52 weekends by the Sea-map illustrations

Feel the tingle of salty breezes on your skin and the drama of wide horizons where seabirds fly. From the romance of sunset picnics in a Welsh landscape to the thrill of wild camping on a remote Scottish beach, from the flavors of the freshest seafood in Seahouses to the luxury of a hideaway hotel in Crinan, writer Brigid Benson and photographer Craig Easton along with map illustrator Michael A Hill have created 52 weekends that will inspire you. Share their secrets to create your own adventures and meet intriguing people in surprising places along the way. 52 Weekends is available in the New Year. - where will you be going?

Property Development Map

Maybe things in the property market are picking up a little at the moment (hopefully it will continue) as I was commissioned last week to produce a map to go with a property development in Wimbledon,London. The property developers, Harepath Developments have developed a commercial site at 7 Elm Grove, Wimbledon which is being let as office space. Hopefully clients will be able to find the location with my map.

Michael A Hill Interior Design illustrations

A while back I was asked by a Restranteur in Koln to supply some images that they could put on the walls. The Cafe/Bar was to have a Parisian feel to it and the images where to follow this theme. After some discussion we decided not to go for paintings but to actually produce 'wallpaper' designs that could be a permanent part of the design and not just look like an after thought. The Cafe is now part of the Koln scene and gets some good write ups in the local and national press. When in Koln do as the Kolnians??? do and visit the Cafe Flaneur, Friesenwall 24d, 50672 Köln, Germany

Passport magazine says"If you prefer sipping your coffee with a gayer crowd, the area around Rudolfplatz has much to offer. Right across the street from each other, Café Era and Café Flaneur are the lynchpins of the neighborhood’s gay caffeination. In summer both spots feature tables on the sidewalk, while wintertime points up their differences, from the deeply-hued and modern/stark look of Era to the French-themed Flaneur with its map of Paris scrawled across the wall. More coffee? More sweets? "

http://www.rhein-nights.de/pages/main/artikel.aspx?artid=10003542

Illustrated Book Jacket

Hi, me again been very busy over the summer doing very little in the way of illustrations but have now got back to work again and at present illustrating a book about cooking with Cannabis. Called "Hash Brownies,Hot Pots and other Marijuana munches" it is a sideways look at using this herb in cooking. The text is very funny and relates tails from the life of Dr Hash and presents 30 delectable recipes with weed accompanied by amusing and sometimes mind-blowing stories.
The design of the book has a very 1950's illustrative feel with the cover drawn by your truly in a 1950's house wives way. The images inside also follow this direction and as it is not wise to fill up your photo studio with marijuana the book is fully illustrated.
Here's the cover for you to see while the book is due for publication early next year. Details to follow.

Wedding and Event Maps

I haved decided to do some Wedding and Event maps ( weddingandeventmaps ) These will be available to view in the near future. So if you need a wedding map or event map please contact me and I will show you samples that I am working on at the moment.

The Green Wiccan Herbal

I finally got to see the illustrated book cover of a recent book I illustrated. 'The Green Wiccan Herbal' published by Cico books is now available at Amazon to order. Having designed the book jacket cover digitally it is always great to pick up the actual version to feel it and best of all smell that fresh ink. I wonder what will be next in the series???

The French Paper illustration 2

So the football season is just about to start the U21's have just finished there season and Wimbledon is just getting going (c'mon Mr Murray) I have again been asked to illustrate an article for The French Paper this time its about the difference between English and French football fans. The French fans are happy to poke fun at another regions wine while the English fans are more likely to question your parental status or your sexual orientation. I think i prefer to find out what Lyon's wine taste like than a Reds sexual orientation.

Design Directory

I am now in the design directory check it out!

The French Paper

Holidaying in France at the end of May I picked up a new newspaper in a French Tabac  in Malestroit, Brittany. It was the first edition of a English paper aimed at English people living, working or travelling to France. I found it a great read and informative on a mix of English and French news. ( http://www.thefrenchpaper.com ). So when I got home I made some enquiries about the french paper and found that i was doing an illustration for the back page of the 2nd edition. The article about lunch and eating in France and England was illustrated by this image.

Hopefully I will be doing some more for them soon. 

