Catherine Jackman Art and Illustration

OH MY DAYS! I won!!!! I can’t believe it. I can only say thank you to everyone who supported, shared, voted and cheered me on! I’m so lucky to have you ❤️

I want to say huge thank you to for creating the opportunity and choosing my design. I am speechless. I can’t wait to work with you. 🥳

Now, I need to go arrange a celebration party with some Puffin friends of mine ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you everyone again! 🥳

Hi everyone you are ok!

I need to ask a small but HUGE favour that won’t take a sec. I entered a wrapping paper design competition with two entries, party puffins and party planets. Out of 1130 entries both have been short listed!!!! I can’t believe it 😭😭😭 can I ask a big favour would you mind voting for me please?

My entry numbers are 20 and 31. If I win I get my design turned into wrapping paper and £200! There are only four days to vote😂😂
I’ve popped the link below but if you could vote I’ll love you forever!

Because I entered two I don’t want to spread the votes too thin so if you can vote for puffins (simply because it’s 31 😂 that would be great xx

Ps if you don’t mind, please give this post a share 😊😊😊

Gift Wrap Design Contest Voting Vote for your favourite finalist in the Hector & Bert Gift Wrap Design Contest. 35 Finalists have been selected. The winner will be chosen from the 5 designs that receive the most votes.

Well I finally achieved a significant ambition to have my art transformed into a pin badge and what’s even better, this pin badge raises funds to go towards a great cause!

Speechly the cutest pineapple in town has been transformed into a pin badge. They are available to buy at the Welcome Centre and Shop at Dunham Massey. Every penny spent goes towards preserving this beautiful place for future generations to share.

Join Speechly on a great adventure around the house in Dunham Massey 🍍

I’ve recently entered a wrapping paper design competition! Please keep your fingers crossed for me 😊 Which is your favourite design?

Who is voting for Party Planets?

Who wants to hang out with some Party Puffins?

Here is Speechly in his new fancy home! For this commission I provided the character, backgrounds and other illustration assets. Head over to Dunham Massey and meet Speechly for yourself 🙂🍍

Tonight we have a character commission with a difference! Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Speechly the Pineapple 🙂 🍍 Commissioned by Dunham Massey for their latest children’s trail around the historic house. We had so much fun creating this character together. Why not pop over there on one of these rainy days and explore the From Here to There trail?

For this particular commission, I also designed some animal friends! I will confess I hummed the Black Beauty soundtrack all the way through designing the horses. And the little sandy coloured pony has the personality of Merry Legs. I was just obsessed with the 90s Black Beauty when I was little ❤️ Who else loved that film?

Speaking of reference images, as part of the commission process, it’s great when clients send me some really helpful references such as images of costumes to ensure the characters are accurate as possible. Like in the case with this coachman!

If you are based at heritage site, museum or visitor attraction or are children’s book author/ publisher and would like to discuss potential illustration commissions then please do get in touch! I would love to hear from you. 👩🏻‍🎨 🎨

This little Dairy Maid was the first character I designed. Whenever Im designing historical characters, I always use reference images from the period. This time I thought I would share with you some of my references. Imagine the heavy weight of carrying the dairy yoke on your shoulders filled with fresh milk.

I have a couple versions of original sketches I can share with you to give you a bit more of a peep behind the scenes if you would like to see them?

If you are based at heritage site, museum or visitor attraction or are children’s book author/ publisher and would like to discuss potential illustration commissions then please do get in touch! I would love to hear from you. 👩🏻‍🎨 🎨

I loved the idea of that the Dunham Team came up with to use illustrations as a creative solution to way-finding on site ❤️ Great idea!

I really enjoyed creating this character, in my head I’ve called her Molly and the little cat loves to sit by her feet and watched bubbles float by as she scrubs the laundry clean. 🧼 I kept thinking of the scene in Disney’s Cinderella as she sings a beautiful tune while working hard.

This little dairy maid should not be underestimated. Many moons ago, in a former job role, I produced an exhibition based on the life of a real life dairy maid called Florrie. Working with a team of great staff and wonderful volunteers, we discovered so much about her life and learned to appreciate the hardships of working in a Dairy. Hats off to dairy maids, they are made of tough stuff!

I really love how the character looks in her final setting. The light falls beautifully through the window in the Dairy at Dunham ❤️ You can easily imagine her working away churning perfect butter. Maybe humming a little tune while she works. 🥛 🐄 🐄 🐮

I must give a shout out to Stretford Studios, who are responsible for the printing. They always produce high quality products and always print the colours spot on ❤️

If you are based at heritage site, museum or visitor attraction or are children’s book author/ publisher and would like to discuss potential illustration commissions then please do get in touch! I would love to hear from you. 👩🏻‍🎨 🎨

I’ve been a little quiet lately and that’s because I have been working on some great commissions that I can’t share with you just yet!

