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

Gosnells Writers Circle Self-Publishing Expo 2017

This year I was again invited to take part in the Gosnells Writers Circle Self Publishing Expo. (I also attended it last year and in 2015) It's very nice of them, as I don't live in Gosnells and I'm not a member of the circle - but I have done several projects with members. This year I was tabling with my lovely author, Sioban Timmer - we have done two books together so far. Toughen Up, Princess and Feral Fergus.

Here's my set-up. I made sure to bring along a lot of different things to sell, as you never know what people will decide to buy. I had my banner up behind me, and an iPad running a slideshow of illustrations and timelapse videos of me working.

Here is the full table. Sioban (who is organiser for the Expo as well) wasn't at her seat when these photos were kindly taken by Jane Hilton, and I didn't call her over because she hates having her photo taken.

I took a little video of my side of the table to post to my Instagram Story:

Part of my task is to advise anyone who is looking to self-publish and needs an illustrator (quite a low number this year, unless I look too terrifying to approach. I don't, do I??) but I also bring along things to sell, especially things that might make good gifts. 

Last year there were a lot of kids at the Expo, so this year I made lots of stickers and magnets, small items with small price points (last year my bookmarks went well). However, this year the Expo was in a different venue, and less people came in off the street, so the only two kids were there to receive awards for their writing. So that backfired a little. I sold a couple of magnets and one sticker pack, but the single stickers remained entirely unloved. I like them, I think I will start sticking them around my desk. =P

(all the stickers were handmade, printed out on matte paper, Modge-Podged, stuck to double-sided adhesive paper and cut out.)

As usual, I was offering cards and my Literary Romance Colouring Book (Buy it here! Perfect for the literature-lover in your life), and I also had six Expo Special slots open for discounted watercolour and pet portraits, but the price point was still too high for the venue, really. But it's good to offer these things on the off-chance. And in a way, it's fortunate, because I'm horrendously busy this coming month!) I had a couple of pieces of handmade jewellery, and this year I also made felted baubles. I sold a few of those, so I don't have photos of all of them: 

Several of my beaded ones went, along with a mouse and a koala in Christmas hats. 

 

I think the blue beaded one is my favourite...

The baubles were felted in the washing machine, with balls of leftover wool scraps from my mother's hoard inside, and then I embellished them with needle felting and beads.

All in all, it was a good morning! We had two interesting guest speakers, teaching us how to write in technicolour instead of monochrome (Lee Battersby), and how to stay inspired no matter what (Karen McDermott from Serenity Press). The Gosnells Writers Circle was also launching it's Bi-Annual Anthology. Lots going on! Thanks for having me, Gosnells Writers Circle!

Feral Fergus Book Launch

Finally getting around to blogging about the book launch for Feral Fergus, my newest picture book with Sioban Timmer. We worked together on Toughen Up, Princess a couple of years ago, and now we're back with a new book in full colour!

Sioban and Moi:

The launch was held on September 2nd at the Amherst Community Hall in Gosnells. We had quite a crowd!

Our publisher, Cate Rocci of Jasper Books, spoke first, then I did a presentation about the creation of Fergus as a character, starting with my initial meeting with Sioban, where she told me she envisaged a cross between Alfred Newman of MAD Magazine, Ginger Meggs and Fido Dido, though various character sketches right through to the final character:

 

(My father took this photo, he is a master at catching me in weird expressions :P)

Sioban then took to the stage to discuss her role as the writer, while I provided some entertainment and drew Fergus on the whiteboard behind her:

After that we signed books:

We also had a colouring table set up for the kids, with some colouring pages of Fergus. You can download the pages to colour yourself from my website here. The colouring page pack also features the Feral Name Generator that is included in the book. You'll see from the photos that everyone is wearing a name badge - not with their real-world name, but with their feral name. If you're curious as to yours, go download the pack!

Thanks to Ken Mutton, Jane Hilton and Sioban Timmer for the photos.

I'll blog more about Fergus in the near future. I've been so busy with various projects it's been difficult to find time to blog about anything!

Needle Felted Plum Pudding Ornament - with Tutorial!

My mother needed a handmade ornament for the WA Quilters Christmas Party (not necessarily a quilted one). I needed my mother to write the family Christmas letter - so I did the ornament. And as a Christmas gift to everyone, I am posting a step-by-step tutorial on how to needle felt your own plum pudding here!

I posted these snaps as part of my Instagram Story - if you follow me on Instagram, do check out my Story, I post sneak peeks and all sorts of things in there!

Needle Felting a Christmas Plum Pudding Ornament

Step 1:

Use dacron toy stuffing (I'm using the filling from a cheap old pillow (well washed)) or core wool to create a ball the size you want your plum pudding. You can of course felt the whole ball in brown wool, but dacron is cheaper (and less tempting to moths). Felt the ball fairly firmly, you don't want it to shrink down too much further when you add the brown layer on. Make sure you move it around regularly while you felt, so that you get a nice even ball shape. I'm using a coarse (#32) needle here. 

