Hans de Beer

Hans de Beer is a favourite artist of mine.  He has written and illustrated many books for children.
His very well known ones feature Lars the little Polar bear and his adventures.

I have other books that are beautifully illustrated by him.  He has a muted approach with watercolour and delicate inkwork in his art work. His animal characters always show great empathy without going overboard in the facial expressions.

Ollie the Elephant

Little Polar Bear

Illustration Hans de Beer

Ahoy There Little Polar Bear

Prince Valentino

 All his works are worth looking at for his fine drawing and reading for the amusing and heartwarming stories written by Hans de Beer and other authors.

Some Black and White Illustrations

I've been looking through a lot of my older work of late, scanning and sorting. 

The works below are from a title published way back last century, in 1974.
The title of the book is Tell Me A Tale, stories retold and copyrighted by Jean Chapman and illustrations copyrighted by Deborah and Kilmeny Niland.

It's weird looking at your ownl work again after such a long time.  It was gratifying to see that the originals are so much finer and delicate as compared with the printed version.  As an illustrator you tend to forget that the printed work can be quite dissimilar to the original art.

Printing methods today are so much better which means good quality is more easily achievable in book production.

A Catty Display

Here are some illustrations from various books of mine featuring the cat.
I've used different techniques for each illustration. Pen and ink, watercolour, and digital.

I'm really a dog person, though.

When Coco was a Kitten

This is another book of mine for the very young. 

The theme is children and pets. The story features a kitten and her owner who looks after the kitten from babyhood to adulthood.
She observes the changes as the kitten grows.

I've made the illustrations simple and colourful, and again I have used Photoshop for the entire book.

I love working on the illustrations using the computer these days.

This book is also published in the USA by Kane/Miller.

First published by Penguin Books, 2009

Let's Play!

I've written and illustrated this book for very young children.
Using bright colours and a simple theme, this story takes a look at friends having fun together in the playground.
The version shown below is the delightful Spanish edition published by Kane / Miller Book Publishers in California.

Let's Play! Cover of Spanish edition

Red Dog climbing

Blue Cat and Yellow Bird Swinging

 This story tells of three friends having a great time by sharing and co-operating with each other.

So many cats...

My book illustrations often feature cats of all kinds. Fat, happy, athletic or devious. Some of these drawings date back to 1979 when I illustrated Jean Chapman's fabulous collection of all things catty in an anthology called Velvet Paws & Whiskers.