This week i've mainly been illustrating -Afghans

Afghans - as in blankets and not dogs. Although as I mention dogs I have a different Tail(sic) to tell. I was approached by an author this week to produce a series of children's illustrated books about the life of a dog (of which Dylan Thomas jumps to mind) and when ever I think about Dylan Thomas I can see his boots lying under his desk, in his cottage in Laugharne, pushed under slightly apart and the toes pointing out and into those boots step my Grandad, Jim Ince a big, bold, rounded man. Red in the face from drinking more than his fair share of Indian Pale Ale and working on too many building sites before the advent of power tools. Which makes me think of how much craft and workmanship we have lost with the use of all  power tools.  Before the craftsman worked the materials with art and feeling, crafting, sculpting  and manipulating the materials just as hand knitters do still - which brings me back to knitted Afghans which I have been painting this week. These are for a book by my again favourite publisher CICO Books.

Gardening zone map

Its amazing what you can find when you are not looking . Searching some plants for a project I am working on and come across a Gardening Zone Map I had produced for Cottage Living magazine a few years ago. So if you live in the US and want to know which Gardening Zone you are in take a look at the map.

http://www.myhomeideas.com/myhome/info/0,30854,1817366,00.html 

Michael Hill photographer

Do I hand a camera as well as pencil?

http://www.creativematch.co.uk/?action=viewflair&fi=3920 

Haagen Daz illustrations for Martha Stewart Living

This week I have been working on a garden plan illustration commission by Eon Kim  Art Director at Martha Stewart Living. The garden has been designed to attract bees with a mixture of flowers. The ideas is to encourage bees into gardens which I believe are in short supply( not in my garden when I sit down for a relaxing glass of wine). The bee garden is promoted by Haagen Daz ice cream. You can see the plan and follow it to have a garden full of bees!If that is what you really want!

Three illustrated book jackets

Book jackets are one of the first things people think about when you mention that you are an illustrator which usually follow the question "Children"s Books?" but my stock answer is generally that i do adult illustration followed up by 'of course not 'adult' illustration but illustration for grown up people'. So i am going to post three book jackets in different stages of completion that i have been working on recently.
Firstly, a book for Penguin Books that I posted about earlier and I am showing the final draft of the cover with some sample type. Secondly, two books for my favourite publisher CICO Books on the theme of Green Wiccan, the first book 'The Green Wiccan Year Book' published in September 2008 , here I show the final cover design and the last cover is for a new book called 'The Green Wiccan Herbal' by Stilja. The design is without the type. This cover follows the design of the first book in the series.
Hopefully my one follower will enjoy these as well as all book worms out there.

Illustrated Penguin Book Jacket

Illustration students are nearly always set the projects to design and illustrate a Penguin book jacket, this is always difficult as you not only have to do the illuststions but decide which book you would like to illustrate. A difficult decision for anyone!
Orange covered Penguin books have always taken pride of place on my book shelves supported by the green crime thrillers (and maybe some white Picadors). So after many years of waiting and illustrating for different parts of the Penguin group I will finally have a Penguin (image) on the illustrated book jacket I am working on at the moment for Penguin in New York( thanks to Penguin Art Director, Roseanne Serra). The book called ‘If the Buddha had kids’ and is by the author Charlotte Kasl and is part of a series of books but this is the first to be published by Penguin.

Illustrated Flower Faces

I was recently designing a repeat pattern for 'The Green Wiccan Herbal" and in the process layered the same image fliped on top of each other as you do. As I moved the images over each other the shapes created endless faces mainly of frogs and rabbits but Maddie Bee and I had a good 15 mins of fun playing with the two layers in photoshop. I am not sure how many different faces we found but if you have Photoshop or similar programme let me know and i will send you the image to play with. Have fun!

Book Illustrations

I have just finished illustrating two books for the publisher Cico Books. The first book, was a series of step by step illustrations about how to make children's clothes for the fantastic author and creator Emma Hardy. I was really pleased with these 'how to illustrations' which I feel were made special by the colours and fabrics chosen by the author.
The second book was called The Green Wiccan Herbal by the author Silja this is a follow upto the 'The Green Wiccan Year' which was also publiished by Cico books in Autumn 2008.
The Herbal shows over a hundred illustrations by Michael A Hill mainly showing different herbs and food types used within the art of Green Witchcraft.
In addition to these two books I also did a few illustrations for a new book ' The art of Letter- writing' which is being edited by Liz Dean at Cico.

Peugeot

Recently, I was asked to take part in a photo shoot for Peugeot cars, and talk about the differences between the French and the English. This was easy to talk about but less so the photo-shoot. On a very cold windy Friday i presented myself as a dapper Englishman dressed in Linen and Panama on westminster bridge, london to be photographed with Big Ben in the background and holding a blank canvas ( ????). for those interested enough look out for the Peugeot magazine produced by Specialist Magazines in Bristol. but in the meantime here is one of the pics. ( i have added one of my illustrations to the canvas.)