#hannah warren

I’m really happy to share a project that I worked on last year with Laurence King Publishing.

Little Guides to Great Lives is a series of children’s books by Isabel Thomas, celebrating the lives of amazing and influential people through history, including Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, Frida Khalo and Amelia Earhart

I was delighted to be asked to illustrate Nelson Mandela’s story, starting at his childhood and throughout all the challenges he faced and over came in his life. It was an education for me also to learn so much more about his revolutionary anti-apartheid campaigning, including his political imprisonment to becoming the president of South Africa. I think it’s an important read for all children and adults alike.

Initially, Laurence King approached me through my agents, Jelly London, to create some sample spreads for the book, including selection of the 3 spot colours in which it would eventually be printed.

For one of the colours I chose to use an almost aqua green (Pantone 2239U in case you are interested) that isn’t so easily replicated in CMYK to make the most of the opportunity to use Pantones! 

Once the whole book was given the go ahead, the project was broken up in manageable chunks. The whole thing includes 64 illustrations that needed to be researched for historical accuracy, the correct clothing, vehicles etc. This all took time and Katherine from Laurence King was really great at providing reference material (thank you!) 

The next stage was to create pencil sketches within the layout of the book. I had some fun opportunities to play with the placing of the text within the illustrations so each page is interesting. 

I later worked up these pencil sketches in Photoshop, keeping in mind the colour separations for the spot printing. This was a challenge! Working with only 3 colours meant I had to experiment and mix using different transparencies for each one to make new colours. We eventually added a Black to the set which made everything a lot easier! Grateful to the design team at LK for being so easy to work with and for taking on my many many layered files! 

Above are some of my favourite spreads along with some sketches. If you’d like to buy the book and indeed the others in the set, visit your local book seller or the usual online outlets.

And of course, from Laurence King directly!

National Garden Scheme couple from the Sunday Telegraph’s Modern Stereotypes. 

So happy to share a project that I started over a year ago!

There Once Was a Man With Six Wives  written by Mick Twister is out TODAY! Published by Pavilion, this is a fab book of limericks about the British Royals throughout history - from Alfred the Great to the present Big Q herself. There’s some really interesting facts and history bits and lots and lots of beards. 

I’ve drawn 25 Kings and Queens to accompany the text, here are few of my favourites, Queen Elizabeth the ORIGINAL, Henry VIII (probably heard of him before) and Henry III who was a child King at the age of nine and turned the palace into a zoo. 

“Reclaim your brain” for the great Evening Standard Magazine. The article was all about how our attention spans are diminishing due to too many distractions - social media ranked highly as one of those. I’m guilty of this too, it took 3 attempts to read the article before starting roughs. Every time I needed to google something I disappeared  down a rabbit hole of “what should I cook for dinner” etc. It’s worth a read and offers helpful tips on retraining your brain to stay focussed on one thing at a time!

Link to the article by Phoebe Luckhurst 

Before you know it, the new year will be here and I don’t think I’m alone in wanting to say “smell ya later” to 2016. 

Here’s a fun one for EasyJet Traveller for an article about Scotland’s growing craft Gin scene. I played on the idea of the Hogmanay and “first footing” - where visitors traditionally bring their friends and neighbours a “wee dram” of whiskey after midnight on New Year. May be hard pushed to convince a Scot to swap Whiskey for Gin to see in the new year…have both!?

Another fun client this year has been Regent Street. I was very happy to work with them again to help promote some festive activites happening on the street, including “Customise you Christmas” where shoppers can get their gifts beautifully wrapped with bespoke calligraphy tags. The lights on Regent Street are always beautiful and I MAY have drawn some of those too… watch this space!

My regular job for Simple Things Magazine.

This was a somber story about being alone during Christmas. The top illustration is the one that was painted in the magazine, the second was my original colouring. The AD thought it a little too depressing and asked me to warm things up a little. I still like it though and enjoyed using more muted colour tones. 

It seems that I have been drawing Christmas for a while now! 

I am happy to have worked with Made ThoughtandGreenwich Peninsular this year. This illustration was to help promote their “Peninsular Christmas” that took place at the beginning of December. Hope to share some more work in the new year!

www.hannahwarren.com

Baby. It’s cold outside. 

Couple of crispy ones, fresh from the fire. What’s that saying about red skies in the morning? 

November’s Simple Things illustration is about new starts and as the new winter season is rolling in. I’m looking into thermals, pies and 5 cups of coffee a day. 

Got to illustrate the ghost story “Melody” by Jess Kidd in this months Simple Things Magazine. The story did not disappoint. I love a spooky tale.

“She visits me first and not just in mirrors. Melody is everywhere.

She’s upside down in the bowl of my cereal spoon, mugging faces.
She’s in the bath tap, tiny and waving.
I see her in the kettle, skipping across the kitchen floor, her dress a yellow blur.”

Brrruuuuuu-haa-ha

www.hannahwarren.com