Wishing You All A Very Happy Christmas

It's that time of year again so a nice seasonal image for you. 

It's the cover art from my version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Wishing a very Happy Christmas to all my readers!

"The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey" Twentieth Anniversary Edition

It's hard to believe that The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, written by  Susan Wojciechowski, and illustrated by me, is twenty years old.

It has been hugely successful selling more than a million copies in the US alone and has been translated into many different languages. 

The audiobook read by James Earl Jones was nominated for a grammy and there were stage versions and musicals were also created.

In 2007 a movie version was made starring Tom Berenger, Joely Richardson and n one of her earliest roles, Saoirse Ronan.

The book won numerous awards for Susan and for me, including the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Christopher Award and the Bisto Irish Book of the Year Award.

Below you can see some of the different incarnations of The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

 

And here is the latest!

I'm really delighted with the new large format edition which celebrates our twentieth anniversary.

Nativity Stamps from 1999

 Here are another set of roughs paired with the printed Christmas stamps that I did for An Post back in 1999.
I think these were the Christmas stamps I was most pleased with.

My New Studio

I'm very excited to have moved to a new space in an artists' collective studio building in the heart of old Dublin.
Inside it is still a mess of boxes, but hopefully it will be a hive of creative activity after the break.
Happy Holidays everyone!

Not Such A Cheery Christmas Illustration

Here's another Christmassy job I did just before the holidays.
It was for the ISPCC and it was to appear with a text that had a fairly sinister subtext about violence against children.
My painting was to seem wholesome and festive but with a subtle aspect of menace.

Happy Christmas!

Here's a seasonal painting I did of Ireland's new President last week for the lovely folks at Public Communications Centre and which I think makes for a hopeful Christmas card for those of us living in Ireland.

Thank you all for visiting my blog in 2011
and may I wish all of you a very Happy Christmas and the best of luck in 2012
PJxxx

Happy Christmas!

Have a wonderful Christmas,
and many, many thanks to all of you who have dropped in on my blog during 201o.
See you next year
PJ

Season's Greetings

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.
Thanks especially to all my regular readers for stopping by the blog.
Here's a sketch of one of my favourite pictures from A Christmas Carol.
If you look very hard, it almost looks as if it's really snowing.

Robert Dunbar's Christmas Book Choice

Robert Dunbar was very kind to me in his round-up of recommended Christmas books.
You can listen to his interview with RTE's Pat Kenny here.
Many thanks Robert.

Oppenheim Platinum Award.

Walker Books and Candlewick Press have brought together three glorious Christmas stories that I have illustrated ,"The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey", "A Christmas Carol" and "The Gift of the Magi" in a wonderful three volume slipcase, lavishly packaged and produced.

Andwe have just heard that the PJ Lynch Classic Christmas Collection has won an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award.

The Lincoln family's first Christmas at the White House

February 12th is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, and Candlewick and Walker will be publishing "Lincoln and his Boys" by Rosemary Wells, and illustrated by me.
Here is the scene showing the Lincoln family's first Christmas at the White House.
If you can get hold of a copy I can really reccommend this book. The story is incredibly moving.

A Christmas Silhouette

Here is a little Christmas image I did as a gift for a friend.
I always liked the stolid character of St Joseph in the Nativity story, and now, having travelled with my own wife when she was pregnant on a few long journeys over the years, I have more sympathy for him than ever.
I think that shows in my picture.

Happy Christmas, and thank you for looking in on my blog.
Best wishes
PJ

The Nutcracker, the Gingerbread Village

I'm working on a very unusual project at the moment. W5 in Belfast have asked me to design a fantasy walk through experience for Christmas. The theme is taken from the ballet of the Nutcracker.
This rough shows the Gingerbread Village with Clara and the Nutcracker Prince in the foreground.
There will be various free-standing "pop-up" elements so it will be very interesting to see how it actually works when my illustrations are blown up and all put together.
W5 has a great team so I'm hopeful that it will all come together nicely.

Dickensian Rooftops

One of the strange things about being a Children's book illustrator is that in the middle of summer I am very often working on cards, stamps or books with a Christmas flavour.
Right now I'm drawing a terrace of snow covered buildings for a boxed set cover. My research brought me back to this drawing I did of Dickensian rooftops for my version of A Christmas Carol. I always love doing this type of picture, and I usually fit one into my books.

Stamps designs: Nollaig 1999

These are roughs for a set of stamps that I designed for Christmas 1999.
They are my favourites of all the stamps I have done for An Post, perhaps because my nephews and niece modelled as the children in the nativity play.

And here are the finished stamps.