Step 2:

Felt dark brown wool (this is corriedale wool) over the top of your dacron ball. You want to felt it very firmly so that it is all smooth. Start with a #32 needle, and move up to finer needle (I'm using a #40 spiral needle, but a #40 regular needle would be fine) so that the surface is smooth and compact.

Step 3:

Take some white wool roving (this is merino) for the icing. Take twists of the roving and lay them down the sides of the pud as drips - this way you can gauge how far the drips should go, aesthetically, before you felt them in. These twists will form a sort of map for where to add extra wool to build up the icing - you don't want it too thin or the brown will show through. I like to add extra wool at the bottom of the drips. When you've got the drips felted in, add extra roving to the top so that there is a smooth topping with no gaps. I used a #32 needle to start off the icing, and then smoothed them off with a #40.

Step 4:

It is at this point that you want to add your hanger. Take some string or ribbon of your choice - a nice thin ribbon is best, as it doesn't overwhelm the ornament itself. Tie a knot with each end of the ribbon to form a loop. Then take a needle and thread and stitch the knot down to the top of the pud, nice and firmly so it won't come loose. This can be messy, because we're going to cover it up.

Step 5:

Take some extra white wool and felt it over and around the knot, to cover up the fact that we didn't bother to do pretty stitching. 

Step 6:

Time for decoration! Use a #40 needle to felt tiny little red balls and green leaf shapes. Pick the leaf shapes up and turn them over regularly while you are felting them flat, or you will felt them into your foam. Step 6 of my Needle Felted Robin Earrings Tutorial gives more information on felting these shapes. Once you've felted the leaf shapes fairly firmly, you can trim off the edges with sharp scissors so that they are clean shapes. 

Felt the berries and leaves around the base of the hanger. It's up to you how many you felt, depending on how big you have made them, and how you want to arrange them. When you feel you've got enough, move on to the next step.

Step 7: 

I like Christmas tree ornaments to have a bit of sparkle to reflect the Christmas tree lights, so I took some glass beads - in clear, red and gold - and stitched them over the pud in a scattered pattern.

Step 8: 

As a final touch, I added some glitter - this is a frosty holographic glitter that I happened to see when I was delving in my craft cupboard and just couldn't resist. Sprinkle your glitter sparingly over the top of the pud, and then spray the whole thing with a light covering of fixative or hairspray, to help keep the sparkles in place. I'm sure they'll fall off eventually - although the texture of the felting will help keep the glitter on. I considered spraying on some adhesive, but decided against it - I didn't want a sticky pud!

Here are some more photos:

Here you can see that I added a single drip of icing on one side of the pudding.

Yes, it was a bit windy while I was taking photos!

The Gosnells Writer's Circle Writing and Self Publishing Expo

Belated post, December is always so busy!

I was invited to attend the Gosnells Writers Circle Writing and Self Publishing Expo again this year, and had a great afternoon after a bit of a slow start. It was 37 degrees outside, which I think tempted more people stay indoors with their aircon - but fortunately we were indoors with aircon too, it would be been horrible to be at an outdoor expo with the heat!

Here I am with my mother, who helped me to man my table. Behind my merchandise we are cutting out the jac paper halos for this year's Christmas cards. I'll blog about the cards later this month, but if you follow my Instagram or Twitter you will have seen snaps as I was working on them. 

You can also see my colouring book on display on the right of the table. I was selling the book on its own and also as gift packs with a handmade book bag, coloured pencils and bookmark. 

As it was a self-publishing expo I also had a form for people to fill out if they were interested in hearing more about working with an illustrator when self-publishing a book or picture book. I've worked with a number of self-publishers, and always try to give them as much help as I can. Having a form for them to fill out was a new method I was trying for getting in touch with them. I hand out business cards as well, of course, but it's so easy for people to mislay them. This way I was able to send out informative emails to everyone on the list, tailored to their specific interests, the day after the expo. I only got one reply (just a public service announcement here (and meant in the nicest way): if an illustrator has taken the time to send you a long email full of information, it is polite to thank them, even if you don't plan on commissioning them soon (or ever). They've taken time out of their busy schedule to provide you with that information and when you don't get back to them, they feel it was wasted, unappreciated time. I can't tell you how many people have contacted me directly, and yet never replied to my reply!) but I hope the information was of use. 

When we arrived to set up at the expo, there was a scheduling clash with the hall, so while we were waiting for it to become available, we wandered down to look around the Centennial Pioneer Park. We don't live in Gosnells, so we'd never explored it before. It was very hot indeed (already up to 37 degrees at 11am) but there was a lovely boardwalk by the river. Here are a few snaps:

 

And for those readers who have never been to Australia, here's a video - this is the sound of a hot day in the bush (and it can be pretty deafening!):

One last photo from the Expo, this time taken by my mother. She took quite a few, but isn't at all handy with the camera phone - every other one was out of focus!

