Here at Advocate, we’re always doing our best to spread the word on how fantastic our freelance illustrators are. Here’s a little sample of one our recent advertisements in the 2013 Department Store Yearbook! It’s a used frequently with department store buyers, and a great source of getting in more work!
Check out these awesome phonics books for Tick Tock! This book series is illustrated by a number of our Advocate Illustraters, and you can have a look at more of their work in their portfolios on our website.
Each book teaches children how to read by teaching children to recognise the sounds of letters, and each book leads onto the next in the series.
With such a large amount of books being worked on by so many of our fabulous artists, each with different styles and aesthetics, it makes the series exciting to move through, as it’s constantly changing and fun to see what you’ll get next!
One of our freelance illustrators, Mike Byrnes, has been very busy with the release of a book he recently worked on for KarBen Publishing. ‘The Purim Superhero’ has been receiving glowing reviews on Amazon and on Kirkus Reviews. He’s also featured in an interview with the author!
The book is about the Jewish Holiday, Purim, and how young Nate wants to wear an alien costume for it. All his friends, however, are going dressed as superheroes and he wants to fit in, so what will he do? With the help of his two dads, he finds a surprising solution
Mike’s illustrations bring a vibrant, lively aesthetic to the book, and they sit beautifully with the message of moral tolerance and being yourself! Have a look at the cake Mike got at his ‘The Purim Superhero’ launch party, all credit to Keshet, who made the fantastic cake, and Next@19th who organized the party.
You can see some more of Mike’s great work on his portfolio by clicking here, as well as being able to purchase the book on amazon here.
Here at Advocate, we always do our best to help our artists reach their full potential by applying their skills to the most relevant pathways and projects for them. Often this means that artists could come from more of a Greetings Card background and find themselves in the world of children’s books! This was the case for one of our freelance illustrators Helen Rowe, and here she describes making the big transition from being a greetings card artist to a children’s book illustrator.
“After an 11 year career working as a ceramic surface pattern designer in Staffordshire I decided it was time fora change, I relocated back to Wiltshire and started designing and publishing greetings cards. I was interested in licensing the designs onto other products so approached Advocate to see if they could help. I took a box of card samples over to the Advocate office to meet Ed who thought that maybe my style would suit children’s book illustration. I had always had a secret longing to illustrate children’s books, but it seemed like an unobtainable dream which I always kept on the back burner.
Ed suggested I try working up some of my greeting card characters into scenes, and pointed out areas I needed to work on and key points to focus on. With this advice in mind I went away and created a series of images and as if by magic I’m now almost at the end of a 2 book project!
I feel as if a new passion has been kindled in me, and look forward to a new year developing my portfolio. A big Thank You to everybody at Adcovate who has helped me in the transition to my new life as a children’s book artist!”
Helen’s bright and playful work looks fantastic on both greeting cards and children’s books, and you can check out her folio here!
At Advocate Art we were delighted to receive this book sample from Franklin Watts, illustrated by freelance artist Steve Stone. The wonderfully bright and mischievious pictures are a great example of the standard of work being produced by our children’s illustrators. Check our more of his work here. Good job, Steve!
Have a look at this lovely wintery pop-up book, produced by children’s book publisher Templar and illustrated by freelance illustrator Clare Caddy.
The book tells the story of a little penguin who is bored of the south pole, so all his friends help him to build swings and sleighs and slides and teach him how to have fun in the snow! The gorgeous pop-up scenes will be loved by kids and adults alike!
Have a look at the book yourself on amazon or the Templar website, or check out more of children’s book illustrator Clare’s paintings in her portfolio on the Advocate illustration agency website.
Advocate Art young fiction illustrator Carl Pearce sent us over some photos of the fantastic new book that he worked on for Albert Whitman Publishing in Canada, so we thought we would share them with you!
The book tells the story of Ishan Mehra wants a dog, but his mother has a rule about dogs. (Guess what it is?) Ishan figures if he’s helpful enough and does enough things right around the house, he can change her mind. Somehow, though, the right things seem to come out all wrong, whether it’s making paratha for breakfast or repainting the hallway!
Award-winning author Kashmira Sheth’s first novel for younger readers introduces Ishan, whose hilarious misadventures will resonate with kids everywhere.
Here is what Carl said about it on his own blog:
I had a nice delivery yesterday.
The book has come out really well. Card cover with dust jacket, crystal clear print quality, nice paper for this kind of book, good binding and I love the red undercover with metallic red embossed text.
One little detail though. A pretty atypically American mistake. “Wales, England”? Really, guys? Ha ha.
Other than that little faux pas, a cracking job all round. A big thanks and well done to my esteemed colleagues at Albert Whitman Publishing in the USA, Canada.
Or is it Mexico?
Ha ha.
Now. Rush out and buy this beauty. The story is great, the main protagonist, Ishan, is a proper little scamp and a nice believable character. I’d assume it’ll be available in paperback format soon too, and you can buy from the usual places, online and high street.
Check out more of freelance illustrator Carl’s work in his portfolio on the Advocate Art illustration agency website…
Advocate Art would like to tell you a bit more about Nita Darsona. We adore Nita’s various characters and all of her unique illustrations. Her use of colour and shape works well together with her way of working. Her work is suited for childrens illustration. Read on to learn more about Nita, or see more of her work in her portfolio on the Advocate website.
