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Hazel Mitchell a.k.a The Wacky Brit says:

I”ve always drawn. I doodled in all my books at school and I still doodle on everything. It makes for fun grocery lists and conference notes! I love to draw and create books for children; illustration and writing are my passions.

I hopped over the pond from Scarborough in Yorkshire, England in 2000 to marry my husband, who is from America. Now I live and work in Maine, USA.

After I attended art college in York and Sunderland in England, I joined the Royal Navy to earn a living ( working in military Graphics Studios). After I ‘shipped out’ I was CEO of a lithographic printing business which gave me a solid foundation in print and design.

But my love has always been illustration and painting. I have clients from publishing companies to manufacturing and I’ve also been lucky enough to have had my art presented to the British Royal Family.

As well as children’s illustration I create commercial and licensed artwork and my fine art paintings and photographs have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions.  I’ve got a whole menagerie of animals. My cat is my best art director. I love the snow, the sea (and sailing), fish and chips and mushy peas, and a good pint of Guiness! 

Right now I am working on a book for Charlesbridge called ‘Hidden New Jersey’ which is a ‘Search and Seek. book for younger children. I am also working on illustrations for a series of chapter books for Kane and Miller, which is hush hush! Last year I illustrated a book about Autism which is on pre-order and you can find it on Amazon – ‘How to Talk to an Autistic Kid.’ It was written by an autistic boy, Daniel Stefanski who is just 14! It is published by Free Spirit Publishing. 

My goal this year is to sell a book I have written and Illustrated.  I really think the illustrator today has a great resource with all the online resources and social networking. I avoided that for a long time … but now I utilize Facebook (find me at Hazel-Mitchell), Twitter, as well as writing a couple of blogs – hazelmitchell.blogspot.com (which I blog on weekly, and have a free page for kids) and also a new venture a GLOG – www.pixelshavings.blogspot.com, which is 5 illustrators group blogging and is turning into a real space to watch! 

It is only a year since I seriously began pursuing my goal of being a published children’s author/illustrator, and I am very happy to have work in the industry. But I couldn’t have done it with out the great conferences and support from SCBWI. So if you aren’t selling your work yet … get around those folks at SCBWI and you will be on the right track.

Process of doing the Dog Sled painting:

The painting was sparked by a photo I saw of a young girl in a dog sled race here in Maine. I wanted to make it more Inuit based and incorporate the Northern Lights. On researching a little I found that certain tribes believe the aurora borealis to be evil warriors. So – I thought the girl might be chased by them. There is a story in here, I just haven’t written it yet!!

Dog sled Thumbnail – This is my initial idea, it’s very rough!

Sledding B&W – I made a study in pencil incorporating dogs from different sleds and turned the girl in the original photo into an Inuit girl.
Dog Sled Thumbnail 2 – I scanned the drawing and roughed in the trees behind.

Dog Sled Thumbnail 3 – Then I drew the background in pencil.

Dog Sled Finished Drawing – This is the finished drawings married together in Photoshop.

 

And here is the finished piece. It is totally coloured in photoshop. I do not use many layers and my preferred tools are the multiply and dodge and burn. I drew the warriors freehand on a separate layer and used the smudge tool and dodge and burn to get the glowing effect of the Northern Lights.

Hope you enjoyed meeting Hazel Mitchell (aka The Wacky Brit).  You can see more of her work at www.hazelmitchell.com .  I love the last little sketch.  It makes me smile and want to go out and pick up polka-dot stockings.  I wish all of you a week as happy as the lady and her cat kicking up their heels look.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

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