Paul Rathborne has now completed the children’s illustration diploma course and we have showcased a few of his pieces below. He has very kindly written us a short paragraph about his work too. We wish Paul all the best with his children’s book.

Before beginning the Illustrating Children’s Books course, I didn’t have any formal training or qualifications in art or design. I needed a purpose and direction for my aimless doodles, and a genuine reason for getting marker pen stains on the sofa and paint spots on the conservatory floor to tell my girlfriend. My course tutor, Jan Nesbitt, has given me the confidence, guidance and focus to enable me to experiment with new mediums. Each assignment has offered new challenges and I have found this very rewarding. The skills developed on this course have inspired me to begin work on my own children’s book.

Sarah Palmer completed the children’s illustration course and has very kindly allowed us to use some of her work here and has written a paragraph for us about her and her work. I hope that you enjoy reading about Sarah’s journey and viewing her beautiful illustrations, and we wish her the best of luck in her artwork.

“…..I completed a Graphic Design degree in 2000, but after university I began working for a charity, and have worked in similar jobs ever since.  I missed having a creative outlet and it was while I was searching for something to do in my spare time that I stumbled upon the London Art College website.  The Children’s Illustration diploma caught my eye so I enrolled… and I’m so glad I did!  It’s been informative, enjoyable and rewarding – and Jan, my tutor, has been so encouraging.  I was really chuffed to receive my certificate in the post this morning, and to find that I had passed with distinction.  I am determined, now, to pursue my dream of illustrating for children and I’m looking forward to starting the extension course.  If you’re considering the Children’s Illustration diploma, I would thoroughly recommend it!….”

John Byrne, tutor of the Cartooning course will be doing a question and answer session with a celebrity cartoonist: Kal whose work appears in The Economist and many other top magazines. You can check out Kal’s excellent work at his website www.kaltoons.com

In advance of the interview, we  invite you to send in any questions you would like to ask Kal about his work or about cartooning in general, and we will do our best to cover as many points as possible, and we will post Kal’s answers on the college  forum.

As you’ll see from Kal’s website, he is deservedly one of the most successful and busiest cartoonists working in the field today, so he is being really generous in giving some time to us here at the college. With that in mind can we ask you to send the questions to techsupport@londonartcollege.co.uk  or by posting them on the forum. Please do NOT to send them direct to his website, as it is his business address.

If this interview goes well, and you find it useful, we’ll try to make it a regular feature of the forum and maybe your favourite cartoonist will be one of our next guests.
So do send your questions and comments for Kal by Friday 5th and will aim to have the interview done and posted up by mid March.

Children’s Illustrator needed ……

Abela Publishing and children’s author Christiana Alberichi, are currently seeking an artist to illustrate Christiana’s inaugural children’s book, titled “Henry Talks to God”. For more details and instructions on how to submit your work for consideration, please visit – http://www.abelapublishing.com/henry.html

Abela Business Consulting Ltd trading as Abela Publishing
Sandhurst, Berkshire
Registered in England and Wales Co. No. 3866324
www.AbelaPublishing.com
email books@AbelaPublishing.com

I thought id blog a piece of work from a student who is currently studying the botanical illustration course. I felt this was a lovely piece and liked the way the student had varied the tones in the leaves from light to dark. This is a tricky subject and the student has tackled it well.

This has been one of my favourite pieces of artwork from the students this week and I like the way the student has balanced the positioning of the boar with the anchor / pole. The colours are very natural, often its all too easy to use bright vivid colours which come forward. Hope this inspires!

This is a really strong piece of work visually, the black and white cut out works well with the subject and the composition works well too.

This piece is by a painting and drawing course student and the bright rich colours of the apples caught my eye. I think they sit well together and are balanced by the central apple being red. I also love the shadows and light on the ground plane, excellent study and I hope you all like it too!

This is a wonderful collection of studies from a drawing and painting student and I really feel they are excellently drawn and observed. The tonal values are great and the student has used the light to create some very three dimensional and realistic studies. If you are stuck for something to draw, feet and hands are not only accessible at all times..but a great challenge too!

This is a wonderful pen and ink study of flowers and grasses from a student currently studying the painting and drawing diploma course. I thought it would be a good one to add to the blog as students often find using pen and ink quite a challenge. Hopefully this will give students some inspiration and an idea of how to use the medium well.