2017 is drawing to a close and we've just posted out our annual wrapping paper to all our clients. This year our four designs were created by artists Eve Coy, Lucy Eldridge, Paola Escobar, and David Wardle. As our final post of the year, we thought we'd show you some of the development work for Lucy's wrapping paper 'An Aurora of Polar Bears'. 

Lucy kept us updated with some lovely miniature sketches and paintings as she worked through her ideas. The patterned background was a completely unexpected and imaginative way to respond to the collective noun brief we sent her. We especially loved the images below where we really started to see her vision for the artwork come together. 

We want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from all of us here at Pickled ink! We'll be closed for the holidays from Friday 22nd December and opening again on the 2nd January.

Lalalimola continues her successful collaboration with Specsavers with this illustrated Eye Pack for Schools.  Her clear, bright and graphic illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to Specsavers' fun and informative pack explaining how our eyes work and why it's so important to look after them.   It also informs pupils about what to expect at an eye test, why we have different eye colours and concludes with a testing quiz full of interesting facts.  Do you know what the average life span of an eyelash is*?? 

Below is a snapshot of Lalalimola's illustrating process showing roughs to final art. As you'll see in this project the final art barely differed from the line sketches, which is an illustrator's dream!

*The answer is C - 5 months.  Have a go at the other questions in the quiz below and learn some fun new facts.

Announcing a new artist signing at Pickled ink is always exciting. Today we're very happy to welcome Paola Escobar to the portfolio!

As you can see from the images here, Paola has an eye for creating beautiful, detailed scenes and is fond of a pattern or two! Combined with her sophisticated colour palette, Paola's artwork just jumps from the page. 

It was her illustration of Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian seamstress and spy in the Kickstarter project 'Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls' , that first caught our eye. An incredibly popular campaign, the book created by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo was later published by Penguin.

Paola spent several years working with advertising agencies before deciding to focus on illustration as her passion. Picture book 'Matrioska', illustrated by Paola, publishes this month in Spain and we can't wait to see how her work continues to grow as we go forward. 

If you would like to commission Paola please contact her agent Amy Kitcherside at amy@pickledink.com

DARON PARTON | ERICA WILLIAMS | HANAKO CLULOW | JEZ TUYA
 JÚLIA SARDÀ | RACHEL CLOYNE | YA-LING HUANG

​PAOLA ESCOBAR
*launching soon*

CINDY WUME | DAVID WARDLE | KATIE HICKEY | LAURA ELLEN ANDERSON
LO COLE | LUCY ELDRIDGE | MELISSA CASTRILLÓN

DAMIAN KELLEHER
DAVID STEVENS
OWEN PYGRAM

Alexis Snell first worked with The Monkey Puzzle Tree on their logo design. Just recently she has collaborated with the company again to create this beautiful pattern entitled 'How the Leopard got his Spots',

Printed onto a rich velvet, the pattern is incredibly striking and none more so than when seen in person. We're thrilled to share these fantastic photos, curtesy of The Monkey Puzzle Tree, which show Alexis' fabric as upholstery - creating some stunning pieces of furniture! 

To read more about the project, please click on the images to view the original blog post.

Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball, Laura Ellen Anderson's debut novel, publishes with Egmont this October and a fantastic day was spent at CPI watching the book being printed in person. It's safe to say we were probably one of the giddiest groups to tour the printers, much to the amusement of James our guide; who kindly took us around and patiently answered all our questions and let us ask take as many photos as we liked. 

First up was a general tour of the printers. After seeing all the printing and binding machines at work we came to an area where copies of Amelia were whizzing around on conveyor belts; allowing time for the spine glue to dry before the book was trimmed down to size. 

We came away with hot-of-the press copies and as a further surprise, CPI had designed and printed a limited edition of Amelia books with a special, illustrated fore-edge for Laura to keep. They looked incredible. Below you can see the final versions complete with cover foil and an orange fore-edge, that will be available to buy. 

Thank you to CPI for a great day for us all and to Egmont for organising the trip for us. We'll be back for book two! 

Today we have a gorgeous project to share with you, and one that's been a while in the making. Back in 2015, after seeing Hanako's design for our annual wrapping paper, Rachel Williams at Frances Lincoln Children's Books approached Hanako about working on a new natural history series aimed at 4-5 year olds. The series was written by UK scientist and natural history writer, Catherine Barr and each book would look at a different species of animal and give 10 reasons as to why that particular species was unique. 

What followed was a wonderful, collaborative project that everyone is incredible proud of and (we think) some of Hanako's most striking artwork to date. Scroll down to view some of her detailed pencil roughs and their colour counterparts...

'10 Reasons to Love a Turtle' and '10 Reasons to Love an Elephant'' publish next week with Frances Lincoln Children's Books, in conjunction with the Natural History Museum. Books three and four (Bear and Whale) will follow in Spring 2018 and a further two titles are also currently under way!

As an artist who consistently produces beautiful, atmospheric work, Júlia Sardà was the perfect choice for the re-imagining of two Vintage Classics for Penguin Random House. Júlia brings her own interpretation to the well-loved Agnes Grey and The Tennant of Wildfell Hall, and being a fan of the Brontë's herself, it was a dream cover job. As you'll see there weren't many changes between early rough stages and final artworks - merely a few buildings put in place, along with some subtle colour, to complete the look. 

It's been a pretty incredible year for Laura, who has been selected to work on two big rebrands; the latest of which is the re-imaginging of the much-loved Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett. Penguin Random House first approached Laura last summer to see if she'd like to put forward a sample for the project and even before a brief came through, Laura (who was away at the time) quickly whipped up this older Tiffany as an initial idea: 

The aim was to create new covers that would appeal to young readers, so Tiffany's character was redrawn younger (below), so that she could grow up as the books progressed. The character was then developed further with Deputy Art Director Ben Hughes, who also created the cover design, typography and branding for the series. 

Recently Chicken House announced some big news, not only were they publishing a new edition of bestselling fantasy novel Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, but a sequel was also in the works. We were lucky to be offered the chance to work on both titles twice over - Laura Ellen Anderson created the cover artwork for both books (seen here), while Alexis Snell was commissioned to create maps of Funke's fantasy world for the interiors.

We always love to show the process behind Alexis' work. An 'old-school' linocut artist, Alexis works completely traditionally, and after so many years honing her craft is incredibly adept at getting the smallest detail - not to mention all that backwards typography - into her work. Before they are even inked, her linocuts are a work of art. 

'I always enjoy working with Chicken House and this was a particularly lovely project. I learnt how to do the cartouches from a previous job with the V&A so it was fun to return to them again here - and who doesn't love a map in a book!?' - Alexis Snell

Below are the finished maps found at the front of each book. Dragon Rider and Dragon Rider: The Griffin's Feather  are published by Chicken House and hit the shelves next month.