Hello I have written a book recommendation list for Shepherd.com - this website helps you to discover the great new books. My list is: The best children’s books that adults will love as well as children, it can be found here:
There are heaps of lists of different best books from all sorts of authors. its worth a good look if you are after a book recommendation for someone or yourself. Happy browsing!
I have made a little bookshop so you can get some of my books via Bookshop. Click here!
Not one but TWO awards for The Song of the Tree!
Thank you big time to the people that liked my pictures and design work. It is super duper news!
3x3 Magazine of Contemporary Illustration, Gold in Professional Award 2020
Communication Arts Magazine Annual Design Competition Winner 2020
Penguin Platform and I did a short video on some tips on how to become an illustrator! Based on my own personal experience it goes through some ideas to get you started and to keep you going. I hope you find it helpful. I had lots of fun creating a mind map of ideas! If you have any other tips please do add them into the comments below the video as everyone’s own path is different and that’s the joy of finding your own way! CLICK HERE TO HAVE A LOOK!
Creative Review talked to me about my career to date. We talked about how I ended up where I am right now, about being an introvert in a loud world and lots of other stuff. Click here is you fancy a listen!
Award-winning author and designer Coralie Bickford-Smith follows up The Fox and the Star with a wonderful new fable celebrating belonging and the importance of understanding those around you. Poetically told, the simple text which is beautifully designed on the page to match the spirit of the words, tells of the importance of shelter and its power to encourage confidence and tolerance as well as empowering development and independence. The interdependence of the bird and the tree in this story is a beautiful telling of a universal theme.
In The Song of the Tree, a bird decides to stay in a tree rather than migrate at the turn of the season. In beautiful woodcut-style images, Coralie Bickford-Smith depicts nature at its most majestic and tells a lovely fable about belonging.
JAMES LOVEGROVE
A heart-warming and exquisitely-illustrated story, for Bickford-Smith The Song of the Tree is a celebration about the world around us and the importance of the natural world at a time when we need it the most.
Never have the woods looked more beautiful than in this exquisite new fable about growing up, exploring the world and understanding where you belong.
Another exquisite, clothbound tale from Coralie Bickford-Smith... [her] illustrations are so vivid and patterned, reminiscent of traditional African wax prints, that each page feels alive. The night-time stars and fireflies sparkle, though there's no glitter or foil used, while elsewhere the text swoops bird-like across the page.
The Song of the Tree is a stunningly illustrated fable for our times.
A review from the Observer! Thank you for your kind words! I particularly love ‘the text swoops bird-like across the page’ Read the review here!
The Song of the tree is a story about a Bird and her love of one majestic tree in the heart of a jungle. And this book is her love song to that tree. Through encounters with other animals, she learns to find her own voice. Bird understands that letting go doesn’t mean you love someone or something any less. Touching on the idea of Attachment theory. The tree is like a mother to which Bird is very attached and she sees it as a place of great safety and security. The story is a lovely example of a secure attachment. A great opportunity to explain to a young child the idea of separation and attachment. Reading books together can help strengthen that attachment. It is a celebration of love and is full of hope! These three books have been a personal journey for me and I thank you for all your support and words of encouragement! If you are interested in seeing it for yourself click here and pre order!
Photo by Tom Lehman
Finally 2019 has become 2020, which means my third book is on its way!! The Song of the Tree.
This is me in Sri Lanka, where my head had been living the past couple of years drawing vivid green jungles, wild animals and birds. It has been a labour of love, the crazy hours and the lack of sunlight have been blasted away with travel and adventure. I nearly saw all the animals in the book while I was there. The only one missing was a leopard but that is a story in itself! I did get very close to a crocodile and the fireflies were mind blowing in their brilliance.
Now I am back and I just saw that Waterstones wrote this in a blog about the best books to look out for in 2020!!
‘Coralie Bickford-Smith’s phenomenal design work and superb storytelling won her the 2015 Waterstones Book of the Year for The Fox and the Star, and now she returns with another mesmerising story of the beauty of the natural world. Recounting the passing of the seasons and the exoticism of jungle life, this is one of the most beautifully produced picture books of 2020.’
Woweeeeee thank you Waterstones!!
YESSSS!!!!!! 🦊⭐️ Some new Fox and the Star goodies for September this year! 12 Note Cards and STAR lined envelopes! Each box has a set of 12 Note Cards and Envelopes. Six different designs. I have to confess I have already sent a few out in the post. Not long till they are official though. Out at the end of next month (24th September 2019)
Clothbound alert! Sanditon by Jane Austen. This proof just landed on my desk the colour combination worked so well (I think) It was a risk but it paid off! Maybe my (dark) blue period is over.
ISBN 9780241436585
Pub date: 26 Sep 2019
This edition also includes the early epistolary novel Lady Susan and the delightful fragment The Watsons.
I was surprised when I was asked to design the Christmas Card for The Foundling Museum. Surprised because I was on their radar, the artists they have worked with in the past are heroes of mine.
If you have not heard of the work they do here is a short summary:
‘The Foundling Museum explores the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity and first public art gallery. We aim to inspire everyone to make a positive contribution to society, by celebrating the power of individuals and the arts to change lives.’
This work resonates with me for a number of reasons, both personally and artistically. The projects that struck me the most were the ones in which they bring artists and children together to create art, this feels to me extremely valuable. For a child finding another way of communicating the things they might not be able to express with words can be a life line.
Our card is called ‘A Token of Love and Hope, 2018’ and here is a bit about the illustration:
In addition to the lamb from the Foundling Hospital’s coat of arms, Bickford-Smith’s design includes references to the Foundling Museum’s eighteenth-century ‘tokens’. These small everyday objects were left by mothers with their babies as a form of identification, should they ever return to claim their child. As such, the tokens are a powerful symbol of love and hope, and find resonance with the Christmas story.
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
I have been tidying my study and I found that I have 15 prints of the second print edition I did from The Fox and the Star hiding away. It is time to clear some space and let Fox go on some new adventures.
A3, (42cm x 30cm) two colour, signed and numbered, limited edition of 60, screen prints.
Printed using 2 inks by The Garudio.
Each print is unique due to the hand made nature of the process.
Please email me for further details if you are interested.
(Go to About > Who > Contact Me)
£70
This week my illustration is on the cover of COOK a food magazine free with Corriere Della Sera! Inspired by M.C Escher.
So here is a slice of The Fox and the Star. A clothbound (of course) journal! Also a set of gift tags or prehaps decorations for the Christmas Tree! Published with Clarkson Potter. Really beautifully produced and no detail spared!
Fox is very happy indeed. Go Fox!
I got to design not one but TWO National Books Tokens! Such an honour! Find them in a bookshop near you.
