Sherluke & Catson

Peas

Mum's the Word!

I have a very exciting blog post right here. And do you know why it's so exciting?? THAT, my friends, is because the brilliant Jamie Littler has his debut collaborative children's picture book coming out 7th February!!!

This beautifully illustrated 'Mum's the Word' is a treat for the eyes, and a great rhyming read!

Check out a sneaky preview (amongst other fantastic illustrations) on Jamie's website: http://jamielittler.co.uk/

If you haven't already got yourself a copy, you can pre-order it right HERE...

My copy shall be arriving in due course, exciting times!

Spread the word my pretties!

Lacey-Blue is Pleased to Meet YOU.

My Mum's new website!

Hello lovelies! My Mum, the wonderful Ingrid Anderson has just launched her new website, yay! She is a Professional Fine Artist with tonnes of talent. why not take a look! She takes commissions and is also setting up a children's art club called 'Art Explosion'. It's gonna be a good'un! CHECK OUT INGRID'S WEBSITE HERE :)

My Three Favourites...

I thought this might be a fun blog post (since I can't show you anything that I'm working on right now... Publisher's orders!)

I've made some lists of my favourite things. I would LOVE to know your favourites too :)

So, if you have a little bit of time to tell me, that would be wonderful.

Three Favourite Films:

1. Moon

2. The Dark Knight Rises

3. Casper

Three Favourite TV programmes:

1. Homeland

2. New Girl

3. The Vampire Diaries

Three Favourite Book series:

1. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman

2. The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness

3. Harry Potter Books

Three Favourite Songs:

1. The Circle of Life (Broadway version)

Listen to it HERE.

2. Kiss from a Rose (Seal)

Listen to it HERE.

3. Your Song (Ewan McGregor version)

Listen to it HERE.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this. Now tell me your favourites! :)

Old work & jazz!

It's always kinda cool to stumble across old sketchbooks or computer files. I have a collection of many many illustrations that have never come to anything, more than I can count! So I thought I'd share some of these old forgotten pieces with you...

Here are a few silly comics, mostly unfinished!

(Click to enlarge!)

And here are my first ever Evil Emperor Penguin sketches before he became published! He looks soooo different! I'll show you the comparison....

Before publication:

After publication

And here's a rough sketch from a page of a book I recently illustrated that comes out on Monday! The book is part of Julia Donaldson's Plays called The Escape.

The front cover...

I hope you've enjoyed this very random blog post! :)

A Few Things...

Hello lovely ones!

How are we all?!

I thought I'd post something nice today for your eyes. I have a few photos to share with you from over the past few festive weeks. The Christmas & New Year was a good'un and now it's back to some serious work! Crunch time, some would say. Aside from the books that are being published this year, I have lots of exciting events, including the big learn to drive! I'm doing a two week intensive course, so I'm hoping to be driving by March time depending on when I can book the test for. YIKES!

Back to Christmassy things, The Anderson Household have a tradition every year where Santa leaves his glitterly footprints all over the house! *gasp* And I can prove it...

I received some beautiful gifts for Christmas, including this lovely flower decoration from my wonderful Sister... My room is full of weird and wonderful hanging decorations and gizmos!

My hands also got into the Christmas spirit!

And how could we not include my squidgy not-so-little Scooby!

I hope you've enjoyed this random little blog post. More again SOON, I promise. :)

2013 BLAST OFF!

Hello my little monsters!

I hope you all had a marvellous magical Christmas full of jolliness and cake. I am pleased to announce a very VERY exciting year ahead, and today I shall tell you WHY.

Last year I was lucky enough to sign a big beasty contract with both Scholastic and Bloomsbury for some extremely awesome picture books.

My first picture book, 'Snowflakes' will be released this September 2013; a collaboration with cbeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell. Cerrie and myself will be collaborating for future picture books with Scholastic, which is very exciting indeed! I shall be starting work on my next picture book with Scholastic in the next couple of months ready for publication in 2014!

We have a while to wait for 'Snowflakes', but to tickle your taste buds in the mean time, here are a few other treats which are being published this year...

The first in line to be released is an educational play book, which is part of the 'Julia Donaldson Plays' called 'The Escape', written by Ms Geraldine McCaughrean and published by Pearson Education. Released on 14th January 2013, this is a very quirky story with memorable characters that truly involve kids within the story! You can pre-order this baby right here!

Next to be released April 11th 2013 is 'Rapunzel and the Prince of Pop' written by Karyn Gorman and published by Hachette. You can pre order and have a looksie at the blurb right here!

And then on May 22nd 2013, my next book 'Ampata and the Scarlet Macaws: A new retelling of two South American Tales' will be released. I'm particularly excited about this one!
Written by Benjamin Hulme-Cross and published by Pearson, I'm working on some very exciting spreads right now! Can't wait to show you all when it's eventually out in the world!

Alongside these exciting projects I am currently working on another children's picture book with Bloomsbury called 'Agatha' written by William Bee. Another book shall be following immediately after this, hopefully leading onto a very exciting series.

