Art Journal » General

The year to come

elise — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:48:23 +0000

It’s a little hard to talk about the year to come although I feel very excited… because things aren’t pinned down yet. One thing that is is a series of covers I’m doing for a fantasy novel trilogy. I’m working on the roughs right now and trying out all sorts of ideas. I love reading a manuscript with a big rubber band around it, long before everyone else. It’s like having a back stage pass, but for books.

What is a little up in the air is three picture books that are on the cards for the next couple of years – or as well as I can fit them in with the boys. Two are books I have written. I found it much easier to write than draw last year – I guess because you can review text while walking around a park. But you can’t draw. Try as you might… it doesn’t work. So – writing. I’m really pleased with them and they have both come from little scenes that I created in the Moleskines, for no reason whatsoever. That is particularly exciting. That means that instead of coming up with an idea for a book and then creating a story etc, I have worked the other way around. Drawn and accidentally come across a character and a scene that I love, then let her tell me her, or their, stories. It may not sound very earthshattering but it’s quite new for me, and the style will be completely what I love to do. No hybrids, no almost-theres. Just lots of pen and my imagination dong loop-the-loops.

And the third is someone else’s story – a lovely one, that I need to think about some more to know if I am the right one for it.

So it’s all exciting but not pinned down. Meetings need to happen with people behind closed doors and numbers will matter a lot. I just want to hear some big YESs so I can say yippee and get working!

But as yet, it feels a little like conjuring and directing fish. In mid air. I hope I get yesses. It’s not natural for them to hover up there for too long. I might lose one!

Sunshine

elise — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:48:30 +0000

I’m writing at a cafe with red lacquered doors, in the sunshine with my right foot jiggling the pram. It’s beautiful!

The Moorehawke covers live on!

elise — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:37:16 +0000

Last year I had the utmost pleasure to create the covers for a brilliant trilogy by the divine Celine Kiernan. You can tell I’m happy about that! It was a big undertaking and it was my decision to go all-out in their design and style to really shoot for something memorable that would also engage with the books as completely as possible. I also got to use my favourite style for the first time on a cover – very rewarding.

Well the books have gone into heaps of countries, they have been winning acclaim left, right and centre, and while different covers abound, mine have received a fantastic response. Most recntly from the SFSignal blog. Here are a couple of the comments (joy!)…

“I love these covers so hard. If I had the shelf-space I would display them all face-out on my bookshelves. I’m entranced by the layers of perspective – I feel like I could stick my arm into each one and it would go for miles.”

“They thematically work together, and have a unified artistic point of view that works rather well. This is the sort of cover that gives fantasy book covers a *good* name.”

AND WHAT’S MORE…

The 59th Annual Australian Publishing Association Book Design Awards 2011 judging is complete, and the shortlist results are in.

AND…

Best Designed Children’s Cover of the Year
Crowded Shadows: The Moorehawke Trilogy Vol II – cover by Bruno Herfst, illustrations by Elise Hurst

The Best Designed Children’s Series
Crowded Shadows: The Moorehawke Trilogy Vol II – cover by Bruno Herfst, illustrations by Elise Hurst

The winners will be announced on Thursday, 19 May.

Wooohooo!!!

Update

elise — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:07:59 +0000

So, it feels like time for a bit of an update while I wait for these lads of mine to arrive. Last year wound up much faster than I expected. There were some very exciting projects that I was all set to do – a possible library mural, a book with Penguin and finishing off a draft of my YA novel. Not to mention charging along with the design work on my graphic novel… and others!

And then I discovered what pregnancy does to my stamina and ability to work on big surfaces (no stretching and leaning for me). One by one the projects dropped away, and I turned away fantastic opportunities, until I was just concentrating on getting through the Christmas period of markets alongside Peter. It was so frustrating! I know that in the past I have worked far too hard and assigned too much time to my projects (although I love it!). But I had reached a good balance, I thought, with an achievable number of jobs and all really fun ones. Then, suddenly, to have to contact people and strike project after project from my diary has felt kind of horrible and unprofessional. And then the carpal tunnel syndrome kicked in. It went from getting uncomfortable on day, to suddenly, three days later, barely being able to hold a pencil and the work just stopped.

It could have been worse but it could have been better. I miss drawing. I do occasionally try but I can only do it for a minute or so at best and the drawing isn’t great. I can’t wait to get my hands back.

