Christine Pym - Illustration

And the winner is...

2011-08-09T14:10:00.003+01:00

Sorry I am a little late with the results and thank you to all who entered.

The winner is... dah dah dah dah dah dah daaa - aaaa...

Frann Preston-Gannon!
Congratulations Frann :-)

Please send me your address and soon crocodile and his little hat will be on their way to you. I hope you have a good stock of bourbon biscuits at the ready, you'll be needing them...

Hooray it's a GIVEAWAY!

2011-07-28T12:18:00.003+01:00

In celebration of reaching 300 followers I am giving away this happy little fellow.

His favourite colour is green (obviously) and his favourite biscuit is the Bourbon biscuit although occassionally he does like to mix things up with a custard cream.

If you would like to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment after this post. The winner will be announced on Monday the 8th of August sometime after 10am (GMT)

Good Luck! and thanks ever so much for following :-)

Today I painted a...

2011-07-18T11:58:00.005+01:00

Bear! Bears are definitely on the brain at the moment...

In the sketchbook...

2011-07-04T10:58:00.005+01:00

Mainly Bears (I do LOVE bears!), a dog and a little girl who is rather pleased to have such an unusual friend. I would be too!

and when I'm not sketching Bears, these days I am at my desk doing this:

writing stories. Writing stories with my new blue/black ink cartridges. I love the colour of blue/black ink, especially on cream coloured paper, there's just something very lovely about it.

Chicken Licken

2011-06-10T14:59:00.000+01:00

Ahh...deadlines met so I can now update my blog guilt free. Hooray!

I recently illustrated 'Chicken Licken' with Oxford University Press and below is the cover artwork, well a couple of versions of it in fact.

This was my original design -

and this is the revised cover -

I have noticed that the cover has now been amended further. You can see a pic of the final cover on Amazon here. The tree appears to have sprouted some more leaves, how magical!

The book is part of the Traditional Tales series and is out in September this year. If you happen to come across it, I very much hope you enjoy it :-)

Website

2011-05-20T12:05:00.002+01:00

After a jolly long time being indecisive, my website is now up and running.

If you fancy a peek you can do so by clicking HERE.

Driver Dan's Story Train

2011-05-03T10:05:00.001+01:00

I'm over the moon to tell you about the new project I am currently working on. It's a book for A Productions which will by read by Driver Dan (Driver Dan's Story Train) on CBeebies.

My illustrations will feature in the storybook section of the programme and then afterwards the children get to step inside the book and interact with the story. Very exciting!

Tweet Tweet

2011-04-26T23:40:00.004+01:00

Hiya folks. Just a quick post to notify you of my twitter page. If you would like to follow me then you can do so by clicking here. Thank you muchly.

India-

2011-04-25T18:38:00.012+01:00

Holiday snaps from India! I had such a great time and arrived home to some smashing news on the work front. I am hoping to get briefed tomorrow, will share all when I can!

The Beach -

Lucky the Elephant -

My sister and me taking a ride on the lovely Lucky -

Beautiful hand embroidered sheets at the night time Bazaar -

Book eating cows on the Beach - (yes, you did read that right!) -

Sleepy dog on a Bridge, the perfect spot for a snooze apparently...

Beach no.2 -

and lastly a pineapple! Who knew they grew like this!
(hopefully it's not just me that didn't!...tum tee tum...)

Where I am...

2011-04-10T10:31:00.011+01:00

Hello from India! *waving*

I am currently visiting my super duper sister in Goa for 2 whole weeks! It was all very last minute which meant that the past few weeks were extremely busy ones and featured me flusteredly hurrying around wrapping up projects, replying to emails, organising my visa and vaccinations, sitting for a well needed hair scissoring and most of all, cuddling Cindy and reassuring her that I will not be away for very long...

*for those of you who haven't met Cindy on this blog before, she is my, very needy, teeny tiny yorkshire terrier.