And amongst these crazy book type things, I've been working hard on my comic series 'Evil Emperor Penguin' with The Phoenix comic. Issue 4 of EEP will be out 18th January 2013 along with some very exciting EEP fan art to be presented in the comic.

PHEW! I think I've covered pretty much everything... FOR NOW. I've been a very busy bee, and it'll be a relief to actually SHOW you what I've been working so hard on when they're finally released! There's nothing more frustrating for an illustrator than working your bottom off for months then having to wait a year before being allowed to show ANYTHING.

ANYWAY, I do hope you've enjoyed having a catch up. I'm off to go rest these weary limbs now. And goodnight!

P.S. Since there's a sincere lack of pictures in this post, here's a picture of my dog Scooby to keep you sane...

'Cause I haven't posted in a while... And you're nice.

A Silly Poem for No Particular Reason

I’m not sure how this came about,
Something in the air no doubt.
But what to place on this next line,
Perhaps a word we can’t define?

Who knows where this verse will go,
Until you read you just won’t know.
Or maybe you’re just wasting time,
By stopping now you’re wasting mine.

So how are you? What do you do?
I’ll tell you my name if you do too…
You must be bored if you’re still here,
Or really hate your job, I fear.

But yet you read, you hope for more?
Haven’t we been here before?
An endless circle on and on,
Every ounce of reason gone.

Welcome to verse number five,
You’re doing well, you CAN survive.
‘Cos pointless as this verse may be,
The end is nearing finally.

Let’s wrap it up and pat it down,
You really do deserve a crown.
You mighty being; patient, strong,
Show no mercy, do no wrong!

I think it’s clear, you may think not,
The meaning I have since forgot.
But do not fret you’ll see the light,
Hello, goodbye, farewell, good night.

Fritter the Fox says hello

Some of you may remember a little character of mine from about a year ago. Well, he is BACK. And he would very much like to be your friend.

Flying Home

For those of you who have seen the film 'Kick Ass', you'll probably recognise the scene I've drawn. For those of you who have not seen 'Kick Ass'. You should!

It's true...

Gretel

She don't take no messing!

Ghostcat says Happy Halloweeeeeeen! MEOW.

A Big Little Dog Walk

"Do run along Mr. Picklebum Pop! We must hurry to the bakery just before it opens so the buns are extra warm on purchase!"

Frankenweenie Fan Art

If you haven't seen 'Frankenweenie' already, I couldn't recommend it enough. The film is beautifully shot with a collection of brilliantly animated characters.

Any dog lover will immediately connect with the main character 'Sparky', a quirky little lump of utter canine joy!

Frankenweenie is equally heartwarming and heartbreaking, touching the audience on an emotional level as well as providing a great action packed story.

I am now going through a 'Frankenweenie Phase'. If I like something enough, I have a 'phase' and often buy merchandise. posters, tshirts and draw the odd piece of fan art. So to show my love for the fantastic Frankenweenie, here's a little piece of fan art! :)

(click image to enlarge)

Happy Halloween from Ginger!

PEEPO!

Woooooops!

Ginger

Today is a special day, and do you know why?...

WELL, you may or may not know of a mini competition I posted on here just over a week ago, in which you lovely people put forward name suggestions for my little character sketch.

I then picked a name out of a bobble hat at random, and the winner was Mr. Phil Littler with the name 'Ginger'.

The winning name would win a coloured print of said character, and now that Mr. Littler has received his print, today is the day everybody else gets to see the final product!

Tah daaah!

Let's Read a Lovely Book

NOM NOM

I Do Believe There's a Cat in the Ceiling

click image to enlarge

Fiction Attack!

Having secured two picture book contracts under my belt, lately, I've been wanting to dip into the world of children's fiction for a little change. Any random ideas I get, I draw, but in my 'Fiction' style. So expect to see a lot more of this stuff on here for a while as I find my feet. I'll be posting new pieces every now & then between the heap of work I'm trying to keep on top of. It's all part of the great Circle of Illustration.

Let's start with a neater version of the last character sketch I posted...

I'd really appreciate opinions and all that jazz as I find my way with this fiction malarky! Thank you :)

Tilly Twinkletoes

Another super quick sketch for you. I'd love to know your thoughts :)

Evil Emperor Penguin up to his old tricks

Issue 1 & 2 of Evil Emperor Penguin have shown their faces in The Phoenix Comic over the past couple of months, and Issue 3 is about to burst out into the open VERY soon oozing with more evil antics than you can fit into a tin can!

But it doesn't just end there... That tiny caped penguin is ONE determined little seabird who won't stop 'til his taken over that world. So WATCH OUT!

Issue 4 in progress shows some very suspicious behaviour...

I thought I'd also share with you a little sneak peek of my work desk (rather messy) BUT IT SHOWS I'M WORKING. Ahem. As you can see, I'm working HARD on the comic stuffs. A lot of evil going down!

And here's one corner of my room. My shrine some would say. I like to think it's like some magical den.