Ahh its a sad day today - I am moving to a new blog and leaving this one behind....

Old blog you have been wonderful but the time has come for a change! (tumblr seems to do all sorts of fancy things with hashtags etc and I just can't ignore that) 

Anyway, from now on you can see me posting work and inspirations on my new blog at:

http://joannaboyle.tumblr.com

Please come and visit!!

xxxxJoanna

Hello!

Firstly, I am very sorry that it has been ages since I last posted - I was working very hard finishing the first year of my Animation MA at Central Saint Martins! It was brilliant and tiring and I am very pleased with the outcome of my first one minute short - which not only moves, but also looks somewhat like my illustration work, Joy! If you'd like to have a little look at it and see some of the process, look no further than here: http://joannaboyle.myblog.arts.ac.uk

Secondly, since I am now on my summer holidays until the end of September I have set myself a vast number of projects to work on! I am very excited to say that I will spend the next three months developing at least two new children's books!(three if I really get it together and work like a machine)
In the process of finishing these I will be uploading reams of character studies, storyboards, concept designs and diary-like posts describing how its all going. Look forward to it!

Also (as if that weren't enough), I have set myself a little mini "just for fun" project, which I have dubbed: Jo's Summer Water colour Challenge! Since finishing my college work I have spent the past couple of weeks re-aquainting myself with watercolours and have really enjoyed both the process as well as the result. I am not sure what I am aiming to achieve professionally with these watercolours, as they have a very different in look to my digital work. But I am still proud of them and wanted to post them on my blog. And so, I have set myself a challenge to take unused sketches from my old sketchbooks and bring them to life as watercolours! I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I am enjoying making them!

I miss cornwall....

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/38-reasons-you-need-to-go-to-cornwall

Hiya! 10 copies of my book are up for grabs at Goodreads - follow this link for a chance to win!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20656759-the-tip-tap-dancing-cat

Week 3 and 55 days until publication! (although my publisher has been hinting that it may be a bit sooner than that...) Enjoy this cat stolen from a page of my sketchbook!

And here is something new I've been working on! Its in early stages at the moment but I have high hopes for it!

  62 Days to Go!

      69 Days to GO!!!

It is only 69 days until my first book, The Tip Tap Dancing Cat is published - and it's about time for a really long post about it! It has been almost three years since I first thought up the story and I am  happy to be able to finally send it out into the world! The idea originally came to me while watching Strictly Come Dancing. I started drawing lots of dancing figures, which then became dancing cats. Drawing cats doing all sorts of crazy dance moves was so much fun I realised I had to think up a story for them! In the past couple of years the book has gone to 3 different book fairs and been reborn in various different styles, but plot wise it is almost exactly the same as it was the first time I drew it.

Recently I was rooting around in some old sketch books and found my first dummy book - it is just bits of paper scribbled on and stuck together with masking tape but I thought it would be fun to show!

                                                   

 

And here is what it looks like NOW!!!!

                                   

The Tip Tap Dancing Cat will be released on the 11th of April

and is already available to pre-order on the Waterstones website:

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/joanna+boyle/the+tip-tap+dancing+cat/10090966/

Many thanks to the lovely people of Pavilion Children's 

for all their hard work in bringing this book to life!

P.S. Although I am very cool and will NOT be counting down the days until the release date, I WILL be posting a cat sketch every week until then, just for the fun of it!

And the full image for "Oh Comely Magazine". I really enjoyed illustrating this one - black and white animals on a tropical island!

Here is a little something I did as a sample for Ivy Press. It was so much FUN! Can you find a miniature Puck hiding among the trees?

Something that makes me miss Falmouth....

https://vimeo.com/27030945

New Stuff!

A little sneak peak at the illustration I just finished for Oh Comely Magazine's January edition. It will be in the shops later this month. Take a look at their website at: http://www.ohcomely.co.uk/issue/792
There is also a really nice blog that it worth a read!

In other news: This September I started an animation MA in London! It is really challenging, but I'm having a lot of fun learning how to make my characters move! If you are interested in seeing my early efforts have a look at my university blog: http://joannaboyle.myblog.arts.ac.uk/

Here are some old doodles I found from a while ago! The deer is coloured digitally but the other two are inks and watercolour - I miss creating work by hand, it's probably time I rediscovered my painting skills!

New work! Well, more work from the summer that I havn't had time to upload... Fairies! Submissions I made for a flower fairy book.

Hello everyone!

I've had a long break from posting, but am finally back with some very exciting news - I am going to be published! I have spent the summer completing my first self-authored children's picture book about a dancing cat:)) Published by Pavilion Children's, it will be released next spring and I couldn't be more excited! I can't really say much more about it at present, but will be able to go into more detail as the time approaches. In the meanwhile here is one of the MANY cats I drew over the time I was creating my book, isn't he cute? I will have a look through my sketchbook and dig out some more sketches for future cat-related posts!

Its been a funny week. I've been waiting for some (exciting) things to come through and in the mean time have been watching a LOT of Frasier and working on some personal projects. This particular project is an A to Z of exotic animals, C for Canary is still a work in progress but I will post it up as soon as i'm done!

After a lot of procrastinating and getting distracted by other projects, I have finally done it. I've finished my website! Please take a look! http://www.joannaboyle.co.uk/

Here is a sneak peak at some new spreads for a book I've been working on since I graduated. My Dancing Cat book! It has been given a complete makeover and will now be visiting both Bologna and the London Book Fair! I'm very excited:)