So. Last year was great and challenging and difficult and all sorts of things! And this year… well, the Penguin book is back on the radar, I am desperate to paint when I have any moments of time, and I’ll be working further on all sorts of projects that are in the development phase… mainly my own ideas. That will be great.

Before you think I’m peculiar for not mentioning the twins much amongst all of this – well, I just have no idea what to expect! At the moment they are big wriggling bumps inside me. And I may well be meeting them as early as this weekend! But until they’re here I just can’t imagine what life will be like. It’s exciting and daunting and… well, I’ll let you know when they’re here. But I do know that I can’t bear to not not express this creative side of me for long. So yes, I’m planning to work, to develop ideas, to get my paintbrush onto canvasses as much as I can! Even if I’m doing it through a fug of tiredness. Maybe it will spark a new surrealist phase of work

Mondoodle 03-01-2011

elise — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:52:27 +0000

Here’s one of my favourite character sketches of all time – it was for My Boots in Season which came out this… no! last year. Well, there we go. Happy New Year! What did you do? I sat quietly at home and dodged the heat. Waaay too hot in Melbourne that day with a score of over 41′C in the end.

Yet another time when the character sketch is light and loose and fun because it doesn’t matter how it turns out. Unlike finished art – where it is so hard to capture that spontaneity.

x elise

Spring is springing, and there’s a market on Sunday

elise — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 06:17:09 +0000

This weekend is market time again at the Convent. It’s spring and the grounds will be bursting back into life with every passing week. I’m looking forward to looking out the window at that magnificent tree!

We have our usual spot to the back of the courtyard and, in the spirit of new beginnings, I just may start a new painting.

Come along and say hello. And don’t forget the lovely places to grab a meal there, especially the little Japanese place between Lentils and the Bakery. Great coffee, beautiful food… what more can I ask?

Sunday, September 19, 10 – 4pm

Maker’s Market

Magnifique minis!

elise — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 05:08:23 +0000

What is it about little things?? My favourite books as a kid were the smallest ones I could find. The Beatrix Potter series were excellent, a books called Paddy’s New Hat was brilliant, but the crappy little thumb-sized books we once got in a Christmas cracker were best. From memory the stories weren’t good and the printing terrible… but I didn’t care, they were wonderful to hold.

On the weekend I was in Sydney for an ASA meeting and I arrived with a little time to spare. So I wandered along the street until I came to the Hill of Content bookshop (in Balmain) where, to my delight, I found these…

They are the Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak (published by Harper Collins) comprising of: One Was Johhny a counting book, Alligators All Around an alphabet, Chicken Soup with Rice a book of months, and Pierre a cautionary tale in five chapters and a prologue. I just realised I’ll have to photograph them with something to show the size. Haha – you just can’t tell they’re so titchy… about 10 cm high I think.

But there’s more!! I just found out about these on the Orbit blog… they are beautiful, tiny complete versions of the Moorehawke series and those black and white ones… are my covers. They were put together by an artist called Nyukaa and they look magnificent!

Mondoodle 21-06-2010

elise — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:53:34 +0000

A little character that popped out tonight…

Drawn in the lounge near the heater (winter is definitely here), 9pm on Monday 21st June 2010.

She reminds me… I must see the Tim Burton exhibition soon. Anyone been?

Attacked & Vanquished!

elise — Fri, 07 May 2010 10:54:27 +0000

This is the All-Clear. If anyone visited this journal today and got a fright because you ended up somewhere bizarre (a short trip to virus land I suspect)… yes we were hacked. I sincerely hope that nothing went awry on your computers.

Thank-you to Lulu for spotting it! To Damon for passing it on and to Peter… mountains of gratefulness for fixing it. I’m reinstating all the sidebar info and hopefully nothing was lost. They’re getting sneaky! Now back to business…

We heart AvantCard!

elise — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:23:57 +0000

Exciting news! The people at AvantCard have decided to throw their weight behind the exhibition by featuring one of my images for a run of postcards all throughout Melbourne in the weeks prior to the opening.

If you haven’t come across them before, Avant Cards are a brilliant company that distribute free postcards throughout Australian cities. Businesses can invest in advertising through this system, but they also feature artists work from time to time – so you never know what you’re going to find. The postcards will go into cafes and shops.

So now I have to decide which of two images to use! Here are a few layouts. I’d be grateful for feedback here! Please let me know which you’d be most likely to pick up as a free postcard, and which would make you most likely to go to the exhibition or at least look at a link on the back.