balance

In life, as in all things, one needs to find balance…

This is a collage illustration I did for Nasou Via Afrika's Life Orientation schoolbooks. It's been a great medium to explore. At times frustrating but when things click into place the results are, more often than not, very rewarding!

Best of all is how subtle it can be, symbols and meaning can be found which is both engineered and serendipitous :)

trekking along tracks

Here's the cover to an eBook written by Hermien Van Den Bergh that I completed not long ago - Trackeroo and the Crew!

It's a lovely story for young readers that will leave you breathless with excitement and innovation. Set in the African tableau, it features a colourful cast on an epic secret quest.

But of course inky, evil nightmares are never far behind behind….

The book is currently on promotion, check it out on Amazon and get your free copy!

wild wild veld

In the sun-baked  veld, many wild things lurk behind the long grass….

….mostly in search of a nice refreshing pool of water.

splishy splashing!

Let's dive into the new year!

New friends to be made, new adventures to be found and more fun to be had!

imagination

Imagination... how else are you ever going to get the chance to ride the fabled Lionosaurus?!

This is in fact the original version of the pic in this post... not sure which one I like best... which one do you like?

who's who in the...

Awright, not quite a zoo but given time I'll have drawn them all!

While these were for Heinemann specifically, animals are still one of my favourite themes so I'd probably have drawn them anyway :)

What the?!

Here's a fun one I did recently for Heinemann, one of our local publishers of educational books. The brief was simple, "illustration of a friendly alien-type monster..."

I think I was craving jelly/o...

lately belated

I'm back!! 

No no, I've not been out goofing off on my skateboard...

I have, however, been sailing on an ocean of work for our local publishers, a whole new syllabus had to be illustrated... deadlines were tight but I had the pleasure of working with old friends as well as a slew of new ones!

This is just a teeny taste, I'll be putting a lot more up from my recent adventures, so stay tuned :)

reach!

It’s incredible how two weeks can shoot by, isn’t it?

 I’ve been kept very busy by another swell in the demand for illustrations for school books.

I’ll do my best to stay regular but things could get sketchy (‘scuse the bad pun)

Anyway, enough ramble, here is a triptych from the last wave of work for school books. 

This was stepping out of my comfort zone but it worked out pretty well, I really enjoyed the process of working in collage and look forward to doing more! 

African princess

Here are a couple more illustrations I did using pencils and watercolours, with a little digital enhancing.

Once again for a Schuter & Shooter publication...

greedy little elephant

Here's a look at another story I illustrated recently, once again for Shuter & Shooter, this one about a greedy little elephant desperate for some pumkiny goodness!

 

And again I tried something a little different by using pencils and light washes, turned out quite well... think I'll use it again :)

the rabbit and the wolf

I recently had the opportunity to illustrate several stories for Shuter and Shooter, a publisher I hadn’t worked with before, how exciting :)

One of these stories was an African fable about a rabbit... 

and a wolf…

illustration friday

The subject this week is "afterward"…

Oh dear, can you guess what happened?

rabbit's moon

And on the subject of the moon… these are from a job I did for Nasou Via Afrika a while back, the story was about the myth of the rabbit and the moon.

It's interesting seems to be a common theme across several cultures, bunnies sure do get around ;)

leopard styles

Not too long ago, I was asked to do some sample illustrations for a children's book...

It's been a while now and I haven't heard from the editor so I think it's safe to show you these, enjoy :)

As usual, it's a mix of watercolour and digital layering.

sweaty baboon

Here's another little peek at a project I mentioned a while back...

My good friend and writer Ian Malone wrote a children's book script that I've been illustrating when the time-gobblins are willing.

For the style I wanted to try something really new and fresh, I stuck to my watercolours but threw away the tight outlines I usually use. I then use a digital 'cut-out' method to create the shapes and add a little shading for depth.

I'll keep you posted as I progress :)

Savannah 2116 AD

And speaking of covers....

Here's another one I did for Tafelberg a few years back, I used the same model from the Moon Bride kid's story I posted not long ago, remember her?

This is actually my first credited book cover and I kinda threw everything at it (at the time) but looking back, it still holds up well.

I also created the typography of the 'Savannah', there's a special place in my heart for typographical design...

Avos and the Waratah!

Part of the reason I've been so scarce (since the beginning of the year about) has been because of this book: "The Mystery of the SS Waratah and the avocado tree"

It's been recently released so I can now talk about it ;)

Written by M J Honikman and published by Tafelberg, I'm not gonna get into too many details but the story's based around the disappearance of a steamship around the coast of South Africa 101 years ago... and an avocado tree!

It can safely be said... I can now draw avos... day or night...

I reverted to a simple line style keeping the characters mostly flat against more detail intensive backgrounds and environments. Unexpectedly, I was also asked to set the book, this turned out to be great from a flexibility point of view and it's always nice to see something from start to finish design-wise.

There are also 'flashbacks' which are done in the ink-wash technique I so enjoy, I'm glad I got to use it :)

If you want to find out more about the Waratah, here's the ISBN: 978-0-624-04817-6

the moon bride

Shoo hey, crazy days.
I've been hard at work putting my site together and it's aaalmost done... how exciting! I'll keep you all updated.
Anyway, without further excuses, here're some goodies from way back....

These illustrations for Nasou Via Afrika are one of the first jobs I undertook as freelance illustrator. I wanted to play with photo-montage techniques and managed to convince a friend to pose as the Moon, the rest is layered and layered on top.
This is probably the first time I used photos in my work, I've become a lot more subtle these days :)

(I can't help shake the feeling that I've just missed the opportunity to post a scary drawing)

snowy blues whale and a bunch of talking-heads

Like the title implies, here are a few random illustrations from a recent project.
Published by Cambridge Uni Press, this is one of the endeavours that has kept me quiet lately.
When it comes to illustrating school books, I like to vary the drawings as much as possible and keep a little room for experimentation.These are some of the prelim sketches, can you spot the differences?
This one was dropped altogether...