Lovely treasure

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a good festive break :)

With my little boy off from nursery until now, I'd resigned myself to a bit of break from illustration. There seemed no point in getting everything out, with a curious and grabby toddler about, whose snoozy patterns were all over the place.

Also, it's just been too dark.

And I was knackered, spent, end of year exhaustion - whatever you call it, I'd had enough and decided to just enjoy a bit of guilt-free time off.

These lovely treasures, which Santa brought for me this Christmas have been keeping me inspired, happy and itching to get back to work!

"Rain!" by the wonderful Christian Robinson, whose amazing work can be found here. He does what I long to do; charming and fun illustrations, great characters with lovely colours and compositions. His animation "What is music" is a real gem, and puts a big smile on my face :) 

This Japanese picture book by Tupera Tupera is all about pants and it's really good fun :D First of all, you have to slide off the bear's red pants on the cover to get into the book, and inside you will find all kinds of pants, whose wearer you have to guess. Lovely illustrations and lots of fun!

This beautiful pop-up book by Anouck Boisrobert and Louise Rigaud is truly stunning, in its construction, illustrations and message. Incidentally, its title "In the forest" also carries the same meaning as my surname. I love the colours, but also it's use of white space.

And finally, the sweetly surreal and charming "The table that ran away to the woods". With playful type to compliment the story, it's hard to believe the original artwork was created in 1940. Beautiful and timeless.