Klara, my grand daughter, is now 10 months old - I bought her a hippy jacket to keep her warm this coming winter!!! She crawls very fast and stand up holding on to stuff and now and then she lets go to test standing alone - and she does for two seconds! - She smiles when she sees me!!!! AND she loves books!!!!

Back after a long silence!

Hi - apologies for the long silence - the first six months of this year was crazily busy but I'm back - I've done 4 books (all educational readers) since the beginning of this year, now busy with a book for Shuter Publishers (SA) - a fun scary fantasy story - here are some of the roughs. During these last months I also organised, with the help of only 3 other people, a SCBWI writers and Illustrators' retreat at a natural warm water spa - It was a wonderful success... I was exhausted afterwards - but happy!
Some good news!!!! I've been asked to illustrate the winning book of the Macmillan writers competition - Long Juju Man by by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (http://nnedi.com/) I'm very excited and will be starting on it soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

SEASON"S GREETINGS to you and yours and we wish you laughter and joy for 2008!

My husband, Johann, took this picture of our first grandchild, Klara, who was born on 31 July 2007 - Here she is seen LOVING her very first Christmas!!! (Click to enlarge)

SERIES OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF A RECENT PAINTING

For Christmas 2007 I made a painting for my daughter, Alexia, and her family. [Acrylic on hardboard - 800cm x 1200cm]. The painting is based on A Tiger took me to the Circus, the second picture book I wrote and illustrated (this was back in in 1986). I used Alexia (then nine) and her doll Sunshine as the central characters in the story. My husband Johann took some photographs while I was painting and I show them below, to share the creative process with you. [START VIEWING FROM THE BOTTOM UP...]

Some final touches added, and now I feel the painting is ready to become a Christmas gift! (These photos were taken outside - for more light)

I've done some work on the foreground, the tiger's feet and some wild grasses.

Here I've started finalising the dark and light areas.

Here I've got the likeness to Alexia right and I've added some darker areas where she sits on the tiger's back. I've also done some work on its eyes.

Here is the start of the new painting of the girl and her doll Sunshine (Alexia still has her little Sunshine to this day...)

I made a new drawing of the girl on tracing paper to fit the body size and position, whited out the old drawing, corrected the background and started a new picture of the girl.


I start working on the likeness to Alexia (more than 20 years ago) and realise the girl needs to be redone!!!

I start work on darkening areas on the tiger to complement the light source.

The Tiger's stripes have been added.

I start on the tiger's fur colour and black stripes.

...and her doll, Sunshine.

I start painting the little girl, Alexia...

I add trees and light filtering in the background to give depth.

I've finished the base colour on the background. Now I have to decide where the main light source will come from.

After duplicating my rough drawing onto the board I start with the background - first adding a base colour. This is a good way to see if the composition and proportions are correct.

... and added a grid to help with the redrawing onto the board.

I have done a rough drawing...

Now it's ready - clean, white and waiting!


Preparing the Hardboard: Johann had added a frame on the back and here I am painting the smooth front with a white base colour (a good quality PVA). My son, Markus, is giving advise.

[<<< A TIGER TOOK ME TO THE CIRCUS (the painting). START VIEWING THE PROCESS FROM HERE, UPWARDS]

Some more bags!

Some bear drawings - their body's are so like a bag!

A picture from the blog I have started - dedicated to the literacy series I conceptualized, wrote and illustrated - for the first 3 years of a child's school - go and have a peep www.Marjorie-readers.blogspot.com/

Here are some new roughs I've done for my stories - a series of 3 books published a few years back - I've got my rights back from the publishers and have re-written the stories and intend to re-illustrate the books

Here are some pictures I illustrated for the book by Katherine Paterson - The King's Equal that was translated into Greek - a wonderful fairytale.

And here is the artwork of the Noah drawing!

Thought I'll post the picture of Noah that I'm working on -
Spring has arrived in Gordon's Bay and the beaches are getting more and more visitors. It's Wonderful!!!