Laura Littlewood Illustration

CSM - counting feathers

2010-05-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

Also as part of the Children's Book Illustration - II course at CSM, we had to create a short counting sequence aimed at very young children. We were using inks and liquid watercolours. The vibrancy of the colours automatically made me think of birds.

Central St Martin's Children's Illustration Course

2010-05-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

I recently did the short course in Children's Book Illustration II - Advanced at Central Saint Martin's, taught by artist and illustrator April Wilson. I've done the earlier course (Children's Book Illustration I) some time before and I would really recommend both. The courses cover a variety of things, such as different media, facial expressions, story-boarding etc.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be adding some of the work I did as part of the course - please bear in mind most of these pictures would have been done during class-times and are generally pretty quick, rough sketches, not finished pieces of art by any means.

So to kick things off - These images were part of an exercise on facial expressions. We made a very basic sock puppet then made it make different facial expressions which we drew - simple.

We then developed these into a short sequence - this is mine

A bit more slithery snailness

2010-05-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

I had fun doing the Slither picture for Illustration Friday, so I did another.

Slither

2010-05-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is 'Slither' and you can't get much more slithery than a snail slithering across your nose.
This is done in watercolour.

Eat for survival

2010-03-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

Submitted to Illustration Friday for 'Rescue' as I think the little girl and the cat could really do with rescuing here

Sketch done in Gouache paint and pencil

We are sailing

2010-03-31T16:37:00.001-07:00

Something slightly different here - My sister commissioned me to do this piece. It's pretty much all Photoshop and not quite my usual style, but I found it quite interesting to do and picked up a couple of things along the way.

Fractual Disturbances

2010-03-31T16:11:00.000-07:00

This is a really old piece I came across tonight when sorting a few things. It was to illustrate a poem written by a friend entitled 'Fractural Disturbances'. Sadly I no longer have the poem though. It's a really simply, mostly vector illustration. Pity about the tree on the LHS.

Let sleeping dogs lie

2010-03-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of further character development of the dog on the beach. Rather than the happy, running chappy seen earlier here he is in his 'home' of a cardboard box in an alley. Caran D'ache Neocolour II crayons and various inks on brown wrapping paper. (There's a more developed version which I'll post soon)

Monkeying around

2009-11-02T05:27:00.000-08:00

This is an, as yet unfinished, colour sketch that is part of a book about a Magic Turtle who grants wishes. Unfortunately for the monkeys, my inadequate attention span led me to abandon this picture as soon as I had another idea. Also, I'm not sure I have the patience for colour pencils.

Editorial

2009-11-02T05:08:00.000-08:00

This is an editorial illustration done some time ago as part of a course at Central Saint Martin's. It probably looks a little odd out of context like this though.

Work in progress

2009-11-02T04:37:00.000-08:00

It's been ages since I've added anything on here. There is a lot of work going on in the background though. I'm working on some mixed media pieces using collage, inks and Caran D'ache. Some of it is a bit of a learning process, so progress is not as fast it could be.

I will add some more work soon, but until then, I'm particularly enjoying Oliver Jeffers' work at the moment. It was great to see some of it up close at the Illustration Cupboard last year too.

http://www.oliverjeffers.com/

Another Caran D'Ache picture

2009-02-24T05:03:00.000-08:00

One more little picture done in Caran D'Ache

Caran D'Og

2009-02-19T16:47:00.001-08:00

This is another Caran D'Ache Neocolor II picture. I've mostly used the crayons dry here. The dog (it's supposed to be an English Bull Terrier in case you were wondering) is from an idea for a children's book I'm working on.

Experiments in Caran D'Ache

2009-02-19T16:28:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II crayons lately. They are really fun to use and versatile - you can you them wet or dry, paint with them or draw with them, and they have a really high pigment content so you can get really bright colours and blend away.
I find them very quick to work with for small colour sketches. These are just little 10-minute colour sketches on postcard-sized colour card.

Blue skateboarder

2008-01-08T15:53:00.000-08:00

A digital illustration of a skateboarder using various brushes
Created on Adobe Illustrator

Clocking the hours

2008-01-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

Illustration of my brother smoking using digital media
Created on Adobe Illustrator

Blowing bubbles

2008-01-08T15:21:00.001-08:00

Illustration of a girl blowing bubbles, using digital media and scanned fabric
Created on Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop