What a gorgeous weekend this has been at the @boswellbookfestival . Sun, birds, books, walking, drawing and being in the company of @vivianfrench75 - what more could I ask for?! As part of the festival, I led a drawing workshop in the forest (swipe to see the brilliant Hobbit-like outdoor classroom) and teamed up with the wonderful Vivian to make books with children. Every time I work with Viv I come away having learned so much. She is THE master!
I have been the artist in residence during the festival (and designed the programme cover this year) and will continue my residency here at Dumfries House for the next 2 weeks. I am so grateful and also a little intimidated…it has been a while since I’ve had so much time to just experiment and make so freely!
What an absolute delight of a morning yesterday was. The always wonderful @helenkellock read her new picture book - The Lost Gemstone - before everyone foraged for interesting looking plants to make some botanical prints. The sun was shining, the birds were singing (green chaffinches I’ve been told!) and Knowetop SCIO was offering all the zen! Check out their website or Facebook page if you’re local and see how you can get involved at this lovely little slice of nature in Dumbarton 📸@neiljarvie #2riverschildrensbookfestival #popupevent #dumbarton #knowetop #nature
The Lost Gemstone is out now!
Swipe to see some final snippets from a couple of my favourite pages, including the promised giant, granny snail and flute-playing seal.
One of my favourite parts of working on this book series has been designing the endpapers and title pages of the books. There was a lot of world-building to convey, so I really tried to maximise every page to capture a strong sense of place and story.
The book opens with a map and a view of the island in the morning, and the final endpapers show the island—and some of its magical creatures—at night. Swipe to see more.
Say hello to the devious, mischievous villain in The Lost Gemstone… Sookie!
Sookie—the gemstone thief—started out as a sketch of a puffin in my sketchbook and ended up looking like a hybrid of a puffin and a pudgy penguin. I had great fun drawing him!
These are the initial sketches, swipe to see some character studies and how he ended up looking in the final book.
After scribbling down those sketches on that windy perch on Skye (see previous post), the Rocklings stayed in my sketchbook for a few years, but I kept coming back to them and eventually decided to bring them to life in this second book.
Here they are, “jiggling with joy,” on one of my favourite spreads in the book after (spoiler!) their gemstone is returned.
Can’t find enough books with talking rocks, giant elderly snails, or full-bodied, flute-playing seals??? Fear not—I’ve got you covered!
Way back in 2021, when I was cooking up the idea for the Isle of Begg series, I spent time drawing on the Isle of Skye. I filled stacks of sketchbooks with drawings and had great fun dreaming up characters that might live in such a landscape. It was while I was there, sketching at Kilt Rock, that I came up with the idea of the Rocklings—some of the new characters that appear in The Lost Gemstone.
Swipe to see some of my initial sketches and some pics from Skye. (Giant granny snails and full-bodied seals to come!)
The second tale from the Isle of Begg is out on Thursday this week!
It's a perfect day on the Isle of Begg. Perfect, that is, until Bumple and Little Mop discover that a fearsome beastie has stolen a magic gemstone from their friends the rocklings. If the gemstone isn't returned before sunset, the rocklings will turn back into ordinary rocks. Bumple and Little Mop are determined to solve the mystery - but can they find the thief in time to save their friends?
I’ll be sharing some snippets this week of from The Lost Gemstone and my process making it. If you’re interested, stay tuned!
I illustrated the cover design for this year’s Boswell Book Festival. (Layout design by Johnston Montgomery Marketing & Design.) They were looking for something eye catching, inspired by nature and in-line with their branding coloursIt was lovely wee commission to work on and I’m happy with how it turned out. I’m also going to be artist in residence during festival (lucky me!) and will living/working from my own studio at the Royal Drawing School at Dumfries House for a couple of weeks. If you plan to come along to the festival, I will be running a couple of workshops for kids, one alongside the fabulous @vivianfrench75 . See @boswellbookfestival for details.
We are excited to announce another wee sneaky pop-up event next month! This time with award winning illustrator Helen Kellock. (Some of you might have been lucky enough to attend Helen’s session at the festival last year - it was marvellous!)
This event is free but you need to reserve a ticket - link in bio to our Eventbrite page. Tickets go live 16/03/26. You only need to book a ticket for each child, accompanying grown-ups do not require a ticket.
Come along to Knowetop SCIO, Dumbarton to hear Helen read her brand new picture book ‘The Lost Gemstone: A Tale from the Isle of Begg’. Following this, Helen will lead a creative session so please wear old clothes or an apron (and dress for the weather!).
Copies of the book will be available to purchase or if you already have a copy be sure to bring it along for Helen to sign.
Please note that children must be accompanied by an adult. #2riverschildrensbookfestival #dumbarton #childrensbooks
Tomorrow is World Book Day and to celebrate I spent yesterday morning with the pupils at Deanburn Primary talking about books and designing characters. It was great fun!
I accidentally dressed in their exact school colours and it was hard to spot me in some of the photos that were taken 😂
Since August last year I have been working with the lovely kids at Cranhill Primary School as part of an author residency with the Scottish Book Trust. The pupils have been amazing - so enthusiastic and creative - such a pleasure to get to know and work with. As part of the residency, I've been getting the kids to get outside and explore the nature in their local area. Inspired by this, we then worked together over a few months to create their very own picture book. Through our sessions together the children came up with the character, theme, plot, and story. I then worked on the final line work for the book and today the children had fun bringing them to life with colour. We'll be getting the books printed soon and hope to have a fun book launch to celebrate their hard work. Such a joy!
Thank you to the @scottishbooktrust for funding this special time.
