It's time for a mini Jolly

Hurrah!

The Hubby, the toddlers and I are off to Camber Sands for a looooong weekend break, just the 4 of us. Fingers crossed the weather stays nice, and the kids don't go crazy! Here's a sneak at what i'm colouring at the moment for Miles Kelly.

:) C

The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat

It's finally here. 

2 Boxes of books for competitions and giveaways and reviews, landed on my doorstep this week.

I am so over the moon, they look so gorgeous, thank you so much to the team at Parragon Books who have done such a beautiful job taking the book on from Meadowside Books, who we sadly waved goodbye to last year.

It's also really REALLY special because it grew out of a chat around my mum's kitchen table (Coral Rumble) where she took some jumbled up ideas that i had, wrote them into an awesome rhyming story, and here we are now. 

It's so special to see our names together on the spine.

SO! To celebrate I am giving away copies on all my social media channels.

On Twitter : (click for link)

Help me get to 1000 followers by the week of the 21st October (launch week) and I will randomly choose 3 followers to win a signed copy (by me and my Mum!) of the book!

On Facebook : (Click for link)

Ok! FB competition no.2! I'd love to see the best, most imaginative sea creature you (or your kids!) can draw. Coloured drawings score more points! This competition will close next Sunday (midnight) so you have a whole week to work on your masterpieces and upload them! (Upload the pics to me in a private message and I will publish them on the page!) Go and create!

On the Blog : 

Throughout the book, the little boy is often accompanied by a very naughty seagull! Like the 'wanted' poster below, i'd like to see your own WANTED! poster. 

It can be anyone, or anything. A pet, a person, even a cheeky sock that keeps disappearing (we all have one of those socks...) and email your entries to charlotte@charlottecookeillustration.com by the 21st October, for another way to win a book.

The beauty is, you can enter ALL of the competitions, so you have a triple chance of winning!

So what are you waiting for? Get your creative on!

C x

It's almost here...

BOOK ALERT NO.2!

My first book with Parragon, 'Sunshine and Snowballs' written by the wonderful late Margaret Wise Brown, is out this month, 21st July.

You can order it HERE!

So VERY excited. 

Loved working on it and with the people over at Parragon, and we've got another MWB book coming out too, not sure when but will keep you posted!

Book Alert no.1

FOR pre-order, CLICK HERE!

TONIGHT

NICK JR UK // 6:30PM // A BEDTIME STORY WITH ARNIE AND BARNIE // 'THE GREAT PILLOW FIGHT'

Work until you drop...

...is literally my current frame of mind.

I am about 4 weeks away from having my second baby and trying my hardest to finish off artwork for my second book with Parragon. I've now finished all the stories for nick jr so that's a relief, but it's all hands on deck to get this book done!

eek.

Anyway, here are a few little pics i've taken of the work recently. This book is done all digitally, but as usual, it's using the textures i love to use in my work, so it's not too far removed from my more painterly style - just a little faster to achieve.

Still. So. COLD...

couple of sneaks....

The Scarecrow's Secret

HELLO!

Just a little newsflash to inform you all, the next nickjr Bedtime Story that I have illustrated is being shown THIS FRIDAY 17TH, on Nick Jr, at 7.15pm. This one is read by none other than Mr. Phill Jupitus. Sweeeeeeeeet!

Here's a cheeky glimpse...

Development

So here is a little bit of development work from my project with Meadowside.
Since doing these characters, they've changed, so i'm posting them here!

Sneak...

Deadline monday looms...

Don't you just hate a deadline monday? Monday is the worst day anyway, so slap a deadline on it and make it even more depressing!

It means working weekends which isn't fun really, but necessary. Being an illustrator is not glam, it is jolly hard work. And if you are thinking all we do is make pretty pictures well you're wrong i'm afraid.
There's a lot of careful planning, trial and error, tweaks and mistakes, re-do's and plenty of materials used.

Saying all that, I wouldn't change it for the world. I love my job and I never once forget how lucky I am to be doing what I do, and that some people like it, and want me to do work for them.
Like the lovely people at Nickelodeon - and this weekend I have (almost) finished the colour spreads for the first 'Bedtime story with Arnie and Barnie'. Hopefully they will like what i've done!! And once we're all approved, it's on to no.2 (of 6!)

As well as all this, I am embarking on the 'Adventures of the owl and the pussycat' book once again. So excited for this book, and after my meeting in london last week, I am raring to go with it... now to just find a spare second...

Lunchtime...

So we went off to 'To a Tea' for lunch where there were a LOT of teas to choose from. However, Sarah and I played it reasonably safe and went for a Lady Grey. Also, thanks to Mr Mark Chambers, I now know that 'monkey picked tea' is "@markAchambers: @charlottecooke It's tea that monkeys pick,they're trained to and can pick tea in inaccessible areas like cliff faces etc..Oolong is one! :)"

Wowzer!

They also had plenty of splendid cake! Of which I chose an orange polenta type loaf. It was tough to resist the brownie...

We then popped into the temporary Meadowside offices to have a go in the James Bond lift. It was actually in a James Bond film. Awesome.

Then we walked past St Paul's so obviously I had to take a photo.

So it's back to Victoria for me to catch a train back to my baby, and process all the awesome stuff we chatted about for our book! So SO excited about it. :)

Me and me Ma!

Crazy times...

Hi everyone!

It is so ridiculously busy in my studio at the moment I hardly have time to keep you posted but here we go. I've snuck a little moment to give you a sneaky look at a bit of an illustration from one of the stories I am illustrating for Nick Jr's new programme 'A Bedtime Story with Arnie and Barnie' (weekdays at 7:15pm from July sometime!!). This is such a massive job so I am beavering away getting it all done.
I still love you all and thank you so much for popping on by.

Here are some fish :)

Cx

'Ello 'ello 'ello

Tuesday.

So, yesterday wasn't a great start to the week with a toothy baby who wanted mummy.
I am at my parents this week as my hubberoo is away sailing on the Broads for a week, and they are very kindly (and not at all grudgingly) looking after the munchkin for me so I can get back into the work groove. Sadly they live 2 hours from us so after this week it's back to juggling with hands and feet!

Anyhow, I did manage to get a little bit done yesterday. Scary times, my first line work deadline for nickjr is the 9th... Here's a little sneak at one of the images waiting to be approved.

Happy Tuesday everyone x

Hansel and Gretel

Friends

Exciting times

I have now started the character development for my new book with Meadowside - (well, my old book that i did for my degree that I was awarded Highly Commended for in the Macmillan Prize in 2010), but we are improving it. So exciting because, as before, my mum is writing the text for it, and i am drawing the pictures (because that's what i do, funnily enough).

You can find my mum HERE, too.

We are aiming to get to the point where we are ready to colour it all up before i go off to have my little babba, so i've got a few things to be getting on with in the next 9 weeks, but will be awesome to come back to work to colouring up this book. I hope it's going to be successful because it means a lot to me!

Anyway, thought i'd share some little character development sketches because it's nice to see that some times :)

HAPPY FRIDAY!