What I have seen of India so far has been AMAZING! The beaches are beautiful and the food is fantastic and of course the weather!! its so hot here. After spending the best of yesterday on the beach though, my shoulders are now sizzling, so today I am in my room, caked in aloe vera and catching up on some bits and bobs. Heres something that has been sat in my drafts folder for 2 weeks and that I had hoped to post before I left.

Mr Bear.

He is a new character for a new story I am writing. I'm rather excited about it to be honest and therefore couldn't resist showing a sneak primary sketch.

I have also been catching up with the lovely comments left on here and just want to say a big thank you for all your very nice words! It really makes my day, especially considering the lack of blog activity on here recently so thank you.

I will be posting some photos of my holiday when I return and if my sister and I stick to our plan they should include elephants and dolphins. Exciting!

'The Tail of the Whale'

2011-03-16T21:42:00.007Z

Hooray!! The second printing of 'The Tail of the Whale' is now available in bookstores!

If you quite fancy embarking on an undersea adventure with the comfort of staying dry and toasty warm then now you can!

Amazon shoppers can click HERE.

Workspace

2011-03-10T10:56:00.007Z

I LOVE nosy-ing at the workspaces of fellow illustrators so I thought I would share with you my own little set up - It has nothing to do with the fact I've spent the morning giving it a spring clean and it's now SUPER tidy!...honest...

And this is the satchel I was tweeter-ing about a while ago. I love it! and it will be ideal to transport my sketchbooks (and travel sweeties) *ahem* to meetings next month :-)

New work -

2011-03-07T14:19:00.000Z

With the Bologna Book Fair speedily approaching I have been glued to my desk everyday for the past few weeks. Here are two new pieces which will soon be on their way (I wish I was going with them!). I have also been wrapping up a book with Oxford University Press which has been great to work on and now (!) it's finally time to dive into my new Fabriano sketchbook which I have been desperate to do since the postman gave it to me weeks ago. Yippee!

IF - Reverse

2011-02-05T17:13:00.003Z

Busy Busy!

2011-01-21T10:17:00.003Z

Yep - Busy busy keeping up with a long list of NY resolutions! Currently working on story ideas and scribbling in my sketchbook, planning new website and new portfolio work, 'dancing' around the living room, writing up other existing story ideas, keeping the flat tidy...

...not all at the same time of course! :-)

I hope you folks are having a smashing start to 2011!

and some gifts I made...

2011-01-02T16:00:00.000Z

My lovely mum, who is a regular reader of this blog (hiya mum! *waves*) very much liked my new top of the blog character so I decided to pop him into a frame and give it to her for Christmas.

And everybody likes Gingerbread so family and friends each received a variety of decorated men, trees and hearts. Mmm - if I do say so myself!

Beautiful gifts...

2011-01-02T15:30:00.002Z

First of all Happy New Year folks! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! I had an excellent one that included 3 Christmas dinners, fun times with friends and family, my 26th birthday (eek!) and all these smashing gifts!

Beautifully illustrated books by Janice Nadeau (Harvey), Carson Ellis (Dillweed's Revenge), Laura Carlin (The Iron Man), Merel Eyckerman (Back to School Tortoise), Rebecca Dautremer (Une lettre pour Lily...la licorne!), Oliver Jeffers (Up and Down) and Tove Jansson (Who will comfort Toffle and The Dangerous Journey).

A colourful perpetual Calendar by Sukie.

Drum Major by swell illustrator Ben Javens.

...and the very adorable 'Woody Bear' by fab illustrator Mique Moriuchi. Ste bought me this little fellow for my Birthday and I just LOVE him. He is SO adorable that he even stole the limelight from the iPod Nano that accompanied him!

Very smashing gifts indeed!

Happy Christmas Y'all! (IF: Mail too)...

2010-12-19T17:50:00.007Z

To - All that have stopped by this year,

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2011! A HUGE thank you for all the amazingly nice (and very much appreciated) comments this year and to all that purchased a Christmas Commission too! Please feel free to email me a snap of them in their new homes and if you like, I can post them on here.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Christine x

Christmas Commissions: final dates...

