fill the rest of the sketch book and post that back to America.

Up to date.

I have been lacking a bit on the blog update thing so I apologise for that.  Not many images have been created since my last entry, most of my time has been taken up job hunting, competition searching and getting on with my next book.

The 'Greg' book is coming along nicely with each image been painting in separate parts then added together digitally so it's easier for me to re-arrange if something looks wrong. Also I've found that colouring the characters on each page digitally helps them stand out more and looks pretty good.  So nothing much to show you of that just yet.

Some things I CAN show you are these, one of the competitions I found was to design a t-shirt image for the Muppet's, I tried to do the whole less is more thing and came up with these.

..notice how you still know the characters without the outlines of there bodies or faces?
I did make more but got occupied with other images and by the time I'd made enough for a second set of four the competition had closed for entries.

The next 'competition' or exhibition if you want is at Artlink in Hull, the exhibition is for 'black history month' and the theme is rhythm and music. So with the help of a certain someone I gathered a list of well known singers that had changed the way music was heard/played and that had a big influence on people.

Here are the three I ended up drawing...

Also I applied to be an art worker at artlink, my application is still being processed but fingers crossed I get in!

That's a wrap for this entry, I'll let you know when more interesting stuff goes on.

OH! one last thing, I've now got me a folksy online shop! http://www.folksy.com/shops/BexEdenIllustration take a look.

The Urge To Create

Then I suddenly had the urge to start my next kids book 'Greg the Giant: Gets a cold'.
The story was inspired by an idea that some had planted in my head, the idea was that if some one could breath in so much that they sucked the world up their nose, why would is not work the other way round?

So the story was born, written, typed out, spell checked, printed, spell checked again, re-written, re-printed and finally sent off to a children's story competition. When the results came back my story had gotten down to the top 300 out of thousands of people.. which is pretty good. I even got a letter of praise from the competition judges, which made me think this may be the one story that might get somewhere.

Then after another million page plans later I had my picture book planned out, all that was left to do was find the right was of colouring that worked well. I found it!

So here we have the first draft of the front page and the design for the inside pages.

A Pile Of Post

OK, I realise I've been very bad at keeping my blog up to date lately. Bad me.. So I'm going to try and fill you in with what's been  happening and finish off with a downpour of images!

By the looks of things that last thing you all heard about was the 'Monstrosity' image and the fairy tale images.
Since then I've been drawing a few more line images which I've been digitally colouring but also experimenting by adding textures and overlaying images.

For example...

... This then came to a halt as I went on holiday for a week.

.. More images and rambling to come in my next blog.

Come back fighting.

Ok i've had a little break from art and stuff and come back fighting. I've finished my latest calender fairytale image here..

But also had the inspiration to get back and do some of my old school stuff, this image i'm very proud of which is saying something as i haven't been proud of my work in a long time.

Little bit of brain food.

Just to let all my followers out there know what I've been up to. I'm still working on the fairytale stuff as i'm determin to make enough to make a calender. I've been working on commissions for other people and family members, pondering on ideas for indecisive people who can't decide if they want my work or not.

Amongst this tornado of things happening i've been trying to get orginised and various projects finished so that I can get back on track with what Im supposed to be doing.

..and on the side i'm still sketching out page layouts for my next kids book.

To keep your eyes from visual starvation heres a little drawing. .. ..

.Update.

Latest finished piece in my fairy tale drawings.

My latest ventures in to the unknown creative realms of my mind, involve sketching up plans for the pages of my next kids book. The story for the book was entered in to a compertition and got in to the top 300 out of thousands of stories and I got a a 'well done' from the big guys.

While the planning commences slowly i will carry on with the digital fairy tale images and also a little side project of 'ninja bunny' t-shirt designs.

.Little Miss Muffet.

Latest finished picture.

Little Miss Muffet.

More on the way... watch this space.

More Characters.

I've gone back to the whole 'fairytale' thing again but it's always fun so I carry on. I'm trying a slightly new way of drawing and colouring my characters. It takes longer to do but it looks better in ways, also the before sketches and line drawings have to be cleaned up a lot.

I've picked a few character from fairytails and nursery rhymes and put a twist on them to make them my own, here are the line drawings of a few of them.


Here is one of my first drawings i did for this chain of sketches along with the finished thing.

Preview of what's to come.

Thought I'd let you have a preview of the next kids book I'm working on. This one is more for 'baby babies' for the parents to read to their kids and for the kids to enjoy the rhymes and colours on the simple images. This is also the book I'm intending to sell to raise a little bit of money.

.Books Fund-raising and CD's.

