illustrated recipes: april (with design sponge)

Well, this month's recipe comes a little late because it was waiting around for anzac day to make its appearance on design sponge, where i had the honour to be featured this week.
lamingtons are a bit of an aussie icon, but do require a bit of baking skill, and a bit of delicate rolling in chocolate and coconut at the end. because neatness and baking are not my forte, it was design sponge's lovely food and drink editor Kristina Gill who braved the task of actually making them! You can see the post here.

So here you go. cheers to the Anzacs, cheers to design sponge, and cheers to the ol' lamington.

this print can be bought here as usual.

and here are Kristina's lamingtons. yum!

sketchbook

thinking about hair, thinking about textures, thinking i need to spend more time free-drawing.

market finds

the sun is finally out and, as redundant as it it to speak of the weather online, it appears that the world is a happier place because of it.

my dear friend vk is visiting us for a few days and sunday morning we took a walk through portaportese, where vk found a french silk tie (a gentleman of leisure never has enough) and i found this amazing piece of children's literature from 1945. it's a pop up book! 

also bought a tin box with those big eyed slightly disturbing 70s  drawings of children on top, to add to my collection. these are great for pencil storage.

new work and bologna book fair

some new work that hopefully will become a book project at some stage. you can see more images on my website, which was recently updated.

last week i went to the international children's book fair in bologna. an intensely colourful and slightly daunting event which allows one to see everything that's happening in the word of storytelling and picturemaking for children and, often, for adults.

the entrance and the central square, where i listened to an interesting interview to members of the swedish society of illustrators (sweden was guest of honour this year) on representations of children in swedish illustration.

an image from it's raining elephants' exhibition based on their publication about william tell. i absolutely love these ladies' work, and the way they work together almost symbiotically.
this video about them was shown at the exhibition and it is amazing.

this was one of my favourite works from the illustrators' exhibition, by iranian artist Alireza Goldouzian.

below, lorenzo painting a brick and susanna at a couple of little post-fair parties/exhibits. she has a new book out and she is probably my favourite children's storyteller ever. second only to maybe gianni rodari.

i came home plenty inspired and with a few books by pablo auladell, elena odriozola, and a little gem by portuguese publisher planeta tangerina.

walking through the stalls and looking at the different books published in the various countries it always strikes me how much of an abyss there is in the type of literature/illustration published for children in europe and in english speaking countries like the UK, australia and the US. why don't you ever see books like the ones by planeta tangerina or auladell in australian bookshops' kids sections? why do you only ever see stories about possums and other native animals? ok, i'm exaggerating slightly but not far from the truth either.
this is, however, another story for another time. 

naples

a little break from lines and drawings.

picked up some rolls of film and among them were photos from a little trip to naples we took a few weeks ago. i had never been to naples and i loved it. we spent most of the time eating what i like to call hearty southern comfort food, as the windy weather was not kind the first day.

the kids in the middle photo had been playing soccer and they stopped to pose. they couldn't understand why i couldn't show them the photo immediately, and made me promise to put it on facebook where i would add one of them as friend, giovanni was his name i think.

had to include the postcard view at the end (last two photos with trusty iphone). it was a nice parentheses to a busy month.

also: a beautiful video i can't stop watching.
 a nick cave favourite i've been relistening to on repeat.