Blog Entries

Your views please.

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:00:00 +0100

Once an author has become famous, does being well known mean that his/her future book covers are so important or do you think that their books would sell equally even if the covers were, let us say pretty awful?

Do you think for instance that a terrible cover on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K.Rowling's second book would have made a big diffe [...]

Far away from book illustration but so very interesting!

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:00:00 +0100

I reccently came accross this guy, and when you love real art like I do, well then I couldn't leave him unnoticed. His name is Mr. Randy Boni and his artwork has to be seen to be believed. Chainsaw art. Take a look you won't be dissapointed.

http://www.abundance-acres.com/

So absolutely true!

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:00:00 +0100

This is a poem which I read in the recent edition of the SCBWI bulletin. I think it's great, and it is so true that it almost makes it sad to read.

Connecting With Connected Kids

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:00:00 +0100

Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC), 26 - 28 May 2011

Once upon a cyberspace, children explored the world through libraries, bedtime tales and story books. Books are still around, but they are looking different. As technology puts media access into children's pockets and bedrooms, how do content makers stay connected with connected kids?

Get the answers at The Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC) in Singapore from 26 - 28 May 2011. Organised by the [...]

Still trying to get companies interested.

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:00:00 +0100

Feb 17 Trying hard to get book Illustrators rates reduced for first time and self publishers.

For some time I have been working on trying to get reduced illustration rates for both first time and self published authors. It's a pretty difficult thing to do, but I am sure that there are many out there who can help. I am fully [...]

What my fellow artists and writers are up against.

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:00:00 +0100

I think that a majority of parents out there are well aware of the huge problem that exists within getting young children to read more. I regularly visit schools, normally classes with children aged from nine to fourteen years old. Apart from the very few avid readers among each class, the actual interest in reading a good book or novel compared to that of classes of the same age group twenty years ago is extremely low indeed, in fact I would go as far as to say dangerously low.
Now who exa [...]

Some interesting Artyfacts

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0100

Here are just a few things about Art which you might surprise you.

Oil paintings generally cost less to frame than equally sized prints.

The frame for a painting generally costs more than the actual paint and canvas used to produce that painting.

Lighting on a painting needs to be dimmer at night and brighter during the day.

Fluorescent lighting causes more fading of artwork than incandescent lighting.

Most artists are left handed than right handed. [...]

Some Interesting Facts about Books and Authors

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0100

1. One out of every eight letters you read is the letter ‘e'.

2. In 1939 an author named Ernest Vincent wrote a 50,000 word novel called Gadsby. The only thing unusual about the novel is that there is not a single letter ‘e' in the whole thing.

3. There have been over 20,000 books written about the game of Chess.

4. Perhaps the most uninteresting book ever written is the calculation of pi to two million places, in 800 pages. Just think [...]

Anti crisis Book Illustration offer.

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0100

As a very special request and a limited time only Illustrator's Place have come up with an Anti crisis discount scheme for all self published and first time published authors. Now you can have your book illustrated without having to worry about those high illustrators fees. This system will leave you with more funding for your book printing and promotion. Please conta [...]

One thing that always amazes me is the amount which famous people will spend on Art.

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0100

I happen to like the music of Christina Aguilera, and she is also one of the few modern artists who can actually perform live and sound fantastic, so I was interested to read this.

James Franco and Lady Gaga have been the talk of the art world ever since the two began dabbling in performance art, but they're hardly the only prominent pop-culture stars to have [...]

3D Street Art at its very best.

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:00:00 +0100

Have you ever seen this guys work? His name is Edgar Mueller,we think that his artwork is great, it's always done on a huge scale and so very realistic, take a look. Just such a shame that after so much hard work it all gets washed away by the next rainfall.

Exhibition at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:00:00 +0100

New exhibition receives glowing reviews with features appearing in the Telegraph, Metro, Yorkshire Post, Stylist and women's magazine Grazia.

Fancy & Imagination - Beardsley and the Book Illustrators features illustrations from the period between 1890 and the 1920s. The works on display come from the University's collections and also private c [...]

Budgeting for your own book illustrations

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 20:00:00 +0100

This subject is never that straight forward, but here is some good advice.

The amount of money which you will require to budget for your book illustration work will depend completely upon the nature of the project in hand, the time scale, the detail involved and materials used etc. For example, a few small simple black-and-white line dra [...]

A brand new service from Illustrator�s Place

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:00:00 +0100

Illustrator's Place is pleased to announce the new book printing service. Do you have a book that you have been dying to write for ages, but have been put off by the astronomical printing fees? Why does it cost so much to print a book? Well things are changing, get in touch and let us give you quote for any type of book printing which [...]

What is Bleed?

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:00:00 +0100

Bleed refers to objects that extend beyond the edge of the printed page area. This following gives you a good idea as to why bleed is needed, exactly how much is needed and how to fix issues with bleed.

Why do we need to add bleed?

A. Once a job has been printed, the press sheets need to be folded, bound and trimmed. For each of these finishing steps, there is a certain margin of error. Bleed makes it easier to avoid issues with:

mechanical limitationsthe behavio [...]

A basic rundown on Artist's brushes.

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:00:00 +0100

Artists Brush types

Artists' brushes can normally be categorized into two different groups, according to the type of hair used, A (bristle) and B (soft). Each type can then be further defined by the shapes which available in each different hair type.

A. Bristle - The bristle category includes the original hog hair brush, but [...]

Win a brand new Nintendo DS. (T&C's apply)

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:00:00 +0100

Enter Chubbly the Aviator's latest competition and win this Brand new Nintendo DS. Just simply answer 20 multiple choice questions. All of the answers can be found right inside his new book ‘The Flyer is Born'. Don't delay answer today. Competition ends at midnight on the 28 of February 2011. (Terms and conditions apply). See T&C& [...]

Art gum erasers

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:00:00 +0100

This type of rubber (eraser in the USA) is popular very with many artists. It is made from a soft, rubber, and is especially suited to removing large areas of pencil work; it doesn't damage the paper easily but has the drawback of not being very precise. Gum erasers tend to crumble as they are used, especially when they are used daily. The rubber also leaves a lo [...]

Ink erasers

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:00:00 +0100

A far less common type of rubber is used to rub out ink pen. Pulverized pumice stone is blended into this type of rubber making it very abrasive indeed. The main problem whist using this type of rubber is that if you are not extremely careful it will also remove some layers of the paper, making the paper become extremely thin and tear very easily. This type of rubber [...]

Kneaded rubber erasers.

keepingslim@hotmail.com — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:00:00 +0100

Kneaded rubbers are a type of eraser common in most artists' pencil box. This type of rubber has numerous uses. They can be molded into a point for rubbing out very small areas and tight detail, or moulded into a textured surface and used like a reverse stamp to give texture, or used in a "blotting" manner to lighten lines or shading without [...]