I am so blessed to work with some fantastic clients who have wonderful imaginations! One of my favourite parts of being an illustrator is to bring someone’s vision to life. It’s even more exciting when the end goal results in life size versions of my illustrations such as my recent project with Dunham Massey.

Dunham have been working on a great project to interpret their servants courtyard and by bringing pops of colour and life size characters to breathe life into the historic spaces. Their commission ranged from horses and cows to kitchen and dairy maids. Every character I illustrated I gave a little secret back story (creating my own version of Downton Abbey 😂) I even gave the horses and cows a backstory!

I loved this project and it’s my absolute pleasure to share the results of it with you. I will post an illustration every day to show the outcome of this amazing project. I would like to say a huge thank you to the wonderful team at Dunham Massey.

If you are based at heritage site, museum or visitor attraction or are children’s book author/ publisher and would like to discuss potential illustration commissions then please do get in touch! I would love to hear from you. 👩🏻‍🎨 🎨

It’s time for the tiny but mighty, the adorable Wren!

The call of the crow always takes me to Lake District landscapes. Fresh morning walks, filled with crow calls and sheep bleating. They may not have the most beautiful bird song but their cries do strike wonderful Lake District filled memories 🐦‍⬛

I think this little garden bird is among everyone’s favourite. They call the Robin the gardener’s best friend, they certainly have so much character ❤️

Spring is well and truly here. Everywhere you look there are beautiful colours of pinks and whites filling neighbours with cherry trees in full bloom.

The mornings and evenings are lighter and bird song fills the air. To celebrate Spring I thought I’d share my own little dawn chorus with you.

Last year I was so lucky to work with the wonderful team at I illustrated a series of birds for them as part of their new nature trail.

Kicking is off today is the humble but chirpy little blackbird. I have to say blackbirds are among my favourites!

They say every day is a school day and wow! What a great school day this was. I went along to the first session of How to Write a Children’s book provided by Halton Adult Learning and taught by two wonderful mentors Hackney and Jones.

Looking forward to the next session ❤️ , , , , ,

Gifting Ideas:

When it comes to gifts, I started to develop a print range which was ideal for little one’s bedrooms and nurseries! I have more products waiting in the wings but here is a sample print of my Solar System art work for now. More to come very soon!

Challenge:

When it comes to art challenges, I have really enjoyed the ones I have taken part in over the years. A personal favourite is always folktale week. One year I decided to explore the folklore that had built up around women of history. This was my favourite as I discovered lots of interesting tales and really enjoyed listening to the wonderful podcast for inspiration!

Collection:

Over the years I have built up a collection of Harry Potter fan art ❤️ Here is a sample of some of my illustrations from across the years. This fan art led to a dream come true back in 2021. Warner Brothers themselves reached out to me and wanted to feature one of my pieces on their Harry Potter anniversary website! I could not believe my luck, I was speechless. Even more so when I saw that they had used the image as the banner page for the website as well. Moments like that make you believe in magic for sure!

Signature Style:

I haven’t forgotten about meet the maker 😊 I couldn’t reveal my tasks yesterday as it’s top secret client work 🤫 it was a great deal of fun though!

Today the prompt is signature style. One thing I love to do is little dots for eyes. I’m not really sure why, it’s just something I’ve kept to over the years and it’s amazing how expressive a simple dot can be.

I think in terms of my style, I just love to create characters that bring joy and fun to people. I love to add warmth and fun to illustrations and a level of innocence which always tends to have a childlike atmosphere to them. Whether it’s animals, fan art or people ❤️.

Combination:

A short a sweet interpretation of this prompt today. Call it combination or collaboration, when you get the right mix of people together magic can happen! Today was world book day and to see that a little one had decided to dress as Trixibelle made my day! How wonderful to see someone dressed as a character I illustrated. Such a fantastic feeling ❤️❤️❤️This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the amazing work and exceptionally talented author of Trixibelle ❤️❤️❤️

Wow! Happy World Book Day everyone! To see a little one dressed as a character you have painted is magical! ❤️❤️❤️ Thank you so much for sharing! How cute is this little one? ❤️❤️❤️❤️

📖 Happy World Book Day 📖

We were thrilled, and very touched to receive this lovely photograph of ‘Trixibelle’ all ready for today at school!

