Holly Surplice's Blog

Head on over to my facebook page right now for another Flash Sale of original artwork!
Bidding ends 2100hrs Thurs 1st August 2013 x

I recently painted this large piece and have decided to give folks the chance to purchase by auction, this vibrant original artwork!

I don't make these big pieces as often as I used to and so this is a great chance to fill up some wall space with an original piece of art at a great price. The auction will take place over on my facebook page tomorrow night, that's Friday 10th May 2013, between 7-9pm so for more details please head over and take a look here.

The painting will be sold unmounted & unframed and will be sent to it's owner by courier.

Please spread the word and I hope to see you over there tomorrow night! Have a great day x

Just to let you know that if you head over to my facebook page this evening (Friday 12th April) between 7-9pm, you could pick up a bargain, as I am having a flash sale of original illustrations!

It will be a very simple auction of £1 increments which you leave as a comment under the pic you want, the person with the highest bid come 9pm gets the illustration! 

I've decided that if you are wanting to bid but are unable to be around at this time, you can email me at holly@marblesink.co.uk with the highest bid you would like to make and I can put bids down on your behalf - a bit like a telephone bid at a fancy auction house...but without the commission! There will be a small p&p charge of £1.50 for uk deliveries and £3 elsewhere.

I shall be uploading images of the illustrations available this afternoon. Hope you can make it to join in the madness!

Congratulations Kate Slater and Gaelle Van Keirsbilck!

Please step forward and claim your prize...(or simply email me your address to holly@marblesink.co.uk and I will get it sent out after the bank holiday)!

Thank you so much to everyone for entering, I hate that doing competitions means that there are more people that miss out but there will be more chances in the future and maybe even a bit of artwork as a prize if you like the sound of that?

I hope you all have a fabulous Easter xxx

Happy Easter everyone! As a little Easter Treat (or Easter Squeak as I call it), and to celebrate the publication of the paperback edition of Guinea Pig Party, I thought I would giveaway two signed copies for my lovely followers and likers. 
The new paperback editions have a snazzy "Stories Aloud" feature, that with the help of a QR code and a smart device, you can hear the story read aloud - Fancy!!
To enter, simply leave a comment of "Easter Squeak" below the blog, below this post on my Facebook page or #EasterSqueak on twitter. You can even leave a post on all three if you like to increase your chances, cos I'm nice like that : )
Competition closes 4pm Saturday 30th March 2013 and I will announce the winners which I will pick using Random Picker, on the blog and on twitter. I will put a reminder on FB with a link for you to check, but I can't announce the winners as dems da FB rules.
It would be ever so lovely if you shared and retweeted, Happy Easter everyone, I hope you have a fabulous bank holiday weekend!

I've picked the winners from two individual draws using Random Picker and so here they are....

The winner of a signed advanced copy of Peek-A-Boo Bunny from the blog entrants is... Rachel Bromley!

And the winner from the Twitter Draw is... Kate McLelland!

Thank you all so much for entering, I feel quite overwhelmed at how many of you lovely people entered! Congratulations Rachel and Kate, if you email your postal addresses I shall go off and get these books signed and packaged up for you now and post them this afternoon : )

Thanks again everyone xxx

To celebrate the almost publication date of my latest book Peek-A-Boo Bunny, I am giving away two signed advanced copies to you lovely people. 
There are two chances to win, the first by simply leaving a comment below, and the second by following me on twitter, @hollysurplice and RT with #peekaboobunnycompOne winner from each will be selected by Random Picker at 10am Thurs 21st Feb 2013. 
I will announce the winners via this blog and through twitter shortly after they have been picked so check back on Thursday!
If you've not seen it already, you can also keep track of my illustrative goings on by liking my facebook page, Holly Surplice Illustration.
Thanks for dropping by and good luck! x

So it's been a while I know but I've been away on maternity with baby #2 so it's a good excuse this time!


One of my lovely friends had a baby boy this week so I thought I would send a personalised print for him, and share with you what I've done. I wanted an african animal beginning with the letter A, which is lucky as I love anteaters!! This one has struck it lucky - yummy!! Hope he likes it, and hope you do too.


In other news.... Guinea Pig Party was published last week! Go buy a copy here, it's great fun and my lovely publisher Nosy Crow have produced it brilliantly : )

I have decided that today shall be known henceforth as Love a Sloth Day!
Have been drawing these lovely creatures today whilst doing some character development and I think they are just brilliant to work with! Working on a story for this chap and trying to make some sense out of the bombardment of ideas that bounce about in my head. I always seem to think of something really exciting that I want to happen in a book but then comes the frustrating challenge of figuring out how to make it happen in a creative and engaging way.
For now, I am just really enjoying his character and hoping that he will appeal to others too. My head is buzzing also with how great this would be to colour but forcing myself to stick to rough monocrome scribblings for the moment!
I have to say that I have been feeling rather sloth-like recently which maybe why I keep coming back to wanting to draw sloths! With baby #2 due in a matter of weeks, this me trying to squeeze out every last bit of creativity and work (well, that's the same thing for me!) before I step away from the drawing board for a wee while.
Being a Mum is amazing but I do love my job and am always excited about the next book and what it might be! It's lovely too to be able to share what I do with my two year old, and always feel much better about myself when she can tell what one of my scribbles actually is! It is such a great feeling too when she goes to the book shelf and picks out one of Mummy's books to read...I don't even have to bribe her to do it anymore : )

So I'm thinking that it may look a little like I'm a little obsessed with Guinea Pigs looking at the frequency of their appearance on this blog! This might only be a tiny bit true.... I just love drawing them, they are so much fun and can do so much!


It was another one of my beautiful sisters' birthdays recently so I thought I would make her a plate that she could use everyday to remind her of the important things in life - dancing, eating cake, and feeling loved!
This guinea pig character is probably my favourite from my new book Guinea Pig Party (sorry, another shameless plug!), she just makes me smile a lot! Her balletic grace and cuddly curves make her the perfect ambassador for my take on that fabulous saying of "dance like nobody's watching", and she fits perfectly into the shape of the plate too - very helpful!
It actually took me two attempts to get this plate right as the first ended up having some 'issues' during the firing process. It was a good thing really as this second plate has turned out so much better, I am really pleased with how it has turned out. I've included some before pics too to show how it looked before the firing process.
Am off to continue my quest to develop some new stories now - my head is full of all sorts of critters doing all sorts of silly things at the moment so I need to go make some sense of it all and get them behave themselves on paper!
Ps. The lovely folks at Nosy Crow have put up a great link to have a page-turning sneak-preview of Guinea Pig Party, take a peek here!
Have a lovely weekend lovely people xxx