Christmas Pigeon Post

Ever wondered how your letters to Santa get delivered each year? Well, you know all the little pigeons that are nesting up in your chimney? They've been waiting all year long ready for their big moment. When christmas time approaches, and you've thought long and hard about what you'd like Santa to bring and written him a long letter. The pigeons swoop down, scroll up your letter and fly it all the way to the north pole... But little children seem to want more and more and more each year, so the poor little pigeons are beginning to struggle. So next time you see a pigeon scrounging around for a fallen chip or scrap of bread, and if you happen to be munching on a hot sausage roll or a cornish pastry, or anything just as tasty, throw some down for the poor little fella. They need their energy for the christmas delivery flight!

Brigade

This is a little illustration I did just yesterday for 'Illustration Friday'. The theme was 'Brigade'. I really wanted to experiment with the body movements of the characters and how they would interact with the pole.

Sarah and Sam

This is a commission I did for my beautiful friend Sarah. She has the most gorgeous porcelain skin, and quirky purple hair, and has agreed to let me paint her again (YAY!). She makes a fantastic leading lady. Sam's hair was great to paint. I love painting guys with lots of hair, you can achieve so much expression with each stroke of the brush.

Afternoon Tea

This little scene is a commission I've recently done for a lovely friend, it's a picture of himself with his brother and sister. They were an absolute joy to paint, they have the most lovely faces, beautiful family. I used the opportunity to experiment with a much warmer pallet to what i've been using recently, I wanted the picture to almost have a glow about it. I wanted the birds to reflect the characters.

Beach Huts and Seashells

A row of beach huts, abandoned for the day, are being inhabited by seagulls who begin to move in for the night. Can you find the snoozing bird who's already snuggled in for the evening?

Grandpa at the Beach

This is the first of a series of illustrations I'm creating, inspired by the lovely British seaside. I adore the kitsch, old fashioned, quirkiness of the seaside, it's wonderful to draw. Coming from a seaside town, I have a special appreciation for cute little beach huts, stripy, flimsy wind guards, and teeth rotting sticks of rock. Anyone thats adventured to the seaside, bought themselves a tray of traditional fish and chips, will understand this illustration. You're guaranteed to have an audience of seagulls waiting for the moment one of those delicious golden chips, slips from your fork, and hits the floor...

Chicken and the Girl

A while back I wrote a short story about a young girl that worked on a farm. One day, whilst carrying out her routine chicken feed, she notices a large dark shape at the back of the chicken shed. At first she thought it could be a fox, but the shadow was much too large, it looked more like the size of a bear. As she approached the mysterious shape, it turned out to be an extraordinarily large chicken. The chicken was much more frightened than she was, so she took care of it. She kept it hidden away from the rest of the family as she knew it would possibly be the star of a gigantic family feast!

Patchwork Pals

After the fright of Halloween, these two little characters are here to soften things up. I did these for a friend to welcome a new baby to the family. They were inspired by an earlier illustration I did of the toys in the toy shop in the 'Toymaker and the Toy'. Boy, I just said 'toy' a lot of times there...

Trick or Treat?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Poor little mouse, he doesn't understand why people are so afraid of him...

We're Free!

And the lady birds all ran away... This is another example of the softer approach I'm taking to my illustrations. It was for an Illustration Friday on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/joderuiterillustrations/6248775413/

Little Trip to London

I've currently been working on creating a much softer feel to my illustrations. I've completely taken away the black markings (which I'm the most confident with) and just using colour to create the depth in the pictures. These little doodles are of a little girls trip to London.

The New Town

After the factory had been defeated, and the town unfortunately had been destroyed, the Toymaker and the Toy taught the townspeople how to re-build there town out of parts of the old town and parts of the Big Red Factory... In this last illustration I changed the colour pallet, I introduced blue and made really accentuated the green tones. The red accents in the painting are all parts of the Big Red Factory. Pipes create chimneys and chimneys create roofs...

Destroying the Big Red Factory

As the big red factory began to destroy the town, the little Toy told the townspeople not to fear. She had a plan to bring down the factory...  Once the factory had been destroyed, the town was left devastated. But the Toymaker and the Toy knew how to build new things from old, and taught the towns people how to re-build their town.

My Muse

The little Toy in the story was first created out of a teacup, duster, an old cushion and wire. I could manipulate her movements for each illustration.

The New Town

The little Toy had great plans for the Toyshop, together they made a wonderful team. But they were warned, with every good spell cast a bad one would follow. In their happiness they forgot, and one day, it happened. The big red factory at the top of the hill came to life! But the little Toy had a plan...

The Toy Maker and the Toy

Here are a few of the characters from the fairy tale 'The Toymaker and the Toy". The Toymaker makes special little toys out of the things that the townspeople throw away. The toymaker was lonely, as the townspeople didn't buy his toys, they only bought plastic reproduced toys at the top of the hill. But one day a stranger visited the shop, she sought shelter from the cold and rain, she revealed she had magical powers, and for his kindness, she brought one of his special toys to life...

My First Blog

Ok, so this is my first ever blog. I'm going to show some stuff and hopefully you'll like it. So here goes...

I just recently finished my Masters (I'm yet to graduate), and during my time there I dove into the world of fairy tales and I decided to write a tale of my own. I wanted it to be contemporary but still honouring the fairy tale tradition. So I wrote the Tale of the 'Toymaker and the Toy'. A tale of the seemingly small and helpless defeating the big and powerful (in this tale an evil factory). Here's a couple of the illustrations from the tale...