History of Illustration - Catherine Rayner

Catherine Rayner is a children's book author and illustrator - see her website at http://www.catherinerayner.co.uk.

She studied illustration at Edinburgh college of art where she began her first book 'Augustus and his Smile' as part of her final-year project.

After graduating she continued to live in Edinburgh with numerous pets - including her cat Ena, an inspiration and model for many of her characters.

She won the Best New Illustrator Award at the Booktrust Early Years Awards in 2006 and the Kate Greenaway medal in 2009.

I love the liveliness of her work, and the appeal of her characters and would love my work to have more of these qualities.

I started by looking carefully at her art and trying to copy her style - firstly in pencil -

- and then using brush pen and watercolour.
I continued sketching ideas for my own composition using her techniques and style as a basis.
Gradually the composition developed and here is my submission for this part of the project.

I looked back at the work of Catherine Rayner to see how it compared with the piece that I had produced. I was pleased that it wasn't just a copy - it was lively, with loose lines and colour, but was my own style. I enjoyed the experience of working in this way, and would like to continue to experiment and develop the style.