I was sketching the Speedwell drifting across the hills and down the allotments when this horse and rider appeared. My sketch is below drawn with a scratchy pen and on coldpressed paper. It was a bit of a fight between the dip pen nib, bottle of ink and rough paper.
Sketch
This is the book jacket I have been working on for the latest new story in the ‘On The Beach Collection’ written by Christopher Green.
I loved drawing the different designs for the cover especially whilst cat sitting in Lasswade. Ronin (Cat) has a Siberian wild look to him and I think that helped. It was important to both of us to capture the shoreline of Saltburn in North Yorkshire. Also more recently a Sealion has been popping up to watch the folk on the pier.. it does turn very cold in Winter.
It is a lovely concept as a story and up to date with a strong eco friendly thread. It was important to us to reflect the area of Saltburn in the cover design especially.
This book can be viewed as an ebook too via amazon
‘On The Beach’ is written by my brother Christopher Green, and will be available for purchase through Amazon on 08/03/2023, published by Blossom Spring Publishing.
More about Chris and his work at his website:
https://www.greeninjapan.com/about-chris
My favourite story from the ‘On The Beach’ short story collection is The Talent Show. A lovely tale and fun to draw, this story follows the drama of Lobby, Crab, Starfish and many more as they prepare for the Talent Show. Each character has their own endearing quality, making it a heart-warming story for all. Vote with your claw for your favourite critter to win!
This story in particular featured a lot of action poses that I really enjoyed working on. Each character has their own talents, and it was fun to bring each one of them to life.
It was a perfect day for sailing
Teal’s Race is the fourth story in the On The Beach Story Collection by Christopher Green. This story is is to be published in January 2023 https://www.blossomspringpublishing.com/shop/on-the-beach/linkhttps:// Ideas for Christopher’s stories were easy to visualise as ideas though technically boats were challenging. In the last of the three images is my original rough sketch where scale hadn’t yet been researched its a boat note not sea worthy on a windy sea.
The story opens on page 37 and two illustrations were submitted for this page with the one above “and its keel cut deep into the sand” accepted for publication. Both of these were drawn over a lightbox onto seawhite cartridge paper. using a fine liner pen. This was different from my usual dip pen but I adapted to it.
Jellyfish practising ballet with bubbles..
Drawings to illustrate The Talent Show the third story in the Collection of four in the book On The Beach.
I have been working on a collection of four story’s written by my brother Christopher Green which is to be published by Blossom Spring Publishing UK. This book jacket has been designed with digital elements which was different for a traditionalist like myself but I enjoyed the creative process. The illustrations inside will be a simpler style concentrating using black line with colour washes.
“I am bigger”said Rosie to herself when we were in the park celebrating her birthday.
Being Two years old was a day of the best celebrations and wishes for Rosie and her family. At the end of the afternoon there was a walk in the park complete with a stroller for little Egg to sit in, decorated with a beautiful balloon.
I’ve worked up these from sketches to capture a part of the day. They were completed using pencil then some pen and ink before using a broad gum tape to stop the paper warping when I applied watercolour and inks. Usually I stretch wet paper first before inking and painting but I found this worked well with cartridge paper.
Here Captain Jasper is enjoying the quiet of the early morning I wonder what hes thinking? There is a portrait of his horse Coco on the chair and a length of fabric printed locally.
I’ve used watercolours and pencil on stretched heavyweight cartridge paper deciding not to ink in lines because I like the softness overall of the line and the colours.
An additional pencil and watercolour drawing illustrating Captain Jasper (on the right) on deployment with the 2nd Dragoon Guards in India 1857.
He has been recreated as a lead soldier with his horse on task collecting Turkish delight across the tablecloth in England 2020 . The image below has been posted previously!
Designs and drawings to finished artwork
Designs and drawings to finished artwork
Designs and drawings to finished artwork
Jenny Fionda Illustration 