2010-12-03T10:22:00.003Z

Here are the final dates for purchasing a Christmas Commission:

Asia, Australia, NZ, S & C America, Japan: 3rd Dec (birdie commissions only)
Eastern Europe, USA and Canada: 7th Dec
Western Europe: 10th Dec
UK: 13th Dec

I am working by a 'first come, first served' basis so if you are interested please get in touch ASAP to avoid any disappointment.

You can click HERE for all the commission info.

Thank you :-)

Snow!

2010-12-01T10:15:00.008Z

It looks like we're going to be snowed in for a while...

Lunchtime walk

2010-11-29T14:20:00.006Z

Chilly but so very pretty today in Derbyshire. Now just trying to regain feeling in my fingers so I can crack on with a Christmas commission...

Happy Birthday to me! kind of...

2010-11-23T15:11:00.004Z

Technically its not my birthday until new years eve...but here is my first birthday present! A beautiful set of drawers for my studio.

It is now official that my current studio has turned into a storage room, I know this as the floor space is decreasing and I haven't done any work in there for probably over a year! This is due to the lack of heating and my desk just isn't wide enough. My set up these days is the dining room and its great! I'm warm and only a few metres away from the kettle which means lots of tea and a continuously toasty hot water bottle :-) Its the perfect place, excluding its prime position for nosy neighbours I guess...working all day in pyjamas is now a no no!

In other news - I have been given a Peppa Pig advent calendar this year! ahh! Hurry up December 1st!

oh hello! its been a while...

2010-11-15T16:17:00.004Z

I can NOT believe its been 6 weeks since my last post! Unfortunately, i don't really know if I can show what i've been up to BUT i can tell you :-) With the help of the super PP team, I finally managed to get my first story down on paper! I cant even begin to tell you how pleased I am about this. I have been story-boarding, producing roughs for the dummy and colouring up some spreads too - all very fun! and now it is currently being pitched to publishers - how excitingly scary! In addition to this I have been doing some christmas commissions and I am due to start a couple of new projects in the next few weeks, music to my ears I must say after being somewhat work-less for quite a while. BRING ON THE WORKLOAD I SAY! - HOORAY!

A Christmas Commission anyone?

2010-10-02T15:42:00.012+01:00

Hi there fellow Bloggers :-) I hope you are all well and keeping warm and toasty now its officially Autumn! I am finally reunited with my beloved hot water bottle and this makes me a very happy girl indeed.

This year I have decided to open my inbox for Christmas Commissions! The idea (and to keep it nice and simple) is for you tell me a word, it can be an object, a theme - anything from 'a bear' to 'a pencil sharpener' to 'winter' to 'brew' ('brew' chosen by Ste which I have illustrated below as an example). I will produce an original 6"x 8" illustration based on your word of choice. Each piece will be completely unique, signed and all for the sum of £60! This includes P&P and I can ship worldwide.

Also! If you're looking for a smaller gift, even if it IS from you to you... :-) I am also selling scribbly birds for £20. For this one, you tell me a colour and I will produce a 6" x 4" original birdie in the colour of your choice :-) the £20 includes P&P and again, I can ship worldwide. There's an example below, in fact there are many birds dotted around my blog, most probably wearing bowler hats...

Some more info: All payments are to go through Paypal and all my work is watercolour and pencil crayon but, if you like a good old pencil sketch I can do that for half the price on either commission above. Each piece will be pencilled and painted on Arches Watercolour paper (mmm) and last but no means least, if you would like a dedication that can be arranged too, just let me know in your email.

If you are interested please email christine_pym (at) hotmail.co.uk

Below: 'Brew'

A birdie:

and today the postman gave me...

2010-09-30T13:53:00.006+01:00

this! A copy of the Indonesian edition of Tail of the Whale posted to me by the very lovely Sarah from Meadowside Books. eeee!

Afterwards I popped into town and gave myself this! One of this years Marks and Spencers biscuit tins. Its not just a pretty tin oh no, it comes with 3 different types of shortbreads...mmmmm - nom nom nom...