Bologna children's book fair... here I come!!

BIG BIG news!! 

I've just bought a flight ticket to Italy and FINALLy next year I'll be able to attend Bologna Children's Book Fair.. wooooooo!!!

Since I'm an organisation freak, I'm already organising everything. I'm too excited to just wait!! 

Actually, the only thing I managed to get done so far is to book a place to stay. I found a little nice place on Airbnb not far from the fair. 

Also, I did some research looking for what other illustrators wrote about their experience at the fair in the previous years.
Luckily, I've found a lot of people who posted about it. 
Here below are some of the best ones I found so far. 
If you are planning to go, I would HIGHLY recommend reading these!!

Genie Espinosa

Maria Bogade

Kariona Chapman

Miriam Bos

Marloes de Vries 

Emily A. Fox

Mel Macklin

I will post later on about my fair preparation. There is so much to do!! 
Still 6 months to go, but I can't wait already! :D

9x5 Exhibition

Lately I'm not writing much on the blog. 

I'm currently in the middle of two picture books and other smaller projects, so that's why I'm a neglecting this space. 

However, I promise I will share some news soon!

For now, I'm sharing the flyer for the upcoming 9x5 exhibition organised by Illustrators Australia and held next 18th October at the Abbotsford Convent, in Melbourne. 

This year the theme is "Flourish". 

More info on the website. 

And here is the painting I've done for it. You can tell I'm not much of a painter, but sometimes it's fun to something different and try new techniques. 

IA Seminar

Yesterday was a fun day.
I went to the Illustrators Australia seminar and it was great.
The topic was marketing and promotion in the illustration business and we listened the point of view of a lawyer, Red Bubble CEO, publishers, social media expert and a couple of advertising creatives.

Speakers were really informative and I came home with lots of notes in my sketchbook and a new to-do list in my head.
It's always so inspiring and motivating taking part in these seminars.
Here the link to the event.

Can't wait for the next one already!

Lepus Australis

I while ago I talked about Lepus Australis, a rabbity exhibition now showing at No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne. 
I went to the opening last Thursday and it was packed! Such a nice event. 
Here a few pics of the night

And now I can finally reveal my illustration for this show!
Can you help the bunny to get to the carrots?:)

Poop Deck

A while ago I took part in an amazing project called Poop Deck, which was organised by super creative talent David Hughes, Ammo Magazine creator. 

The project was a lot of fun and one of the benefit for the illustrators involved was to get an illustrated card deck. 

Not long ago I received my card deck in the mail... look how cool it is!!

It's incredible to see your own illustration printed on a playing card! 

Can't wait to win some poker money with these beauties!;)

Ammo Magazine - The Poop Deck Project

Ahoy!
Who doesn't love Ammo Magazine??

I remember I fell in love with it the very first time I stumbled on the website. Since then, I've always dreamed of being featured in it and guess what?? No, it's not what you think... It didn't happen (yet). BUT.

I've been lucky enough to be chosen as one of the 54 artists who are going to be part of the next Ammo awesomeness.
The project in question is called The Poop Deck Project and basically the two main things involve are: pirates and cards!
Yes. Extremely cool...:)

Artists all over the world have been asked to create a character with a maritime theme. These characters are going to be exposed in an exhibition.
Also (and here comes the coolest part) each character is going to be printed as one of the characters of the deck of cards.

Makes sense? If not, just watch this video which shows the printing process.

The decks are going to be available for purchase very soon from the Poop Deck and Ammo website.

Also, I need to mention that the exhibition is going be jointed with The Beer Mat Characters exhibition, organised by the amazing folks of Inkygoodness which happens to be at the same time and same place... how's that!!

Launch party is going to be 30th April at Coningsby Gallery, London from 6pm. If you happen to live there, feel free to check the facebook event and go there!!

It's going to be huge!! Don't miss it otherwise... Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!

One Word One Day

Yesterday was a very lovely day: the sun was shining, Melbourne was just splendid, and I had the privilege to be part of One Word One Day, a charity event organised to raise money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
If you don't know what this event is about, please have a look at my previous post, where I explain the whole thing.

So yesterday I found myself drawing and painting right next to amazing illustrators such as Anna Walker, Serena Geddes, Mitch Vane, Elise Hurst and many amazing others.

The event was held at the ABC headquarters in Melbourne and we were given all the materials we needed to create our illustrations. There was paper and a huge range of medium such as acrylics, watercolour, colour pencils, crayons, pastels and everything you can think of.

For me, the great thing about this event was to be able to observe up close other artists while creating an illustration from start to finish. How fascinating!!

In the end, I think everybody had a really good time and lots of fun, and I can't wait to do it again!