Join the international Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) & the Bologna Children’s Book Fair for two days packed with information, workshops, books, networking and more!
Publishers, editors, art directors, writers, illustrators, and agents from the four corners of the world bring you the latest in children’s book publishing from around the world. The SCBWI Bologna Biennial Conference is presented the weekend prior to the largest children’s book fair in the world in Bologna, Italy.
(more…)

“To fiction illustration the illustrator should bring the accuracy of journalism, to journalism the drama of fiction, and to editorial illustration the contradictions of reality.” So spoke American illustrator Robert Weaver one of the pioneers in the shift from neo-Rockwellian academicism to representational expressionism in illustration. Here’s an expressive example of his sketchbook work from the NY Times. Except generally in times of war it’s a shame ‘visual journalism’ never took off as extensively as it did with photography.

‘The Search’ is a new comic book dealing with the Holocaust set to be introduced in schools in Germany by Dutch comic Artist Eric Heuvel. Here’s a NY Times article on the book. If only all school books could have been comics!

Stefan G. Bucher’s Daily Monster is an interesting video drawing blog, tied to the promo of his book, where he draws monsters that start as random splashes of ink.

During last years’ Sweetness & Light I had the pleasure of meeting a really nice couple, Coralie Bickford-Smith and Mike Topping. They noticed I had something to do with the Candy Collective and came up to me to say how much they were enjoying the talks. As we chatted it transpired that Mike is an illustrator and Coralie is a designer for Penguin. They were working on a series of new book covers for the Sherlock Holmes canon. This is a bit of an area of interest of mine (quite a big bit actually so I was pretty excited). (more…)

SCAMP’s roving reporter, Mario Sughi, takes us on an open air art trail through Dublin City.
There are days when the option to visit a museum or an art gallery either is not there or is not the most appealing one. If the sun is out (as has been the case this February) and you opt rather for a walk on the streets of Dublin you could reinvent yourself as an open art reviewer, whose name could be Mr Magoo, and nobody would blame you. (more…)

Great article by John Keenan on the Guardian books blog: It’s a pity that writers can’t draw – but designers who think they can write are just embarrassing. A way with words and a gift for illustration rarely inhabit the same brain. According to Freud this is because thinking in images is nearer to unconscious processes than thinking in words. In The Ego and the Id he argued that the artist’s mind exhibits an incomplete form of consciousness. This is one reason, I suppose, why we don’t expect great painters to be able to explain their work. read on…

The 49th annual Communication Arts Illustration Competition. Any Illustration first printed or produced between March 14, 2007 and March 11, 2008 is eligible. Selected by a nationally representative jury of distinguished designers, art directors and illustrators, the winning entries will be published in the July 2008 Illustration Annual. Over 70,000 copies of the Illustration Annual will be distributed worldwide, assuring important exposure to the creators of this outstanding work. As a service to art directors, designers and art buyers, a comprehensive index will carry addresses and telephone numbers of the illustrators represented. (more…)

You will no doubt have noticed these little cartoon rabbits all over the place by now. On bins (as in the above photo), print ads, billboards, web animations, etc, etc. They are by our own Chris Judge for Vodaphone with DDFHB. Good Stuff Chris!

You can keep track of these little blighters and other CJ news by tuning into Chris’s blog.

Given the name of this blog we just had to point out this article questioning the cult of the Sketch – A skill that’s extremely cheap to practice but takes extraordinary dedication to learn. And of course while the design industry may not rely on the sketch as much as it used to, advertisers still heavily rely on the skills of storyboard artists/illustrators to this day.