MA Children's Book Illustration Exhibition

Days are getting longer and longer. February is just around the corner...only ten more days until our graduation exhibition in London!



◇◆◇ MA Children's Book Illustration Exhibition ◇◆◇
Cambridge School of Art (Anglia Ruskin University)
Graduation exhibition 2012
Date: 8th(wed)-15th(wed) February 2012. Mon-Sat: 9.30am - 5pm, Sun: 11.30am - 6pm
Place: The Gallery at FOYLES
Foyles Bookshop (3rd Floor), 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB



一緒に卒業する37人分の作品とプロフィールを収録した卒業展カタログを作り、内覧会の案内とともに出版社に配布した。わたしのページは、カワカマスのシーンだ。

Slowly but step by step, I am preparing for the show. We have just got our dummy book printed by blurb yesterday. I am so happy!



ちょっと奮発して、BlurbでLittle Brownの見本版を印刷した。コースメイトでもハウスメイトでもある友達二人とともに注文したのが昨日ようやく届き、みんなでひとしきり、うっとりと回し読みしてしまった。友達が教授へのメールに追伸として、Blurbが出来ました、と報告したら、近所に住んでいる教授まで、帰り際にうちに寄り道して見に来てくれた。

Board Book

I finally decided the cover design for the board book, It's Supper Time!



This is a book for small children. A little boy is shown feeding different kinds of birds and in the end having supper himself.

The linocut technique made me choose one bold line out of my pencil sketch that generally had a lot of uncertain lines. Sometime I can distill the essence of the drawing but sometime I loose the important line while tracing the images for several times before I get it drawn on lino. It is tricky!
But I started to pay more attention to each line through using this method, for sure.

Tom's Midnight Garden

I have just finished rereading Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce in English and I was fascinated by all the description of the setting. It's all about here around Cambridge!

I know that it's not a good idea to illustrate something that is still copyrighted but I could not help trying. Because I could really imagine how it would be. It means so much more when you read these books in English after actually spending time in England.
And this became a good break from lino/rubber carving as well.



"Tom, before, had known only the garden, and a very little beyond its limits; now, from his wall-top, he saw what seemed to be the whole world.
'Tell me what you see,' Hatty pleaded."



"Hatty and Tom skated and skated, and for a long time the tower seemed to let them come no nearer, but performed a mysterious movement instead, now to one side, now to the other, now ahead, according to the winding of the river."

Now, I know the flat fenland, the river floating along, Ely cathedral, the wash, geese(probably Grey-lag), Yew trees and the frozen river Cam from last winter...

Thank you, Hiromi, for reminding me of this book!
I will reread Minnow on the Say, too. And when it gets warmer, I will cycle again to Great Shelford.

Field sketch

I noticed that I haven't been able to colour any of my field sketches these days. So I did since I was way too sleepy and tired to work in the evening.



On this frosty day, I found a Reed Bunting almost in its summer plumage!

Splash! Splash!

Another week is over but I wonder what I have been doing.
I need to get a new schedule book for 2012. I love keeping a diary not only to plan and organise something ahead but also to record what I did. By looking at the calendar, I feel that I can avoid living automatically without a thought.



This is, at least, something what I achieved this week...the ducks' feeding scene for the board book, It's Supper Time!

Dummy Book

Tomorrow is the hand in day. I printed my Little Brown story from the university's copy centre and bound it simply by myself. But I was so happy to see it as an actual book!



わたしの卒業制作"Little Brown"は、バンの若鳥である主人公が両親の第二回繁殖を手伝うというお話だ。
ケンブリッジの町中にある公園脇を流れる水路500メートルほど区間に、昨年春は9つがいのバンが繁殖していた。この絵本は4月から6月にかけてその水路に通い詰め、観察記録をつけたデータとスケッチを元にしている。
ただ情報を伝えることだけがメインの図鑑や科学絵本にはしたくなかったので、早春生まれの若鳥の視点から書き、会話も入れてお話として読めるようにした。芸術作品と科学絵本との間のバランスをとるのは難しい。でも、こんな中途半端なジャンルを開拓するのがわたしの夢だ。





We still have a month before the final exhibition. I hope to get more works done...

A Happy New Year

明けましておめでとうございます。
竜年をミス・リーが学んだケンブリッジで迎えるのは、何か感慨深いものがある。子どもの頃、アーサー・ランサム全集を繰り返し読んでいなかったら、イギリスで子どもの本の絵を学びたいなんて、思っていなかったかもしれない。



"Camblidge," said Miss Lee. It was as if Cambridge and the lessons that had come to an end were all one in her mind.
Missee Lee by Arthur Ransome
It is really something for me to start the year of Dragon in Cambridge, where Miss Lee had studied.

学生生活もついに終わり、所属も居るべき場所も決まっていない、宙に浮いた気分で迎える2012年。基盤のできる年でありますように。
本年もどうぞよろしくお願いします。