The many faces of Beaver

Robotic Aids to the Holiday Season Christmas cards.

I hope you're all feeling festive because it's that time of year again. I can't think of anything more Christmassy than machinery so this year my Christmas cards are robot themed. Sometimes we all need a bit of assistance over the Christmas period so I've designed 3 Robotic Aids for the Holiday Season! Each card features a robot to help you through a specific festive conundrum.

In case you're not my my Christmas cards list you can purchase these robotic wonders here in my Etsy shop. 

And here's a picture I did for my nephew because he is AMAZING.

Details:

Work in Progress: Monkey, Seagulls and Pants.

Unveiling of the Heffers panels.

As part of the Cambridge Festival of Illustration I was asked to illustrate one of four panels outside Heffers bookshop in Cambridge. The other three were done by the scarily talented Marta Altes, Becky Palmer and Matty Long. 

These things are huge, 60x40 inches, which gave me a bit of trouble and for a while my image was renamed the Giant Picture of DOOM but now that it's on the wall it was certainly worth it. Esepcially since after the unveiling a family went walked past the panels and stopped to look. The boy said that mine was his favourite and the girl spent ages trying to correctly pronouce 'frothy coffee'. My work is done.

Here's my finished image and a few choice photos of the unveiling:

Cambridge Festival of Illustration.

Here's a sneak preview of something very, very large I've been working on for the Cambridge Festival of Illustration. It's 60x40 inches and will be unveiled at Heffers book shop on the 5th November at 3pm. Everyone's welcome to come and have a look. 

Aside from a few ridiculously large pictures the festival features talks from some great speakers (I will most certainly be at the Anthony Browne one) and workshops details of which are on the flyer below.

Push the Button cushion for sale!

For a limited time only my cushion design, Push the Button, is being sold by Ohh Deer. If you're a lover of switches, buttons, wires and soft furnishings then it's time to get yourself an early Christmas present. It's only available for the next three weeks so don't leave it too late!

Here's the design, buy it from Ohh Deer.

Interuption of normal service: Website Down!

People of the world! I'm sorry to have to tell you my website, www.elysdolan.com, is out of action while I change hosts and try and convince my current one to transfer my domain name. For now though if you want to see my online portfolio you can go to elysdolanillustration.tumblr.com where I've put up some of my doodling for you to peruse. 

The new website will be amazing once it's up and it'll include this guy: 

I bet you can't wait.

I'm on the Nosy Crow website!

I'm thrilled to see my publisher, Nosy Crow, has put up an author/illustrator profile of me up on their website. Believe it or not that photo is not the worst one of me. There's also an interesting little snippet about my first book, Weasels, here which will be published spring 2013.

Hen Do Rosettes

At the weekend it was my friend Susie's 50s themed hen do and as she's an illustrator with a collection of illustrator friends we all used our colouring in skills to do something towards it. To identify each hen the maid of honour got hold of some rosettes from a horse show website (nay!) and I was given the centers to do. Here they are!

Here's the designs for the centers. Top one for the hens and bottom one for the bride.

The finished rosettes

And the bride to be sporting hers.

Stamps of a nautical nature

A-Z of Substandard Superheroes: C is for Captain Camouflage

I've had to take a brief hiatus from the superheros due to deadlines and panic but now they're back with Captain Camouflage! He can blend seamlessly into any situation.

I admit there has been an excess of toilet humor in this series so far.

A-Z of Substandard Superheroes: B is for Bruno, Bear Wrestler

Lost as a cub and raised by a troop of traveling Mexican wrestlers Bruno now wrestles for the forces of good. Is there nothing he won't wrestle?

A-Z of Substandard Superheroes: A is for Accident Man.

Over the coming weeks I'm going to be serialising an A-Z. I've always wanted to do one because you know how to start it and how to finish. It's going to be about superheroes because I've always had a thing for capes and it's going to be weird because it's not easy filling in all those letters with sensible things. Also, they're all rubbish. You wouldn't want any of these guys saving you from a lycra clad villain. 

Let us begin. A is for Accident Man.

The Egg Factory

Do you know where your easter egg came from?

Nosy Crow take on Weasels!

Another thing that happened in Bologna that thrills me so much it demands it's own post is that the lovely people at Nosy Crow want to publish my book Weasels. Now they shall finally take over the world! Mwahahaha!

Bologna 2012

This year I decided to take the plunge and go to the Bologna Children's Book Fair. I've had a bit of a headache ever since and I'm not sure I've ever done so much walking in such inappropriate shoes but it was well worth it. 

A big draw for me was the Cambridge School of Art's stand which I was lucky enough to be a part of. It was buzzing almost constantly (not just the afternoon we handed out wine) and I could barely squeeze in through the mob that consistently surrounded it to see my own book in situ. Having just said that I seem to have managed to take a photo at one of the few times it was empty, you'll have to take my word for it. I know for a fact that a variety of people who had work on the stand have had offers from Japanese, Brazilian, Italian, French and UK publishers and I'm not surprised because the standard was so high it was making me start to wonder if I should just quit now and become an accountant.

Thanks to my cunning agent, Frances McKay, I've met more publishers than I can count and I very much enjoyed a talk by Jon Klassen of 'I Want My Hat Back' fame. I learnt he has the laugh of a chipmunk and a Martin Salisbury attitude to the concept of style.

Here's a few holiday snaps for your perusal:

The Cambridge School of Art Stand

My books 'The Monkey Bus' and 'Monty the Monster' on display. Courtesy of Sarah Whelan.

The illustrators wall where you can see the highest concentration of promo pieces anywhere on earth.

And some people I know who do pictures looking a touch manic. Also courtesy of Sarah Whelan.

CSA MA Children's Book Illustration at Bologna 2012

This is probably a little short notice but this year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair the MA in Children's Book Illustration from the Cambridge School of Art has a stall, woo! It'll be showcasing the work of current students and graduates (one of those graduates being my fine self) and there'll be a drinks reception on the Wednesday from 4.30. If you just so happen to be in Italy next week do come along and have a look.

Camping

Mail Out: Stamps

Quite a while ago I sent out a pretty elaborate mail out but only now have I got round to blogging about it. I set out to do something a bit more interesting than the average set of post cards but I ended up doing something so eccentric and complex it verges on lunacy. I got a good few replies though so it seems madness sells.

The theme of this mail out was a stamp collection and each was assembled by my own fair hands. As each one was a bit of a mission to make I only did a limited number and considered carefully who I'd target with them.

Front Cover

Inside. Each stamp is individually cut out and positioned using a stamp hinge.

Detail

Inside you get a small portfolio booklet, postcards, a business card and some vinyl stamp stickers.

And here are the stamps in question.