Bear With Me

Right, firstly, apologies again for the radio silence regarding my blog. I've been silly busy and I'm finding myself updating my Twitter and my Facebook fan page so much that this gets left behind a little bit *slaps wrist*. Still it's my turn with the 'Bear With Me' book this week so I have to post something about it as it's such a fab-tastic project to be involved in and there's only a few more Illustrators to do their page before the big auction :)

Over on my fan page and my Twitter page I'll be posting all sorts from photos to sneak peeks etc.. so keep checking for little updates. As well as that I've obviously got to come up with a page myself *wets pants slightly*.....here's hoping the ideas flow into my head!!

Other than that what have I been doing recently. Well I've just been sent a nice new picture book from Oz to do, I'll be starting the roughs to a picture book written by the great Charlie Higson (The Fast Show, Young James Bond, all-round comedy legend!) I've done the new cover to the next Stinky & Jinks book and I've been working on a new style. So all in all very very busy, I also popped over to France for a much needed holiday and soaked up some sun along with some wine and cheese! :)


That is where I am at this very moment in time.........I'll try and post some Bear With Me stuff on here this week when I can but there'll be all sorts going up on my fan page, Twitter and Instagram account :)

Mark, over and out!!

Busy Couple of Months......

Well.....*takes deep breath*......how busy have I been recently!? Silly crazy busy is the answer. I've been doing all sorts of stuff for many different publishers and now that the Book Fairs are over it's time to relax (a bit) and look back on what I've been doing.

Below is a montage of a few pieces/styles I've been doing and as you can see, it's been pretty varied! I think I may have covered all bases, even having to draw a tiger on an operating table having its teeth extracted! No....I'm not making that up!!

So have a quick peek at the below image and apologies for the slight radio silence! My holiday is in a week and I am seriously looking forward to it!

Mark, over and out! :)

Great Week!

It's been just over a month or so since I last posted so apologies for the slight radio silence but it has been crazy silly busy in the studio! So much work on at the moment with the upcoming Book Fairs in Bologna and London that time just seems to fly....every year it's like this for book illustrators and every year it's always the same! :)

Do we complain? - Yes

Do we love it? Yes

Would we change it for anything else? - Not on your nelly! ;)

So what's new?! I'm currently working on all sorts and I'm trying my best not to get all my illustrations mixed up, wouldn't want pirates and dinosaurs in a Football crowd now would we? Although *starts to imagine one crazy scene*. This past week has been very cool however as in and out of scribbling tigers, doodling Hamsters and sketching giants, I had the FAB news that two of my books have been shortlisted for an award later in the year. 'Pigeon Poo', with Little Tiger, has been shortlisted in the Picture Book category for the Sheffield Children's Book Award and 'My Hamster is a Genius' in the Stinky & Jinks series has been shortlisted in the Shorter Novel category for the same award. Stinky & Pidge are up against some strong opposition so fingers crossed! If all else fails, Pidge can poop on the rest of the competition and Stinky can nibble a few toes!

I also took on a great sounding new picture book written by a leading actor/comedian whom I've always liked so that should be a lot of fun to do! Now to just find some time in the schedules to do some of my own personal portfolio work....*ponders 48 hour days* :)

I'm Back....!

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all (only two weeks late) I'm back in the studio, back to the scribbles and back to the busy schedule already planned out for me. Apologies for the slight radio silence but I was ill with flu over the holiday period, so I've been getting back into things verrryyyyyy sloooowwwlllyyyy since 2013 hit our shores. In fact.....I spent most of the first week back in the studio looking and feeling like this :

Very grumpy and tired! However, we've had some snow so all is right in the world *beams a smile* and I've just been drawing some Sumatran tigers......what's not to like about that!? :)