A piece for the portfolio

You may have noticed that over the last couple of months my work has become increasingly aimed towards children. Well thats because i'm really trying to break into the children's illustration market. For a long time i've felt my illustrations have been heading in that direction and its something i've always wanted to get into, but was never really sure whether my work was good enough. Recently i've had the opportunity to do some work for children's books, such as the picture book illustrations, the gift book images and the collaboration with a friend which is great.
Now I want to try and get my work on the radar of some kids' lit publishers, so i've been tailoring my work for that market and i'll be putting together a promo booklet of my work to send off to loads of publishers and agents. As the geordies say 'shy bairns get nowt' and I think its time to stop hiding away and playing it safe and get my work out there. And if the rejection letters flood in then so be it,  i'll still be here drawing because thats what I love to do :)

This piece is the final new addition to my portfolio for inclusion in the booklet along with some of the other recent bits i've done. I was hoping this new illustration would have been ready in time to post up on the blog yesterday but it wasn't quite there. Still its now done & here it is:

A lot of my children's illustration work is centred around animals as this is what I specialise in really, but I wanted to produced something with several child characters to show that I can draw kids too.
I thought it would be nice to put one of the children in a 'Wild Things' clothing outfit. This is one of my favourite Folksy sellers and if I ever have children of my own i'll definitely be getting some clothes from there. To be honest if the clothes were big enough i'd be getting my own outfits from there, as they're totally ace! Hahaha.

I'll be updating my website next week to reflect my new work which i'm quite looking forward to, but I know after a few hours of html/Dreamweaver madness i'll be on the verge of chucking my computer out the window. Wish me luck!