Tom Morgan-Jones - illustration for kids' books, resources, events & more...
I love a project, the more bonkers the better (I like serious projects too and of course I take every project very seriously, even the fun ones). Here's a selection of some projects I've enjoyed being part of over the years. I hope these inspire you and please do get in touch if you would like to discuss an idea.
CAKE
A mum in Chicago once got in touch to ask if she could use a drawing of mine on two cakes for her son's first birthday party. I was curious to know why two cakes. "A cake for the adults and a smashing cake." That's right, a cake for Alec to smash, he was only one. So a pirate smashing cake was made!
ANIMATION WORKSHOPS
The Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema exhibition was hosted by National Galleries Scotland. Thanks to lockdown, our school workshops went online. I made videos and we linked live with Schools across Scotland with a nine week stop-motion animation course all devised by me. We had animation fun with apps, flip books, clay, found objects, and we created hand-drawn characters to animate. In the installment below I do a spot of drawing with a dip pen and we talk about creating a character.
Here's the video of Tom doing some Ray Harryhausen inspired character development dip pen drawing. There's an intro and then the drawing, running time 10.33 mins in total.
VISITOR CENTRES & MUSEUMS
I've worked on various museum and visitor centre projects over the years and enjoy working with teams on interpretation and visuals. Sometimes it's on-site painting, sometimes its small inked pictures drawn in my studio and made large and delivered!
I was chuffed to devise and draw a 'Story Wall' for Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle. I was also asked to spruce up the bare walls of a castle (it was a bit like a corridor before) with these portrait paintings, mounted monster head and swords. I used a sponge for stones too, sponge work is always fun.
This was a nice little A4 'Draw a Monster' handout I devised and illustrated. You can download a black and white PDF version to do yourself by clicking on this wood framed image.
I've illustrated articles in the RSPB Wingbeat magazine, and so then they asked me to make some drawings that would be printed up life size at their Old Moor visitor centre in Yorkshire. It's an old stone barn where they have created a wildlife garden. So when you visit, in the gardens you will find this gardener working away.
Maybe I should take me shoes off when I ink, I've always inked in my shoes, does anybody else work best in their shoes I wonder? Saying that, good ideas often spring up in the shower and I tend not to wear my shoes in there.
PRODUCT DESIGN
From plush books for the very young, through to picture books, books for 3-5, 6-8, 8-12, teenagers and everything in between, upside down, back to front, inside out and upwards.
MAPPING
I think I fell in love with maps because my father had a huge collection of OS maps, and occasionally he'd add buildings and the odd bit of text with a fine pen. He said it was OK to do this because he used to have a job colouring in maps when he was younger.
I've illustrated quite few maps over the years, and in the last few years quite a few for Marvellous Maps. You can see some of these amazing maps below (the map of wonders might be my favourite as it has space to create your own map on the back!)
HOSPITAL VISITS, WELCOME PACKS & ONLINE GUIDES
I've worked on a welcome pack for The Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity, for both parents and children. When the pandemic began I then worked on info sheets for parents and patients to help them during online consultaions with doctors. It's used across Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Australia.
CLASSROOM & OUTDOOR PLAY RESOURCES, BOOKS, APPS, SCHOOL & FESTIVAL VISITS
MISSION:EXPLORE
I'm part of a geography collective that creates award-winning books, websites, apps, workshops, events and more. We've worked with some amazing partners - just a few of their logos are below.
"The leading lights of guerrilla geography"
- Hay Festival of Literature & the Arts
"it may just be the most revolutionary geography-related book ever published"
- Geographical Magazine
"bold, exciting, innovative, geographic, educational and just plain fun!"
- National Geographic Education
LOGOS & WEBSITE ILLUSTRATION
A great bunch of folks to work with, who wouldn't want to with a name like that?
When colloborating and working with different partners sometimes I've agreed to do inky versions logos to keep things, well, nice and inky across the board. Like a few of these below.
CREATING CONCEPTS, WORDS AND IMAGES
I created a series of activities recently for Guerrilla Cartography. You can see the image below. It asks young people to imagine they had to leave their country suddenly to find somewhere safer. It asks them to thinks what they would pack so they could shelter out of doors or in strange places like railway stations. They also have to choose what to leave behind.
INSTALLATION
Rachel King photographed this series of portraits called 'The Face of Satire' for an exhibition at the BFI. I illustrated props that were used in each photograph. On the day Hugh Dennis (popping pomposity as seen above) made me laugh so much that my filling fell out. He also said "Excellent perspective on this pin Tom" (take that those that say I have an odd grip on perspective). The perspective I had of Johnny Vegas is one I won't discuss here on this site. This project was Art Directed by India Banks & Frode Gjerlow of Crank Theatre.
ILLUSTRATION FOR RADIO
(OR FOR WHATEVER YOUR WEBSITE SHOW CASES. GET IN TOUCH AND WE CAN TALK)
This illustrated a poem called 'The Great Pumpkin King', commissioned by BBC Radio Scotland. The poem for children raised questions about immigration and rufugees. I brought a Trump like menace to the proceedings which was pertinent at the time.
PERSONAL PROJECTS
Well, this is a personal project that I'm enjoying at the moment. I inherited a rather nice set of watercolours when my fine father died, so I've been dabbling with these and mixing in a bit of coloured pencil. I hope one day to show off a little more of this project.
And here below is a wee surprise, guest artist Anthony Morgan-Jones, my father. He painted hundreds of watercolours (he was pretty prolific) in his life time. He'd go out most weeks and spend an hour or so painting a local landscape. He lived in Seaford, Sussex. I have a few and if you're interested I could sell you one and donate the money to MNDA.
Here's another wee personal project I've been collaborating on with the hugely talented Mairi Kidd. For now this little picture book is on the shelf, biding it's time for the right publisher to nuture it into life. It's been declined a few times but still makes us laugh (and a little sad in places).
KEYBOARD ART
