Brrrr! - March 2010
It is often said that the British talk a lot about the weather, and if that is so then the last few months have given us plenty to talk about. For the last twenty years or so, snow has been something of a rarity in England and for many children and even teenagers, a few inches of snowfall in February 2009 was their first ever experience of sledding, building snowmen and all the other childish joys which the white stuff brings.
But this winter we've barely had a week without at least a wintry flurry, and Lurgashall was completely cut off from the outside world for four days in December. Even the local policeman in his four-wheel-drive Range Rover got stuck in a snowdrift trying to get to an outlying hamlet, and Jacquie's addiction to the Daily Telegraph crossword was forcibly suspended, about which she complained bitterly.
The photo below shows Molly gazing across Lurgashall cricket green, clearly wondering what on earth the world was coming to. But the most stunning image of the winter so far has to be the NASA photograph which we've reproduced below, showing clearly the outline of the British Isles, drenched in white.
However, contrary to the idealised images in our e-cards, Christmas Day was as usual completely snow-free!
Only five weeks to go! - November 2009
Christmas is of course our busiest time of year and we always try to make some really special cards for the whole of the holiday season. This often means starting work on them while the weather is still warm and the swimming pool beckons, which is an odd time to be thinking about Christmas (unless of course you live in Australia or New Zealand)! This year, our new colleague John Bloom was first off with the holiday cards, and could be seen in August in shorts and a t-shirt, drawing Christmas trees and tinsel...!
John first came to our attention when working for another e-card company which was (rather cheekily, we thought) making cards featuring a Labrador dog which bore an uncanny resemblance to our friends Molly and Chudleigh, and - even more cheekily - was doing it rather well. So we're very excited that John is now on our team, and in the time he's been with us he's produced some fantastic cards. He works closely with Bev (see Proper Painting below), and you'll definitely be able to see her influence in his Christmas card. But I can't tell you any more about it - except we think you'll love it!
Proper Painting - September 2009
Computers are wonderful things. But there are some things that are best left in what a scientist might call the analogue domain - the sphere of human endeavour that doesn't involve reducing everything to bits and bytes. Painting pictures is one of those things. For all the fancy digital tricks you can play in Photoshop and the like, there is nothing to beat the delicacy of colour and texture obtainable from a few paintbrushes and a carefully selected palette of watercolours, gouache, and so forth.
That's why many of the background scenes, floral designs, and other elements of Jacquie Lawson e-cards are initially created not by manipulating pixels on a screen but by applying paint to paper, and Beverley Pask-Hughes is our resident master of this infinitely expressive art. Once the original paintings have been completed, they're scanned into the computer, trimmed and generally tidied up, and then the laborious process of animation starts.
And that is one of the many things that differentiate Jacquie Lawson e-cards from the rest!
If you look carefully at the picture of Bev's desk below you can see the beginnings of this year's Hallowe'en card. And in case you were wondering, Bev did tidy up her desk before this photo was taken. Yes, honestly.
Underwater Reflections - July 2009
Last month's "Behind the Scenes" reminded me that one of the most popular e-cards from the early days of jacquielawson.com was From Sea to Shining Sea - the July 4th card featuring underwater scenes which finally make up a collage in the form of the Great Seal of the US. At the time we were a little concerned that people might object to such a great national symbol being made up of seafood - like a sort of patriotic "plat de fruits de mer" - but in the end it turned out to be massively popular, and the card got millions of hits.
We've been working on another "underwater" card recently and you should see it on the website in the next couple of weeks. I'm not allowed to disclose the ending, but it's very atmospheric and I'm sure it'll appeal to children especially. Here's a screenshot as a teaser...
FOURTH OF JULY - June 2009
Celebrating the loss of our most troublesome colony?
jacquielawson.com has published a new e-card for Independence Day almost every year since the site was started. Being a British e-cards site, this may seem rather odd - although perhaps you could argue that the loss of our most troublesome colony deserves to be celebrated! But in fact the first July 4th card was published in 2002 as a mark of goodwill to our transatlantic cousins after the horrific events of September 2001, and it was so popular with our members that July 4th became a firm date in the JL calendar.
Over the years we've featured Chudleigh raising the US flag, we've seen the Great Seal appear as a collage of aquatic life, we've explored all the State Flowers and all the State Birds, and we've even had a marching band made up of teddy bears. This year, the card has been created by Jacquie's niece Sally Lisney, and it features her spaniel Bertie, who you'll have seen in other recent cards such as Christmas Visitors. Here's a photo of them together!
In the new card, Bertie will be exploring the National Archives in Washington DC when he encounters a new friend... But we can't tell you any more without spoiling the surprise! The new card will be launched on our site in late June, and as usual we'll send all members an email to let them know when it's there.