Thanks for having me, Gosnells Writers Circle! 

Pangolins

When I saw Colour Collective's 'Moss' theme, it made me thing of lush, humid rainforests. The only rainforests I personally have experienced have been in south-east Asia, and my original plan was to have two Malaysian children with some jungle fowl for some bright red accents... But then World Pangolin Day came around and I was reminded of how cute pangolins are. So I changed my plan to include pangolins. 

The butterflies are Rajah Brooke's Birdwings - the national butterfly of Malaysia, and completely stunning. They're quite big, too. Here's one sitting on my shoulder, for scale, and one sitting on a flower, because I'm pleased with that photo:

And here's a video of a pangolin climbing a tree (note that this is (I think) a black-bellied pangolin from Africa. I was drawing a sunda pangolin from South-East Asia. Or, to put it another way, no, I didn't completely ignore the colouring when painting them. =P)

I added a batik pattern to the girl's dress to continue the Malaysian theme, and I am reminded that I have the stuff to do batik, and really must get round to actually doing some. Anyone got some extra hours in the day that they don't need?

Adobe Photoshop CC on a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2. Still playing with Kyle T Webster's Photoshop brushes, too. 

Picture Book: Toughen Up, Princess

I've been extremely busy lately, and haven't had time to sit down and write a blog post, but I mustn't let any more time go before sharing this news. If you follow me on Twitter, you would know that at the beginning of the month my first picture book was launched. It's called Toughen Up, Princess and was written by Sioban Timmer and published by Jasper Books. It was great fun working with Sioban to bring her poetry to life. I'm a bit of a one-stop-shop so I did the design and typsetting as well. 

The book comprises poems retelling classic fairytales from a new perspective, with a distinctly Australian theme. It's aimed at 8-12 year olds, and so Sioban decided that she wanted the inside illustrations to be in black and white, so that it didn't look like a picture book for younger audiences. 

The book was launched at The Agonis in Gosnells on November 1. Sioban did a couple of readings, and we signed books.

Me, Sioban and our publisher, Cate Rocci

Signing books

Signing books

Here's a look at the finished book:

The front cover

The Evil Queen's Garden Tea

Man Cave to Sheila Shack (The Ballad of the Seven Dwarves)

Man Cave to Sheila Shack (The Ballad of the Seven Dwarves)

We've had some nice reviews, too:

Review in the Armadale Examiner

Review in The West Australian

My next post will take you through the process of creating one of the spreads.

KAS Billboard

I did my very first billboard this year, for the Kelmscott Agricultural Society, which has been keeping me pretty busy lately. I was a bit nervous doing a billboard, because there was no one to tell me what to do, and I'm more used to the poster and flyer side of things. (And it was a good thing I did the 2012 Theme illustration as a vector, and didn't have to worry about the size!) However, I think it turned out pretty well, and it was in a great location – with the lights on it at night it looked rather striking, I think. =) 

My lovely father went to the trouble to get me this photo:

For a closer look at the illustration, you can see my previous blog post.

All done in Adobe Illustrator (CS4 and CS6).

Photos: Adelaide Zoo

Next in my holiday photos instalment. 

We spent a day in Adelaide Zoo, and I actually had a zoom lens, which was extremely fun. On previous zoo trips I've always had to make do with a standard 18-50mm lens, but I now possess a 40-150mm, which makes zoo photos much easier. For those interested in such things, I was using an Olympus PEN EP-3.

I love taking photos in zoos, I get lots of reference material, so I'll happily snap away at the animals just moving around and in different positions (I never know what I may suddenly be called upon to draw), but I also like to work at some shots so that I get some good photos as well. I took several hundred photos that day, and these are my favourites. 

Crested pigeons are always fun

Pygmy marmoset

Hippopotamus

Miraculously clear two-toed sloth (I literally couldn't see anything in that nocturnal house, it makes it extremely hard to focus!)

Yellow-footed rock wallaby

Barbary sheep

Freshwater turtle, possibly a snake-necked turtle, or a mata mata

Gipsland water dragon (I think)

Wang Wang, the zoo's male panda

Chestnut-breasted finch 

Greater flamingo, which arrived at the zoo in 1933

Star finch

Bush thick-knee

These two were in an enclosure labeled 'Siamang' but I'm told they're more likely to be Nomascus gibbons

Baby tree kangaroo

I love otters

Is any zoo post complete without a smug meerkat?

Kookaburra

Red panda – I had to wait ages for a good shot of this, they're so elusive.  And I got trodden on by a kid for my pains =P

 Most of these have had standard post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CS6 – curves, sharpening, colour adjustments where necessary, and the occasional crop – but the panda had more intensive work; they were behind hideously reflective glass, so I edited out the distracting reflections. I also made the sloth black and white, because it was distressingly blue, due to the nocturnal house lights.