The 2016 Caleb Awards

Earlier this year both of my two publishers sent the last book I'd done with them to the Caleb awards. These are Australian faith-based writing awards. And, both books got shortlisted for the children's book category! These were 'Same' by Katrina Roe and 'Fearlessly Madison' by Penny Reeve. It was pretty fun having illustrated two out of the five shortlisted books... And, quite excitingly, 'Fearlessly Madison' then went on to win the prize for Best Children's book.

'Wonderfuly Madison', the first in the series had actually also won this prize, but three years earlier. They must be quality :)

Books and badges at MTC

In the cool of the morning I packed the car with books, badges and my Guimelpod plushie and vroomed off. Already the day was warming up, and I felt excited. One of my friends was selling yummy dumplings - I picked her up and garlic filled the car. Fresh and tasty. We arrived amid the hustle and bustle of decorations being put up and set up our stalls.
The MTC Spring fair proved to be a great day: so much fun! So many lovely people to meet. And so very keen to be there again next year.

Book week at Tara

I rolled into the carpark and waited, wondering when my author was going to arrive. Within a few minutes I saw a car driven by a lady who looked like Katrina zip past. We made eye contact and waved. Half an hour later, after meeting the librarian, we were standing in front of a group of K-yr2 children presenting our book 'Same'. Little hands shoot up, curiosity and inspiration written on their faces. I love book week because the kids enjoy it and I'm made to feel like a celebrity. Thank you teachers and librarians at Tara Anglican School for a great visit! 

Tom Topp is here!

This year has been rather full for me. And this blog, rather neglected. Oh well, that's life, I suppose.

One rather exciting thing I've been meaning to post about is a small children's novel I finally finished illustrating in July this year. It's called, Tom Topp and the great adventure swap, by Lisa Limbrick and published by Wombat books. I like it. It's a fun story with wild things happening, like flying cupcakes and a wheel-chair dog-sled. And importantly, it also has a good message about forgiveness.

Here's a link to the book, and below are some pictures...

And here's some extra flying things that aren't in the book but are related:

SCG 'Celebration' Exhibition

The Sydney Comics Guild (SCG) group show has now opened. It's at the Artshine Gallery in Chippendale, and I have a few of my Guimelpod watercolours in there.

It's on for three weeks and the gallery is in a very accessible area. There's lots of lovely artworks - so check it out!

Below is a photo that Robbie took during the opening. Each artist got to speak a little bit about their art, and this photo is of my turn. Thanks Alex and Vinh, and great show everyone :)

Jemima Nichols

See this drawing? It's me and my lovely husband, Robbie Nichols. We got married in April this year. (Hence the massive gap between blog posts leading up to that month)

My married name is now Jemima Nichols. For the moment, I may appear in things professionally with either name (Nichols/Trappel), but both are me.

Monsters

Over the Summer I worked on a short comic with Karen Bielharz. This was part of a second anthology of comics, this time written for children, and crowd-funded through Pozible. The project was fully funded and is now in print! Wooooooooooooo
It's called "Monsters: an anthology of short comics for children"

Below are some in-progress shots of some of my artwork. There's also a colouring-in book!