Onwards and Upwards

Well after the little blip at the beginning of the month things have taken a turn for the better. The therapy exercises of writing all my thoughts down in the last blog and throwing paint about sorted me right out and I have resumed my illustrating. I have thrown myself into a mix of things and am currently working on black and white portfolio studies for my new website purely for my illustration work and a bit of digital work with my new toy (Wacom tablet and pen).


Last Monday was the start of a great week. Mr postie delivered two signed copies of books that I had won off twitter. The first being the The Fearsome Beastie by Giles Paley-Phillips which I read to my 7 year old daughter Felicity aka Flic last night. Thumbs up from both of us and Flic seems to have kidnapped the book now, reading it over and over again. The next book is Els Oot and the Lost City by the lovely Nelson Suit from Inkspokes which I will read to the kids this week. On top of this I have had a couple more exciting things pop up….

Inkspokes Virtual Artist in Residence

The first being Inkspokes virtual Artist in Resident of the month. Inkspokes is an online literary magazine that publishes articles on indie book trends, book reviews of independently published and small press works and author interviews. They also showcase some of the incredible work being produced by book illustrators, especially those working independently, and provide resources for indie authors and publishers to assist them in their writing, book craft and the publishing of their works.

http://www.inkspokes.com/2014/10/10/from-our-artist-in-residence-corrina-holyoake-animal-stories/

Each week I will post a few samples on what I have been working on that week along with a little blurb and my blog link. So this week I will be posting a few of the black and white studies I have been working on for #inktober. I am killing 2 birds with one stone with this as I have been wanting to put together a little sample of black & white work for a while now so it was like fate that #inktober popped up. For those that don't know what Inktober is about, it is an event anyone can participate in during October, all you do is create a piece of artwork purely in ink and then when you post it on any of your social media sites include the hashtag #inktober I strongly recommend searching for this and checking out some of the work displayed, there is some amazing ink work out there. I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying playing about with this medium. These are my first three for the new website. I am going to do a few more based on the Hedgerow gang with a Halloween theme.

I am so pleased to be part of this new feature for Inkspokes. Please do take a look at their website and follow them on Twitter

KLAs featured artist of the month

The second exciting bit of news is that I am the joint artist in the spotlight with the talented illustrator Calum Jones on the Kid Literature Authors website. The kidliterature group is a fantastic community set up for all fans of children's literacy. Whether you are an author, illustrator or avid reader this community is a must to be part of. They are extremely supportive towards all authors and illustrators and I was honored to be one of the first artists to be in the spotlight. I will be helping them find talented peeps for the artist spotlight each month and I'm really looking forward to helping out in this monthly feature. If you are an author or illustrator I strongly recommend you joining this community, they have a Facebook page that gets updated regularly with useful tips and inspiration to promote your published books and advice on how to get your work noticed. Or you can follow them on Twitter

KLA Artist Spotlight

So what am I going to do for the rest of the month? The main priority is getting my new website launched. I am currently working on the banner which I am digitally colouring up, it’s taking forever!!! But I have got to admit…. I am loving the effect! I am excited to see what everyone thinks of my attempt, especially the digital pros I know out there. So the big question…….am I now eating my words and ready to throw away the brushes?? Hmmmmm that might well have to be covered in the next blog he he

Book blog - Week Two - A Rabbit’s Tale by Rob Bounds

We were all very excited to see what was in store for us this week with our new picture book assignment. This week we have read A Rabbit's Tale by Rob Bounds. This delightful book is about a young rabbit’s adventure after a few narrow escapes on our busy roads. He takes us on a little journey meeting some lovely characters on a quest to find out how he can avoid these dangers. 

The story has been used by the illustrator Neil Hunt's school to promote the message  "be bright to be seen"

After last weeks teething problems I decided that I would get more sense out of the children by reading it to them all individually as it took a good 15 minutes of mucking about last week before they started settling down. I hold my hands up…  we were not the most professional of book groups! What with the girls giggling and Dylan making faces it turned out to be a rather long affair. We cracked it in the end though.