Nita Darsona was born Jakarta, Indonesia in 1982. She grew up in Surabaya and never moved away from her hometown. Nita’s biggest childhood influences was probably the passionate interest in sesame street, japanese manga and childrens illustration books. Her dad was the one with the strongest artistic soul in the family ( he’s a musician). His drawing may not have been the best, but it was so contageous. Nita has always been fond in Aurélie Neyret, Regina Silva, Emmeline Pidgens and Gemma Correll’s works. Nita would describe her artwork as deconstructed doodle as she draws impulsively. Whenever something interesting (or not) happens, she just grabs her on-the-go sketch book and locks the memory into it. When she gets home, she scans it, does a little tinkering, and uploads it to her blog / facebook. Nita would describe herself as in-betweener (since she is not yet a professional illustrator). She creates the design, the copywriting and the crafting. Nita has participated in 4 exhibitions with BRAngerous (Women’s art community in Indonesia) for the last 3 years. I did “Draw Anything on Everything” drawing workshop in late 2011 and became a panelist in several creative gatherings. Up next is Cergamboree Comic Week for a comic exhibition held by Institut Français d’Indonésie. She is listed in BRAngerous Women Art Community and is a contributor in the independent public library and creative space C2O Library. Nita lives with her husband (who draws his peculiar interest, Zombies) and pet Pepito, a fat cat that often becomes her drawing inspiration.
Her favourite book is Little Prince (antoine de saint-exupery) and dr.seuss’. She is also a HUGE HUGE fan of Studio Ghibli, especially Tonari no-Totoro.
Advocate Art proudly would like to introduce freelance illustrator Rudolf Farkas from Hungary. His work focuses mainly on traditional and realistic imagery. Rudolf’s attention to detail and use of painting techniques is very effective and this results in spectacular imageries. Perfect for traditional greetings cards, puzzles and wall art! Check out more of his work in his portfolio on the illustration agency website.
I was born in Hungary in Middle Europe in 1959 and I am still living here! Because e I live in the city I can express my love of nature and animals through my artwork.
I am continuously developing my talent which I discovered at an early age. I graduated in 1978 after four years at Fine Art School. I served two years in the army and then I worked for Wessely Tibor open fine art group. Hereby I seize the opportunity to thank for Mr Tibor Wessely and Gyula Bubárnik who were a great inspiration and learning source for me. The group has mainly concentrated on the realistic paintings and I picked up a lot of knowledge on this subject, but I think that a major factor in my ability is due to my diligence and endurance.
My artwork has been shown in many group and individual exhibitions. My artwork can be seen in the galleries of Budapest, but the majority of my work is displayed around the world. In 2005 a leading book publisher in Hungary asked me to produce book illustrations and at the moment this work takes up most of my time. Over the past few years my illustrations have been published in more than 40 books and even more magazines!
Here at Advocate Art we are excited to learn that one of our young fiction illustrators, Tristram Rossin, is co-ordinating a charity event today for the Liam Fairhurst Foundation, which is a wish foundation for sick children. He is trying to set an unofficial record by doing one hundred speed portraits in one day. The event will to take place on twitter and is set to be quite a big thing. We have celebrity tweeters such as Sarah Brown and Russel Brand set up to tweet out their portraits with the objective of getting this trending on a worldwide scale.
See how it is going and to make a contribution, follow this link and too see more of Tristram’s work visit his portfolio on the Advocate Art website
Freelance illustrator Jim Mitchell has been with Advocate Art for a number of years. His beautiful and vibrant scenery paintings have been used for a number of products and some of his doodles were even featured in the hit film Salmon Fishing on the Yemen! (See our blog for more on that story…) Jim has had great success in puzzle illustration and christmas card design as well as general greeting card illustration with his work being used by companies such as Wentworth puzzles and Nigel Quiney Publications. Read on for a reminder of Jim Mitchell’s background or visit his portfolios in greetings cards, older and real and art licensing and art for posters on the Advocate Art website.
“My early years were spent in Stoke on Trent, son of a ceramic pattern and transfer maker, and nephew of a famous aeroplane designer. So, it wasn’t surprising that I went to Art College, gaining my degree in Graphic Design and Illustration, discovering all the materials and methods that were available , investigating how they worked and how other illustrators used them.
My first commercial work involved producing military illustrations for units of the British Army stationed in Germany, soon followed by a long relationship with aviation art and illustration, including book covers and other work for Arms and Armour Press, Sidgwick and Jackson, and Orion Books.
An interest in style and media techniques has led me to develop skills in oils, acrylics, gouache and watercolour – I was fortunate enough to produce early commissioned illustrations for such widely differing clients as the Licensed Victuallers Association, Trend Paints and Waddington’s jigsaws. Among other types of work at this stage, I was producing impressions of proposed developments for architectural companies.
Next came working as a freelance for Mirage Fine Art, producing historical event aviation prints, and then curiously my family background of ceramic transfer manufacture was echoed in my being offered the opportunity to paint commissioned images for the Past Times company, subjects such as sports, trains, cars, animals, historical events and famous people. These were used on such items as mugs and teapots. My aviation designs were used on collectors plates by clients such as Royal Doulton, Coalport China, and I produced the artwork for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain plate , sold jointly by the RAF Museum and the Sunday Express. More recent work has included large amounts of Greeting cards featuring children, atmospheric landscape, architecture and aerial views, Book illustration (including work for the children’s market) children, adults and military, Illustrations for product labels, Commissioned Jig-saw designs, subjects including nostalgia, people, vintage transport and settings and Calendars.”
These new Stripes Publishing books arrived at Advocate Art today, and contain the magical illustrations of Simon Mendez and Alison Edgson - two of our freelance illustrators. On A Starry Night (available in paper-back) is a collection of ten stories by various authors, and The Snow Bear (available in hard-back) is a story about one girl’s journey through an enchanted world of ice as she tries to find her way home. Both illustrated children’s books contain stories by best selling children’s author Holly Webb, leaner more about her on her website.
See more work by Simon Mendez and Alison Edgson in their portfolios on the Advocate Art website!
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