It’s been a busy year of the Rabbit! I feel lucky having so much work on. Recently I finished illustrating my 50th children’s book which is amazing how that’s happened. At the end of last year I signed a contract for a 4 book deal with a lovely publisher in Slovenia. It’ll be full time working on these for the next year and a half- like a busy train chugging non stop until next March. Here are some images I’m allowed to show you so far…
March ‘23: Dear Mothman, a gorgeous mid grade novel written by Robin Gow and published by Abrams came out into the world. I love this book so much. The story is written like a diary. It’s so moving and magical. The cover artist Tracy J Lee made the jacket illustration and I illustrated the inner foiled cover and b/w insides. It was a joy! Please read it!
Saw a lot of Live music this year - lots of different genres. These were my faves though…
April ‘23: It’s SO important to do art for fun. That’s where you learn new things but because of my deadlines this year, it was hard to find that time. So I’m grateful for the evening Drink&Draw sessions in Cardiff. They’re lovely social events and you get to meet all the other doodlers that usually work alone. Here’s what we got up to…
And I managed to squeeze a bit of sketching on holiday too…
May ‘23: My very first picture book that I illustrated was called Once Upon a Time Upon a Nest written by Jon Emmett. That was nearly 20 years ago!! And Jonathan and I weirdly, have never met!!! This May he and his wife Rachel, made it happen and came to Wales for a lovely visit. It was a beaut sunny day and I took them to the beach for a dip in the sea then we looked around our fab local welsh museum at St Fagans. Jonathan brought the Ruby toy that I made him, for a photo shoot!
July ‘23: On another scorching day, my agent Alice Williams had an agency drinks evening in London by the river. It was so lovely to meet other authors and illustrators and talk about our strange day jobs.
I like to donate work every year to raise funds for good causes. This year they were for. .
The Bookmark Project, DoodleDay Epilepsy Action and Children in Read (Children in Need)
July ‘23: I made some very different art with Jon Ruddick in the collaborative art space Shift (Cardiff)
Sept ‘23: Topping up on some visual beauty for my illustration brain library, I visited a Dahlia field with a friend and we picked a bunch each and skipped around in dahlia heaven and didn’t want to leave even though it was raining.
Nov ‘23: For the first time I joined in the online illustration challenge Folktaleweek. A great chance to stretch the imagination in a different direction using their daily prompts. Because of my other work I couldn’t do the full week- but I did 4! And 4 is better than none I say. Here they are… (the prompts I managed to do were : Lost, Ink, Underground, Illusion)
How funny that I’ve actually had a few Rabbity things to celebrate during the Year of the Rabbit. . Look. .
Nov ‘23: Snow Bunny’s Christmas Show came out into the world In November. Published by Nosy Crow (written in-house), we worked hard on this project last year during a heatwave. I remember painting snow whilst melting in my studio in the high temps. The seasons never seem to align with my book projects! Apparently the Snow Bunny series is in 16 territories around the world so far! I’m so happy!
An article was published in the Costco magazine in Canada to celebrate the release of Snow Bunny’s Christmas Show in French.
On the same book birthday as Snow Bunny’s Christmas Show, A House for Christmas Mouse came out in a new Board Book edition just in time for Christmas!
Dec ‘23: And finally I was asked by Nosy Crow to paint a bookshop window in lovely North Books in Hay on Wye- a smashing end to the Year of the Rabbit!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for all your interest and support. If you liked the blog entry, please click the heart at the bottom and I’ll know you were here. Thank you!