“My 5 year old saw your production of Trixibelle last year and she's been adamant all year she's going to be Trixibelle for World Book Day this year! Here's her costume all sorted ready for the big day in March! It's all she's been talking about since Christmas.”

Have a truly magical day!… 🌎📚🪄✨

Tasks:

As a mummy of two babies, I often say I need the arms of an octopus 🐙 So I thought a quick sketch of an octopus would sum this next prompt up nicely! My task list has changed somewhat in recent months 👶 👶 but when it comes to illustrations for clients I tend to carry out a series of key tasks to ensure success! Once I receive my brief I make a list and break down the client brief into key bullet points, highlighting any key characters or scenes as I go along.

From there, I enter into the research phase, making mood boards of inspiration as I go. I always discuss everything with my client before heading into the sketching phase. This is one of my favourite steps, when me and the client work as a team, bouncing ideas around together. This way I can make sure I am achieving their vision!

Next, I carry out a series of sketches before hit the colouring stage. Once I have brought a character to life, I sign off the images with my client and then blow them up the required size.

I love every task and step involved in creating illustrations. From client comms to character design, I really believe in the saying “When you start doing what you love to do, you will never work another day in your life”

Evolution:

The great thing about artistic style is it’s always evolving. I think your art style grows with you, not just because your skills develop over the years but I am a big believer in the thought that your art grows with you through your life experiences.

I can pin point an exact moment in time when I really began to develop a style. Back in 2012-13 a wonderful person and role model took a chance on me and asked me to illustrate a series of Christmas scenes for Quarry Bank Mill to feature in an exhibition and on a retail range. This was a dream come true. I was one step closer to following in the footsteps of my hero Beatrix. Beatrix herself started out by illustrating greeting cards and here was I, designing greeting cards and an exhibition series for an organisation Beatrix founded! I couldn’t believe my luck.

I was invited back to provide a summer exhibition along with illustrations for a children’s book. To this day I still treasure that feeling of seeing my own art on the walls of Quarry Bank Mill, transformed interactive installations and even turned into scarecrows! I never thought I’d be able to purchase a jigsaw with my art work on but I sure did!

My style was very much influenced by Quentin Blake with sketchy ink lines with ink and watercolour washes and dots for eyes. I would always work in traditional mediums but since then, my practice has evolved into using digital tools such as procreate. I have kept the essence of the original character styles and adapted them over the years. I have recently even taken the liberty of adding noses! 😂

If you haven’t heard about Meet the Maker, it’s a challenge which provides a great opportunity for a folks like me to share a little bit more about ourselves and our creative practice.

My story started with a once upon a time, like so many others.

Once upon a time when I was a little girl, I took a trip to Hill Top Farm. The home of Beatrix Potter. As a little girl, I was absolutely hooked on Beatrix. She was my hero, I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. Through her influence, I wanted to be an illustrator from a very young age. Even though I didn’t understand at the time what that meant beyond colouring in every day😂.

For this I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents. They took me to the Lake District on so many childhood adventures and presented me with countless opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise had without them and their support.

Fast forward to today, when currently wear many hats in life. I am a freelance illustrator, a mummy of two baby twins and I am currently on maternity leave from working in a museum.

I love nothing more than sitting down and creating illustrations. I love bringing characters, stories and visions to life for my clients. And I have some wonderful clients! I create illustrations for children’s books, heritage trails and other sources. One of my favourite things is when my characters get blown up to adult size! It feels like being in my very own Rodger Rabbit movie ❤️

Admittedly my paws are super busy at the moment with my two little mini me babies (I can’t believe they are 3 months old already!) so I thought I’d share one of my older illustrations that still make me smile. Give our planet a little hug 🤗 🌍

It’s the final prompt of a great challenge!!! This marks the end of with the prompt, loveable nerd

For this final prompt I thought I’d bring together the previous characters having an intense game of Dungeons and Dragons! I would have loved to spend more time on this piece but it was still fun even if it is rushed!

I’m so glad I took part in this challenge, the hosts have been so supportive and fellow illustrators have all been really friendly ❤️ What a great community to be part of!



Thank you to our lovely hosts:illustration mcpherson.art





Thank you to

Happy Pets Week 2024! With the second prompt Devoted Gardener!

I loved the idea of a little pet cat gardener who constantly gets distracted by their favourite plant cat nip!

My inspiration for this was my friends two black cats and a cheeky little cat who lives in our neighbourhood ❤️



Thank you to our lovely hosts:illustration mcpherson.art





Thank you to