May the Fourth Be With You

Colour Collective 'Sky Blue' landed right on May 4th, so while the colour was perfect for a Mermay piece, I thought I really should do something for Star Wars Day. I can't say I've ever been a rabid Star Wars fan, but the movies are fun. 

And if you've got a blue colour, what can you do but R2-D2?

I added a cat, because why not? I figure space cats... are still cats. That red shiny light is going to fascinate them. 

Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 on a Wacom Mobile Studio Pro.

Caliburn

Playing around with 2-tone chapter-book illustrations for Colour Collective's 'Canary Yellow' prompt. This is all 2 colours, black and yellow, in varying opacities. 

And it's all done with Kyle Webster's 'china marker' and gouache brushes, which are some of my favourites, in Adobe Photoshop CC 2018, on a Wacom Mobile Studio Pro.

And if you're wondering about the title, Caliburn is the name of the Sword in the Stone.

Head below the cut to see my initial sketch, and a bonus Colour Collective:

Here's my messy rough sketch:

And here is Colour Collective 'Pea Green', also working on the two-tone theme. This one was quite popular, but I feel it's more like a sketch that should be worked up into something nicer later on, so in that spirit, it's not getting its own blog post...

Goggle Eyes

Here's a piece I did for my Middle Grade portfolio, based around Anne Fine's Goggle Eyes, which is a fabulous book. If you haven't read it, you should - and if you've got an Audible account, do yourself a favour and get the audiobook, Jane Asher does such a great job.

"I know!" I cried, "I know why you're so upset. I know why you're crying your eyes out. I know why you don't want to be sent home!" She lifted two fierce, red-rimmed little eyes that burned through the cupboard like live coals. "Your Mum's going to marry that man with grey hair."

Her mouth fell open. I felt like Sherlock Holmes on a good day. "And you think he's a proper creep. You've thought he was a creep all along, but being the sweet Helly that you are, you've been too gentle and polite to say so, and now she's talking about your happy future together, and it's too late to explain that you don't like him."

She twisted her fingers so tightly, I thought they would snap. "Don't like him?" she repeated in a cold, low voice. "I can't stand him." and all the colour drained out of her face.

"Helly?" I flicked the cupboard light switch. Luckily for her, it was the dimmest lightbulb ever seen. I slipped inside and dropped on a pile of old gym shorts and woolies. I pulled the door closed to shut us in. "Listen," I said, leaning towards her, "No need to tell me about this sort of thing. I am the World's Great Expert, Helly Johnston. The stories I could tell you!"

She looked up. "Go on then," she said, still ashen. "Tell me."

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I didn't actually plan the image out as square (I want it to look like an illustration in a book, after all). The space above is for text, voila:

As I was suddenly super busy when Colour Collective rolled round, I slapped on some colour (fortunately the 'Delft Blue' prompt was a convenient colour for school uniforms!) so I'm adding that here, although I prefer the black and white version. What do you think? Colour or black and white?

Adobe Photoshop CC2018 on a Wacom Mobile Studio Pro.  Not sure how long it took, I worked on it over quite a stretch of time.

March Meet the Maker 2018

Whoops, my blog has been in a state of hibernation for a couple of months. I was on holiday all of June, and then July was spent catching up with everything I should have been doing in June... so let's get this thing started up again!

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This year I took part in March Meet the Maker over on Instagram. It was started by Joanne Hawker and is a month's worth of prompts that let your followers learn more about you. I thought it would be good to put everything here as well, as it's so easy for things to get lost in an Instagram feed!

So we'll start off with March 1, 'You' and all the rest will be under the cut.

I thought I’d try and do #marchmeetthemaker this year, so first up: Hi! 💜 I’m Alison Mutton. I’m a children’s illustrator who also has a degree in graphic design. I love drawing pictures for kids, whether it’s a picture book (I’m seen here at the launch for Sioban Timmer’s ‘Feral Fergus’ which I illustrated) or educational publishing. I have often worked with self publishers and I love helping people to realise their book dream and giving them a final product they can be proud of. I also do portraiture (both pets and people) and needle felting. And I play the piano (but I draw much better!) 💜 . . . #marchmeetthemakerday1 #childrensillustrators #childrensillustrator #kidlitartist #illustrator #artist #artistsoninstagram #illustratorsoninstagram

A post shared by Alison Mutton (@alene.art) on Mar 1, 2018 at 11:44am PST