So the past few weeks have been really busy! I completed quite a complicated satirical illustration for an American company, but due to privacy agreements I cant show you that. I'm currently doing some ninja character designs for a pet themed gift company which has been pretty fun so far! 



I've been doing a lot of thinking about my career and what the next steps are that I need to take to nurture it. At 25 and on my second career choice (paramedic didn't quite work out ;0 ) I feel a certain amount of pressure, even if it is self inflicted, to push hard to make this dream a reality. So far going  freelance has been quite successful, picking up plenty of work. I never really anticipated the amount of strange requests and hilarious budget proposals I would receive. Or the happy American people that call in the middle of the night asking if I'd like to have half a page advert in their journal for a mere $2000!! I never expected the isolation or the utter joy that can be gained from working from home, or that the 'skill' I should have practised most thoroughly was self-motivation.  

Business, as it were, is in the blood for me it seems. My Grandma was a very successful woman with multiple businesses. Like me I think she probably relished dealing directly with customers and the rewards that can be reaped from being the boss. Another distant family member who was renowned for being the driving force behind her acting career was my great Aunt Bette Davis. She died the year I was born but from what I'm told she was known for working so hard at her craft that she found it difficult to detach from her on screen characters. Even my Dad was a travelling sales rep and delights in passing on his wealth of knowledge gained  from his experience. More than skill, or talent or hard work I've found the most useful 'tool' I possess is my attitude. Wanting to get the best results for clients, being helpful , friendly 
and approachable can often open doors that lead to work. 

Hopefully with enough hard work and a bit of luck I can follow in their footsteps

This has been more of a 'catch up' , but hopefully I'll have some more illustrations to show you in the next blog entry :)


Charlie

Following the release of Madeleine Goes to the Moon, I have been all over the place meeting kids enjoying the book with them! Pete and I have been lucky enough to be asked to open a new library this month for St Johns School in Crossens, which we are both really pleased and excited about. I can't wait to see the kids enjoying their brand spanking new library, its sure to be a memorable day. 

I've not been doing so good with the InkTober challenge...It's Madeleine's fault ha ha! I managed this bin cats picture on the 1st but I owe quite a few now, oops! Instead of Inking today I went exploring though so its not so bad. I went with Dean over to the singing ringing tree in Burnley which was amazing (and a little chilly!) 

If you have a spare 5 minutes this coming week please review Madeleine here, it means so much as far as pushing the distribution of the book up a notch. We really would appreciate it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Madeleine-Goes-Moon-Peter-Lynas/dp/1907960147/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412544635&sr=1-1&keywords=madeleine+goes+to+the+moon


Thanks in advance! I promise to get inking soon! ;p

We had a great time last Saturday at our long awaited launch event! It was lovely to see all the kids engaging with the book and really enjoying the pictures. There was lots of colouring in and sweets for everyone, before we knew it we were surrounded by kids! There were so many great entries into the colouring competition it was almost impossible to choose, but eventually we selected our 2 winners. 

On the Sunday Pete and myself were in Waterstones Blackpool for their first ever Storytime. It was a little quiet but it meant we had chance to chat with the kids and find out what they thought of the book. We met some really intelligent young people, many of whom were avid readers. One thing that did seem common was that most of the children we spoke to had never had a school visit from an author or an illustrator. This made me more determined than ever to push ahead with more school visits so kids can find out exactly how a book comes to be. 

I'm very excited to do some illustration workshops with the children at All Saints School in Hesketh Bank on Friday 3rd October. This will be the first event of this nature that I have done, and as we speak I'm preparing some exciting activities to hopefully inspire some future artists and illustrators.