The brilliant and all around good-guy Shaun Tan is up for an Oscar for his short animation The Lost Thing, created with Andrew Ruhemann. It’s a gorgeous work and deserving of the win! Cross everything you’ve got for them.
Shaun, I hope you and Inari have a wondrful night. What an experience 
Check out his work here: http://www.shauntan.net/
WOOOHOOOO!!!
OMG… He won!
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.”
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!!!
It’s that time again everyone! Sharpen your pencils, whittle your quills and ink up your squids… This drawing prize is not to be missed!
Entries close on march 4.
Entry kits are available at their stores or online at:
www.kokoblack.com
Entries are open now, the template is on their website and there are two divisions to choose from… The Junior Award (for artists under 12) and the Judges Prize. And don’t forget the peoples’ choice award to be determined by the general public who vote for their favourite Top 20 artwork when displayed along the Royal Arcade, Melbourne. The prizes are fantastic – the top prize being $2500 towards art expenses, a years supply of chocolate (yes you heard right!), and galley membership of your choice… So give it a go
And the best news for me is that I have the huge pleasure of being a judge once again.
It’s a little late but I’m pretty happy to be back in the swing of things! Well almost
Drawn on Monday 14th February 2011 at Residential cafe with the boys sleeping in the pram by my side.
I’ve been a little quiet of late I’m afraid but I think you’ll understand why…
Meet my beautiful boys – Archer and Samson, born on January 28, 2011. Samson is the older brother on the right (looking a little beaten up here, poor mite). They’re both doing wonderfully well, we’re all back home and learning to cope with the needs of two separate personalities. We have the help of lots of wonderful friends and family though – we count ourselves very lucky!
For now, Peter is doing all of the markets for me and the Shop is still operating – so some things will be business as usual. I’m taking a bit of a break from normal work but I’ll be drawing and painting whenever I can and there are some exciting things coming up. If you’ve emailed in the last couple of weeks and I haven’t managed to get back to you please be patient and email again. I’m playing catch-up now with lots of things!
So – if ever there was a shiny and new post – here it is!
xxx elise
My hands weren’t up to drawing today but it doesn’t matter because I received something very exciting to share! The Russians are releasing the Moorehawke Trilogy by Celine Kiernan and they’re using my covers. Woohoo!
And here’s the first one! I LOVE it.
I’ve always found it very exciting to see any of my work appearing on a translated work. It’s just so damn exotic and cool. And did I mention that I LOVE it?
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
This was cool! I just came across it… in the UK Marie Claire (Oct 2010 edition)… there’s my picture! No, not the one with the bra – the wading girl illustration. It was to publicise the Roger la Borde celebrations and creations for sale at Liberty in London. The collection got mentions all over the place but I loved that this had such a prominent image So many lovely things in that collection. I’m still trying to get hold of some of it myself to sell. I’ll let you know if I manage it!
So how d’ya like these apples? A real Mondoodle. On a Monday. Drawn on a Monday. Yes, this Monday.
Hooray! My hands were having a good evening and let me draw a bit. Yes, still tingly and weird and sensitive and sore but – hooray!
She’s the Hummingirl. I have always been a huge fan of art nouveau hair – especially as drawn by Rackham. But by so many others too. My attempt is a bit shakey but so were the hands. In this case quick = good.
Mondoodle drawn in the lounge on a stack of cushions as the boys kicked my belly like crazy. The humming girl and I are both being very very patient.
Monday 17th January, 2011 at 10pm.
Here’s another snippet for a Mondoodle until I get the use of my hands back! Should be soon… Typing isn’t too bad but I do a lot of key mis-hitting through lack of feeling. Ah well.
It’s fun to look back at some of my pictures and have a close peek at things in the background. As the pictures build so slowly, rarely being planned all at once or with a clear vision of the whole picture, these elements are often as important as the main focus. I loved doing these characters – the upright seal who takes his work very seriously and the romantic cat desperate to watch the serenade. Technically there was some stuff that did need planning – leaving the whiskers, the light straps of the apron, working out the flow of light and dark across the figures so that they don’t pop too far forward, nor do they become too indistinct against the background.
Drawn in my Moleskines collection, book 4, I think.
