Complicated Macmillan Spread

I thought I'd post another of my macmillan spreads, which again has taken a considerable amount of time.  This spread amazingly consists of over 100 layers in Photoshop and that's excluding the shells!  Watercolour, acrylics, pen and photographs of plasters have all made up this double page spread.  The little snails have jumped out of a tree to escape a mean hedgehog and have ended up a bit battered and bruised.  Poor snails.

I sometimes wonder about this way of working and how I always seem to end of with bits and pieces of painted artwork, snails without bodies and separate penwork, or backgrounds that really don't mean anything to anyone except me. Then I think of the flexibility that this way of working gives me. I can move things about on the screen, change, add or take away different elements, and try out so many different layer effects in Photoshop to achieve my final piece. I think it is worth the hours of selecting and masking and sometimes stumbling upon unexpected results.

14th March Book Launch

Top Left to Right, Illustrators:
Matt Jones, Fifi Sharplin,
Toni Williams and Maria Forrester

I attended the book launch for the children's book project called "Unexpected Tales from Telford".  It was a lovely evening with pupils reading extracts from their stories in front of quite a large audience.  They were so brave!  Afterwards we were presented with copies of our book and indulged in some tea and cakes.  Unfortunately, not all of the team could be present for the event, but I'm sure that everyone would agree they gained valuable experience from this opportunity.

Macmillan Children's Book Competition

One of the spreads that I've been working on and how I use mixed media to build up the final image.

Once I have my rough and photos, I usually start with painting up the background and adding in the photos.  I've used crayons in the background and then watercolours, built up in layers.

Penwork usually follows and some patterns.  Finally, I paint up the main character and bring the whole image together in Photoshop by using masks and adjustment layers.


If you're interested in details of this competition please follow this link:  http://www.panmacmillan.com/macmillanprize

I hope you have enjoyed this post.

Animation

I've been waiting to hear from Norman Greenbaum about uploading this video and have just received confirmation from his partner Erik that I can use it.  So here it is, my first ever animation, made whilst studying at Cannock College and I still think it's kind of cute.