2019 Nature Month by Month

I was approached by award winning childrens' publishers Nosy Crow, in partnership with the National Trust to work on a fantastic project. 2019: Nature Month by Month is a comprehensive guide to a year in the natural world for children aged 8+. Taking you through the seasons it gives information, things to do and activities to keep your kids (or you!) entertained throughout the year. Coming in at 192 pages long it was a great project to get stuck in to. 

This book is beautifully written by nature loving, wild swimming children's author Anna Wilson. It was a pleasure to work alongside her to bring her words to life through illustrations.

The book is divided up into chapters, one for each month of the year. Each one starts with a double page spread illustration - the one for February is above. These were great fun to do and really allowed me to showcase all each month has to offer. When the designers have done their work on the illustrations, the finished product looks like this...

While I had a great text to work from, I really enjoyed getting out from behind my monitor and into the natural world for inspiration. I'm lucky enough to live next to some very lovely beaches and coast path, so every chance I got I'd be outside enjoying nature. I was creating the artwork for this over springtime, so it was great to watch everything grow and awaken. I was able to take loads of reference photos to inform my illustrations. 

One of the things I loved most about this book was the chance to illustrate a cast of delightful characters. This is a spot illustration showing some of the kids embarking on an impromptu May Day parade. And, for those of you in the know, see if you can spot the traditional Cornish Obby Oss.

This book is all about discovering nature and to that end I drew a lot of beasties and birds. I've always had a strong interest in nature so this was a great part of the project.