New Title from Tomatito Press: Brockley Foxtrot!

My new book (all about foxes as you’ll know if you follow me on twitter,) is currently at the printers and I should get the pages delivered this week! The release date is Monday the 6th of August, and I’ll be launching the book at the International Alternative Press Festival on the 4th/5th August. So if you want to snap up an early copy you can find me that weekend at Conway Hall, Holborn (25 Red Lion Square, London, Greater London WC1R 4RL.)

I’ll be giving away this beautiful free archival print with the first 20 orders that I get via paypal, so make sure you click the paypal button on this website as soon as possible from the 6th onwards! :o) 

The book is a really personal account of the six years I spent living in Brockley, South East London, with families of foxes that I completely fell in love with sharing my garden. At the start of 2012 I moved house and won’t be seeing the foxes any more, so I decided to make this book to celebrate how much I enjoyed having them around for that period of my life. It chronicles my observations and contact with the foxes… their behaviour and characteristics, and the pros & cons of having them as my neighbours! The illustrations are based on the many photos I collected over the years. The book is illustrated mainly in pencil with some watercolour, and the interior is all black and white. It’s printed on lovely textured Tintoretto gesso paper stock. The cover and endpapers are in colour, and the books will be bound by hand by me, as all Tomatito Press books are.

The Beautiful Birds Colouring Book

Tomatito Press is proud to introduce its new publication, the Beautiful Birds colouring book. It's a twelve-page book, handmade again (of course!) and the artwork is inspired by my favourite feathered creatures. There are tiny ones, tall ones, birds in flight, flightless birds, wading birds and exotic birds. Each copy comes in a protective plastic sleeve, with a selection of coloured pencils so that you can start colouring straight away!

 

In other news, I had a stall at the wonderful It's Your Write event last night at the V&A Museum of Childhood... I'm really loving having the opportunity to meet people at these events! I also have two others booked for this year. On the 28th & 29th of May is the International Alternative Press Festival at Conway Hall in London, and I'll also be at the Thought Bubble Sequential Art festival in Leeds in November. Hope to see you there!

The London Comic and Small Press Expo

This Saturday I'm going to have a stall at the London comic and small press expo at Goldsmiths College, New Cross. It will be quite strange as I graduated from Goldsmiths about ten years ago, & even though I pass it almost every day, I haven't been inside since! It's also my first experience of selling my handmade books at a fair, so it's very exciting. I thought I'd show some of the bits and pieces that I've been working on to decorate my stall with. The expo lasts all day from 10.00 until 5.00, so any Londoners out there, please drop in and say hello! There'll be a lot of  great stuff to see... there are talks and signings with guests such as the great Dave McKean. You can see a list of exhibitors and events here: www.spexpo.co.uk/londonfaq

Giveaway winner!

Thanks you very much to everyone who entered the giveaway... your support is very much appreciated. I've just drawn the winner at random, and the winner's name is... Sniffly Kitty! Well done Sniffly Kitty... I'll be in touch to get your copy of The Garden to you!

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate the release of The Garden I'm going to give away a free signed copy! If you would like to be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is click 'follow' at the bottom of this page... and leave a comment with your e-mail address here. The winner will be picked at random next Wednesday (the 19th.) Good luck!

Tomatito's new book - 'The Garden!'

Tomatito Press is proud to announce the imminent release of its second book 'The Garden.' This book is a collaboration between artist and photographer Sergio Galaviz, and Tomatito's illustrator Katriona Chapman. The book is a hard-back concertina book of illustrations that have been drawn in ink by Sergio and coloured by Katriona with pencils. They are a celebration of form, pattern and colour, and suggest a surreal compendium of other-worldly organisms. The cover of each copy has been made by hand, using quality Hahnemule paper from the amazing Shepherd's bookbinders/paper merchants in Bloomsbury. The books are tied closed with ribbon, and there is a limited edition of just 50 copies.

The book-making process mid-way...

'Five' gets a great write-up at Forbidden Planet International!

Writing on the Forbidden Planet International website, reviewer Richard Bruton has this to say about Five:

"Even getting the package open shows you how seriously the two artists involved are – the handmade, handsewn book comes in a card sleeve, with matching bookmark and a custom fitted card frame to make sure it reaches the intended recipient in perfect condition. That obsessiveness and attention to detail is what makes the handmade movement so appealing – everything is precious and full of passionate attention to getting the little details right. That and the beautiful, individual books they make of course.


Five is all about dreams, and about flights of fantasy. We start in the bath, with a mind just wandering away. And then we’re set free with the bather, and begin a lyrical and poetic trip across the world, free as the birds that fly from her fingers. With it’s simple ideas of a near transcendental journey and it’s sparse, lyrical style, it reminds me rather of the work of the great Michél Gagne. High praise indeed.


Chapman’s black and white pencil drawings across the pages of Five are tight, intricate things, and quite lovely to look at. With so little text the pictures have to do the heavy lifting, have to charge the mind with images and fill it with ideas. And Chapman’s lovely work does just that. You meander over them, absorbing the details, letting the sparse words play across the images."


You can read the rest of this piece here: http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/five-a-handmade-adventure-takes-flight/