The House on Hare Hill

Hallo Sailor!

The House on Hare Hill has arrived.

I was very excited to see the finished book - that zingy feeling that I got the first time I saw a published book with my name on the front has not dimmed with time. Hare Hill has a lot more of 'me' in it - my slightly daft humour and skewed view of the world. You might be able to tell that I wrote it during the airing of 'The Great British Bake Off'.

So here's a synopsis: Unlike other hares, Little Hare has given up boxing and taken up yoga. She goes for a walk in the woods where she meets an unlikely array of woodland animals who are all taking part in their species' favourite sports. However, she gets lost and ends up finding a house owned by a jolly handsome chap with the most fabulous set of ears. And guess what he's going to do this summer....

If you would like a copy and you live on the Isle of Wight, you can find me at THESE locations or you can purchase via my ETSY shop or Amazon. All books are signed with a special message if you can let me know who it is for. 

Have a wonderful summer x

The New Moon

Hurrah the first proofs have arrived. The thing is.... there are lots of revisions to make. It's only when you have something that resembles a book, that certain aspects come to life. For example, I had set the text at 30pt (text is always measured in points) and when I held the proof in my hand I realised that was MUCH too big!! 

The moon on the first end page also didn't come out as I had expected. Looking back at Flossie Bonce, I liked that moon so much more, so I pinched it for Hare Hill as well!

The old moon

The new moon

You might notice (if you are very good at noticing small things) that the shadow under the hares has also changed. I decided it looked like they were sitting in a pool of wet cement; that will only lead to trouble.

Now I have the awful wait... the postman will have palpitations every time he comes up my path as I snatch the door open to see if today is the day that proof#2 turns up!! Wally the Chihuahua also loves to see the postie, and each day they play the 'who will leave with the postman's fingers' game.

Sorry postie.

The House on Hare Hill

After a monumental weekend of designing pages, drawing last spreads and deciding on a dedication, The House on Hare Hill is now with the printer for it's first proof. 

I always get very impatient at this time, waiting for the post to arrive. Today is Good Friday, so no chance of any mail today. And then there's the looooooong Easter weekend with a Bank Holiday stuck on the end. I just want to see my book!! I have a really good feeling about the little Hare story. Here's a summary:

It's springtime and all the local Hares are out practicing their favourite sport, boxing. However, Little Hare has never felt the love for boxing, she likes Yoga.

She sets off for a walk in the woods to find some berries for dinner (most specifically, Maryberries) and bumps into a whole host of woodland animals taking part in their national sports. There are golfing weasels, cricketing foxes and skateboarding owls. 

Little Hare eventually ends up at Big Hare's house, whom she rather takes a shine to. He has the most fabulous set of ears. And a totally awesome idea for the place where he lives: Hare Hill.


I took some photos whilst working on the last spread.

Drawing a layout of the whole page

Dip pen, waterproof ink and watercolour
paper over the top of the layout

 

 

 

Ink drawing of just one element of the page

And a colour version of the background
in ink and chalk pastels

Next post will be my box of books!! 

Hello British Summer Time!

British Summer Time officially starts at 2am tomorrow morning, the sun is shining and Husband Marriner has mown the grass for the first time this year. Life is good.

This week has been like the birth of a new era for us. The new book is going well and I am on target to have it published by the end of May, as I had written in my 2014 Creative Workbook, back in January. Here is a bit of a spread I have been working on this week:

On larger areas I have been using my Dad's chalk pastels again, with the skies in watercolour. I usually give the pastels a loose wash of watercolour in a similar colour as I really love the lines that my large brushes make. Little Hare has been evolving as I thought she might. I may have to go back to some of the earlier spreads and change her appearance a little. The line that Little Hare is sniffing took ages to get right. It was created using on the the brushes on Photoshop, but I had to fiddle faddle about for a long time before I got the one I thought looked a bit like a smell. And let me tell you, representing in 2D a concept that is only recognised by your olfactory nerves was no small feat!!!!!

By the way, Flossie Bonce and Wally and Bert, BFFs are both now available on Amazon. 
Here for Flossie
Here for Wally and Bert

Too excited and might need to calm down.

Ooh I'm terribly excited!! I get to the point when making a book, where it all starts coming together and I really like some of the pics I'm creating. Here's a bit of what I've been doing today.




I took a screen print. As you can see from the panel on the right hand side, I have done quite a lot of colouring and rendering on Photoshop, but some of my skies and backgrounds are a mixture of watercolour and the lovely chalk pastels as seen in THIS POST.

It's taken me bloomin' ages to do these two pages. On the left hand side you can just see a bit of a tree and bush peeking through. The brown dotty colour is actually one of my socks that I scanned for a tree trunk. As I took this shot half way through colouring, Little Hare still needs some work.

I'm having more fun with this than is quite proper. Time just flies by and all of a sudden it's time to feed the family! Can't wait to show you more.

Toodly pipsters for now,
Jules x

More books are HERE.