Category: Ella Bella

This little poem, by the splendid Saviour Pirotta, was included in a comment on an earlier post. But it’s so charming I wanted to share it with one and all: “Come bella,quella Ella,quando fa,la tarantella.” Saviour Pirotta For those unfamiliar with the Italian Tarantella, it’s an eccentric dance made famous by Rossini in his song […]

Here are some of the most recent drawings for Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan Lake. Most are in monochrome for now, and the “real” scenes in the theatre (as opposed to the “fantasy” scenes in the Swan Lake story) have very muted colour in any case. Generally the colours will be blues and purples, greens […]

More preliminary sketchs for Ella Bella’s new story. The ending wasn’t working for me, so I have created new sketches and fiddles with the story. This is only a section of it, of course. I wanted a romantic sweeping gothic sort of feeling, with a sense of building drama. These have been sent to Orchard […]

In some ways, the beginning of the illustrating process is the hardest part in the creation of a book. This is when crucial decisions need to be made. Nevertheless I’m always slightly reluctant to give everything away in the roughs. I like to save a bit of passion for the final illustrations. So these sketches […]

Having surrounded myself in a rosy haze of retro chintz, I then had to knuckle down and find a visual language that allowed a resonance of vintage lithographic techniques to imbue my drawings. I didn’t want the art to be a pastiche, but something honest. So I took the drawings I had done of theatres […]

And still they come: As more books, tucked away on my heaving bookshelves come to light, the wonderful Alice Wood, an exciting new star in the illustration world, and one of my most gifted students (and the loveliest person you could hope to meet), sent me a selection of little ballet books to add to […]

More lovely pictures to inspire my version of Swan Lake. The text is almost complete and needs just a small tweak or two, according to my editor Liz. While I wait for the words to be set in the correct font by the designer Tim, I am surrounding myself with pictures to get my imagination […]

These beautiful books are just a few of the many I’ve collected while working on Ella Bella Ballerina. Kay Ambrose’s book is very severe and didactic (and unintentionally funny… like when advising dancers to cut their finger nails. “You don’t want a partner with only one eye!” she warns us. And kicking a weighted theatre […]

Last weekend the new Ella Bella book was launched at the Edinburgh Book Festival. I love this city and it was wonderful to be back there again. This was the first Ella Bella event I have done and it felt very special, particularly when the children arrived, dressed as fairy-ballerina-princesses, in 101 shades of pink! […]