Portfolio Two

Illustrator & Artist

. aesop's fables .

Kingfisher Publishing | Saviour Pirotta

An 80 page book featuring eight of Aesop’s most famous fables, these stories feature a host of animal characters whose adventures teach them important life lessons.

“The wolf peeped out of the cave and saw a band of pilgrims returning home after offering sacrifices to the old mountain gods. Some, the rich ones, rode horses and wore costly furs wrapped around their shoulders.”

Written by Saviour Pirotta who is the best selling author of almost a hundred books for children. His work ranges from novelty titles for toddlers to award winning non-fiction books. Saviour worked as a cook, a postman and a story-teller before becoming a full time writer.

'Suddenly the net fell from around the lions head, freeing his mouth. The lion shook himself and the rest of the bindings came apart. Little mice, strands of rope stuck between their teeth, tumbled out of his mane.'

. the twelve days of christmas .

Playstack

A group of Christmas stacking cards illustrating the song, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’. The designs for the cards had to work both individually and collectively, as when the cards are stacked together they form a larger image and standing decoration.

‘On the first day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me,
A partridge in a pear tree.’

. aladdin .

Macmillan | Jigsaw Puzzle Book

Aladdin is a jigsaw puzzle book published by Macmillan Children's Books. The book re-tells the traditional story of Aladdin and his magical lamp, complete with six jigsaw puzzles and two mighty genies.

'To their astonishment, another genie appeared. “I am the genie of the lamp! Your wish is my command!” he said, looming above them.'

'Below the ground, Aladdin was astonished to find himself walking among trees laden with wondrous-looking fruits, and piles of gold, silver and jewels of every kind. Aladdin filled his pockets with fruits and treasures, then fetched the lamp as he had been ordered.'

. children in the picture .

Scope | AOI

I was approached by Derek Brazell on behalf of the Association on Illustrators to produce a piece of artwork for their monthly poster, 'Look Up'. The poster also had a brief attached to it, as the image would be used in conjunction with Scope to support their important campaign - 'Putting disabled Children in the Picture'.

The main focus of the campaign is to promote the importance of equality and the depiction of disabled children in main-stream children's literature and illustration.

This is of course a delicate and sensitive issue and I tried to keep this in mind when producing my illustration. It was important to get the imagery factually correct and also depict the disabilities in an ordinary way. Learn more here : 'Children in the Picture'.

. ladybird books .

Read it yourself with Ladybird

Part of the classic series of popular traditional tales which are written in a simple way for children who are learning to read. The 'Read it Yourself Collection' from Ladybird books contains, The Ugly Duckling, The Enormous Turnip, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Sleeping Beauty, Chicken Licken and The Wizard of Oz.

'The old man planted
some turnip seeds.
The turnip seeds
grew and grew
one turnip grew enormous.'

The sentences on each page are supported closely by pictures to help with reading, and to offer lively details to talk about. A number of celebrities were asked to read from these books. Click here to listen and view some artwork as: Richard Hammond reads from 'Three Billy Goats Gruff'

. ladybug's lesson .

Sandvik Publishing | GoBo

Ladybug’s Lesson, written by Sharon Streger, is part of a series of waterproof and tear-proof Little Tuff Flap Books. Each page has a flap to reveal a new character in the story and to introduce a new colour.

'Ladybird is red.
Ladybird loves red!
But lady bird has a brown friend
....So lady bird loves brown, too!'

'Ladybird is red.
Ladybird loves red!
But lady bird has a white friend
....So lady bird loves white, too!'

. mark's and spencer's christmas range .

Marks and Spencer

I was asked by Marks and Spencer to illustrate their Christmas range which would be sold in their Food Halls. The illustrations were used on a variety of gifts, food packaging, advertisements and point of sale units.

The general theme was a 'Christmas Circus' and involved designing many characters including elves, snowmen and dancing mice. Marks and Spencer combined these with my background templates to create a Christmas brand identity across the range.

'An example of one of
the background templates.
Elements of the image
were used across
the product range.'

. leave the light on .

Self Promotional

Most of the artwork on this web-site is a showcase of my commissioned illustrative work. Most of my personal work is alot darker, this piece probably belongs in the later group.

It came about from a few ideas I had been playing around with in my sketchbook and was influenced by the surreal nature of Magritte's work. It was an image which sort of crossed over into my illustration portfolio and was selected to appear in the exhibition for Images 27 'The Best of British Illustration'.

'They evoke mystery and indeed when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question 'What does that mean'? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.'
~ Magritte

. if elephants wore trousers .

Chrysalis Publishing | Sterling Publishing

Written by Henriete Barkow, this was the authors first story in rhyme and one of my first illustrated picture books. Together we tell the story of a boy and an Elephant, and their adventures with trousers.

'If Elephants wore trousers, what trousers would they wear? Would they be shimmering gold, like the beads in Mum's hair? Or would they be velvety brown, like the fur of a bear?'

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List of works

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List of works

• my grandpa's amazing inventions | Templar Publishing
• the THREE LITTLE PIGS | Child's Play Publishing
• peter Pan - jigsaw book | Macmillan Books
• CADBURY'S EASTER Range | Cadburys
• around the world in eighty tales | Kingfisher Publishing - Macmillan Books
• Magazines and newspapers | Times Newspaper - BBC Radio Times Magazine
• the fourth wiseman | Lion Hudson Publishing