As usual I've been working on getting my kids book ideas out there in to the hand of publishers and hopefully one of them will jump with excitement and want to publish one of my picture books.

For now i'll let you know that the local school has decided to buy two copies of 'The Missing Spots' and asked me to sign them and possibly come in to the school to talk about it to the kids. As I have terrible stage fright this might go horribly wrong but we will see.

I have also been working on creating a new smaller picture book purely for the purpose of fund-raising money for my disabled cousin so he can have a shiny new specially built bicycle.
The book will be called 'Christian Can' and have a short but heart felt poem through the book along side some illustrations of mine.

Finaly I have gotten feedback on the cd cover design I'm having a go at, I was told the characters on the rollercoaster where a bit too childish, so i've re drawn them, the differences are like so ...

I'll keep updates coming as stuff happens, watch this space!

.SnapShot.

Ok so apart from the never ending process of researching, printing out manuscripts and posting envelopes, I've been asked to attempt a CD cover design. Seen as I always seem to be doing kids stuff these days i thought I'd give it a try.

As I'm not sure yet if they want to use it or not, I can only give you a snap shot preview in b&w and colour.





Watch this space for more news!

.So.Far.I've.

Just a quick post to let you all know what I've been up to.
Recently been woke up at unspeakable times with a flood of ideas for various children's books, they've all been written down and saved for a day when I'm not busy. Also a few other projects have popped up, not paid work yet but all something for me to work on and possibly gain a few pennies from.

To make things easier 'kids book wise' I've logged back on to LuLu.com (speak of the devil, they've just emailed to say my order has shipped) and downsized all my currently for sale books so they will be cheaper to buy and still look good.

I've been researching like crazy in to children's book publishers in the UK and across the waters, with the help of Children's writers and artist yearbook I've made a lot of progress over a short time. I've already sent a few manuscripts out to a few publishers (6) and got 3 back so far, fingers crossed for the rest. I've ordered a batch of my downsized books to send off as dummy books to publishers and also to show to nurseries in hope to gain public interest. (yey)

... and thats about it so far. Watch this space! ..it's quiet nice to look at.

.Caricatures.

I seem to be drawing a lot of caricatures lately, some chi bi's and some face portraits. I think it's cause it's simple to do yet effective, also it's fun :) and it helps when I have a drawing block.

Here are my latest drawings.

.Update.

Ok! so a quick update on what I've been up to since my last blog.
I watched the film Arthur and got really inspired to want to get my kids books published ( wonder why ) but anyway.

So the weeks after that i worked like crazy to get my Timmy book finished, then i spent 3 days after that researching in to kids book publishers that take on unsolicited manuscripts.

NEXT! I wrote a manuscript then posted 6 out to selected publishers. So far i have had three back, one saying they love my story but the illustrations don't fit with there work, and two saying thanx but no thanx good luck with your work.

This alone is awesome because publishers rarely even look at unsolicited maunscripts :) and getting the rejection letters back only makes me want to work harder at getting my work published. So now I'm plodding on!

..oh and in the mean time, I painted this :D

.caricatures.

As a few of you already know, I've had a creative block for a while now so to get me back in to drawing I did a caricature of a mate and this is how it turned out.

Also i've recently been asked for another caricature/cartoon commission that I will be starting work on very soon. See my website for details of commission prices and terms, thank you!

.Actual.Touchable.Book.

Yey! my copy of Timmy & The Magic Bean arrived :D next thing to do is research in to publishers and send out letters asking sweetly and nicely if they will publish my book for me ha ha.

.Timmy.book.finished.

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/timmy-the-magic-bean/15671649

Timmy book is FINALLY finished :) and I'm really happy about it. It's taken me forever to draw, make and upload as a certain format for different websites. Above is the lulu.com link so if you want a copy click the link above, i've ordered mine!

.Book.Almost.Done.

Working like mad to get this book finished, all the images are done and arranged on the pages, I've typed up the text now all i have to do is apply the text to the pages and place the pages in the book making program, :)

Next I'm gonna read up on sending work out to publishers and see if I can get anywhere with it apart from just selling it on blurb and lulu.

Below is a preview of the front and back cover.

.More.Chibi's.

.chi-bi.

Continuing with chi-bi's and i'm working on more :) it's fun and they look cool. can you guess who these two drawings are?

.It.Starts.

It started with an experiment of drawing myself and it looked good, so I drew some one else..that looked good too. All of a sudden the potraits became popular and i'm being asked to draw even more, so now i'm charging :) all details on potrait comissions on my website http://www.wix.com/bex_eden/bex-eden-illustration check it out!

Below is the first few potraits I have done.