So we started with my daughter Felicity aka Flic who is seven years old (going on 18). Well the first thing that was pointed out to me was that I needed to work on my expressions! Apparently I need to practice my story telling skills, cheeky moo! After a stern telling off she said that she really enjoyed the book and liked the fact that it was in rhyme.  She liked the story and pictures very much and would like to read it herself (obviously with more expressions lol).  She is a very keen reader and writer and later that evening I had seen she had been writing her own piece of poetry so she was obviously inspired by our little story time session.

Next up is our latest recruit Phoebe, our next door neighbour. Phoebe is nine and is full of constructive criticism and I must say has taken a very keen interest in our weekly story time sessions. She enjoyed the story and said that this would be a great book for schools and to be used as a teaching aid as it teaches you about road safety.  She also commented on how bright and colourful the illustrations were so would appeal to younger children.

Then we have my son Dylan who is ten (going on two).  Now he loved the rhyming, both of my children have a thing for poetry. He said that the rhyming made the story have a nice flow to it and made it nicer to read. I might add, at this point this was my third attempt of reading this out loud so I was quite the story teller by this time he he.  Another point made was that he liked the concept behind the book and how it was not only a good story but had an important message behind it too.

So from the kids we have another thumbs up.  From the grown ups point of view…. Well I too have  a soft spot for stories in rhyme so was very pleased when I started to read this. The illustrations have been done by Neil Hunt and have a very retro feel which instantly took me back to my childhood. Anything that makes you go back to your inner child is always a good thing in my eyes. The illustrations are created using bright bold colours in a sketchy style that I am sure children would enjoy. 

 

The story itself is lovely, and I agree with the kids I do like the message behind it. It is important to know road safety and I like that you learn this as the story goes on. The words flow very well and engage the reader, leaving you wanting to know what happens on the next page. Yes I agree with the little people this is another fine book for our young readers out there and should be a book in every schools library.

So all in all a lovely read.

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From all at the Holyoake Homestead, it’s over and out for now. Be sure to pop by again for the next installment.

Sweet dreams xx

Weekly picture book blog for http://www.kidliteratureauthors.com/

First Picture Book Blog for KLA - The Fun Begins by Sandra Stoner Mitchell

So last night was story time in the Holyoake house. I rallied the children and our next door neighbour Phoebe and what started out as a ten minute story turned into a 40 minute chit chat.

We have started our picture book blogs with Sandra Stoner Mitchell's http://sandrascapers.com/ the Fun Begins, the latest addition to the Hedgerow Series. Timmy and Tommy are household names for us as I illustrated the very first Hedgerow book so the kids were very excited to hear the new story. This is a wonderful introduction to all the characters and leaves you wanting to know what fun they will get up to next.



AMAZON LINK


So the children's verdict was an all round thumbs up. We had a long chat about how awesome it would be to go to school in the bus, they all thought that Timmy and Tommy were very luck to have this privilege. Phoebe then went on to tell me how the book would be great for younger children just starting school and how her brother George is starting in September. After a later than usual bedtime it was all agreed that we were looking forward to the next picture book review so I now have my official team of reviewers for this weekly blog recording.

From the grown up point of view, well I am familiar with Sandra's writing and this is yet another little gem she has created. This story is a lovely introduction to the Hedgerow gang and goes through a story about them all playing hide and seek in the haystack and then venturing into their first day at school. The characters are endearing from Millie the Mole the more quieter character to Reggie the rat, the groups clown and we can't forget Millie the Mole and Cyril the Squirrel.  This story will be a joy for any younger reader as it is told in a way that they will relate to, covering topics that they understand and day to day adventures that children have.

Oh and off course the illustrations are great lol ( well I would say that wouldn't I, considering I illustrated the original illustrations for Hedgerow Capers) he he

Here are Sandra's links:
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From all at the Holyoake house......sweet dreams world xx

 http://www.kidliteratureauthors.com/