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Novelty Books - Flap books.
Readers Digest Zoo! book with fold out pages. There are lots of different types of children's books, and they require different things. Novelty books have some sort of interactive element - flaps, textures, moving parts such as pop ups or sliders, or fold out pages, to give a surprise element. I have worked lots of books with fold out pages, including this one Zoo! produced for Readers Digest Childrens Books.
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I love painting on different paper surfaces, it gives a different look and texture to the painted areas, and you can leave some areas unpainted.
How I use colour in my illustrations.
I initially trained and worked as a textile print designer, (Trent and Manchester if you're interested) which involves working to exacting client briefs, including defined colour palettes. So you only use the colours that have been assigned to that brief. Fashion colour forecasts are worked out years in advance and every season everyone works to a set palette (that's why all the shops are full of say mustard one year, and chartreuse another time - it's not coincidence!) So one season, orange is a particular Persimmon shade, or purple has to be Aubergine.  Badger and Mole set off to deliver their Christmas Presents: window painting by Jo Brown© This year's Christmas Window at my house.
Badger and Mole, setting off to deliver their presents on Christmas Eve. I based it on some drawings I had in various notebooks (I searched through a LOT of notebooks to find this little mole!)  On my to - do list for November is ‘Make advent calendar’ - some years (ok, most) I’m a bit close to the wire and still scrabbling around on 30 November but I’m trying to get ahead this year! I've been doing this for 15 years now, and I always manage it, but it is easier if you break it down into stages. This is how I do it:
I'm taking part in the Illustrators fair again this year- 18-26 September. This is an amazing online selling event, with over 100 illustrators involved. You can follow on instagram @illustratorsfair, and also follow the hashtag #illustratorsfair2021 to see and buy work from lots of artists. Or join the Facebook group IllustratorsFair where the artists will be posting their images, with details of how to buy from them (and me!) Look out for the distinctive pencil logo. Many thanks to Michael Czerwinski and Holly T Burrows for organising this, they have done an amazing job.Have a look at my instagram feed for examples of my work I am showcasing in this event @happytomato7   The link for my Thortful cards is https://www.thortful.com/creator/JoBrown
You will see all my current cards. I can try out card designs here without incurring my own printing costs, so it is an opportunity to find designs you might not find elsewhere. I am experimenting with some hand painted type designs at the moment. Even if you aren't purchasing, I would appreciate it if you could 'like' or 'save' my designs, it would help raise my profile.Thanks! p.s. You can also buy a different selection directly from me in my shop So I deleted my Facebook page a while back, in a strop (yes I'm like that) but now I need it, and I started a new one, but I have hardly any followers doh! so if you could show it some love, I'd be very grateful!  Some images of the gift vouchers I designed for Bags of Books, an independent children's bookshop in Lewes, East Sussex. They feature Alan, the shop cat.
The vouchers were designed to be easily printed to order on the shop's A4 printer, on different colours of card.The sketchbook shows initial sketches, trying different angles, then printing out different versions while I played with the type and the hand drawn elements. As the vouchers have dates and numbers written by hand, (there are spaces on the books for this) I wanted to make the amounts hand drawn too, so I had to do one for each amount available.  I am doing a series of one-day-only special offers from my shop on Thursdays, check my instagram @happytomato7 for details - the offer will be different every time, sometimes a bundle, sometimes an exclusive new product, follow me for updates.
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AuthorJo Brown, Illustrator. Archives
September 2023
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My affiliate bookshop on bookshop.org is here I buy most of my art materials at jacksonsart .com - affiliate link here, you get 10% off!
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