John Shelley - Illustrator
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studionib.bsky.social
John Shelley - Illustrator
@studionib.bsky.social
Illustrator and author for children's publishing and the wider design business. #KidLitUK #illustration https://linktr.ee/studionib
Witnessing the odium spewing from the orange one on the other side of the Atlantic like....
January 18, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
Kids loved playing with toys in #Roman times too!

Some 1,800 years ago, a child in Cologne was buried with a terracotta horse with a rider on for wheels. It was definitely a beloved toy that the kid was also meant to play with in the afterlife.

📷 Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln

🏺 #archaeology
January 18, 2026 at 8:20 AM
Loved the interview with the eminent @elizabethalker.bsky.social on BBC 6music just now, though winced at the mis-pronounciation of Kankyō Ongaku. Otherwise, brilliant listen - catch up on BBC Sounds if you missed it :)
January 18, 2026 at 3:52 PM
When are the BBC, UK government and other major media organisations going to quit Musk's mire and come over to Bluesky I wonder? 38d.gs/ban_x_df
No more sexual abuse images of women and children: ban X and Grok AI
X's AI chatbot Grok appears to be making sex abuse images of women and children - and Elon Musk thinks he can get away with letting it! I’m calling for a full ban on X here in the UK and you should to...
38d.gs
January 12, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
I understand the pressures on the BBC, but Radio 4's coverage of the Minneapolis shooting is an example of "bad balance".

It's all "the Trump regime says she was a terrorist, but Democrats say it was murder".

The BBC has the footage. It doesn't have to treat truth and falsehood as equally valid.
January 8, 2026 at 8:38 AM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
One picture, describes it all.
January 3, 2026 at 7:00 PM
あけましておめでとうございます!2026年があなたに力強さ、エネルギー、そして勢いをもたらしますように!A very Happy New Year to all my friends. Hoping this Year of the Horse will bring you strength, energy, and momentum! #謹賀新年 #NewYear2026 #謹賀新年2026
January 1, 2026 at 8:40 AM
Bloody hell I made it! Another year! Whoeoeow!
January 1, 2026 at 12:04 AM
I created the cover and lead feature illustration for the latest issue of 'The Author', the Journal of the @societyofauthors.bsky.social , A lovely early Christmas present!

#societyofauthors #kidlitUK #kidlitART
December 24, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Wishing all my friends a magical, angelic Christmas!
皆さんに素晴らしい天使の気持ちのクリスマスを祈ります!

#christmas #christmas2025 #クリスマス
December 21, 2025 at 11:50 AM
BookTrust have launched their Christmas appeal #MagicOfBooks www.booktrust.org.uk/xmas to help raise money to send surprise festive parcels to children who are vulnerable or in care. www.booktrust.org.uk/support-us/b... @booktrust.org.uk #kidlit #kidlitUK
Bring the magic of reading to children this Christmas​
A gift from you could mean a child finally has a book to call their own.​
www.booktrust.org.uk
December 11, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Quote with your starry art ✨

From 'Yozora o Miage Yo' 「夜空をみあげよう」#picturebook (Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers, Tokyo) #福音館書店

#kidlitart #kidlitUK #illustration
December 9, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
One flag removed by the council. Hundreds left to residents. And now a man in his sixties has been beaten for taking one down. This is what inaction looks like.
eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/loc...
Left to danger: Norfolk council inaction leads to flag-related violence
As Norfolk refused to act on flag complaints, locals removing them instead found themselves threatened and violently attacked
eastangliabylines.co.uk
December 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Masaka! This is not the Japan I remember.
The ¥6,000 fee to extend or change a residential status is planned to be raised five- to sixfold, to around ¥30,000 to ¥40,000. A ¥10,000 fee to apply for permanent residency is also expected to increase more than tenfold to exceed ¥100,000. 👉 ebx.sh/vFnHEz
November 22, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Moon Town, an old exhibition piece from Japan days. #illustration #townscape #kidlitUK #kidlitART
November 19, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
Nov 17-23 is Bereaved Children's Awareness Week.

The Loss and Grief reading list is a curated selection of 24 titles that focus on the topic of bereavement. It is a guide to stories that empathise, comfort and hopefully connect with young readers.

childrensbooksireland.ie/our-recommen...

1/2 🧵
November 14, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Hi Bluesky friends! What's the best alternative to Google as a web browser? I'm really getting fed up of seeing 2 or 3 pages of sponsored ads appearing before proper results, plus all the unwarranted AI guesswork.
October 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
I'm Jewish. I'm also Mancunian.

Every other national party leader was interviewed by Laura Kunesberg during their conference.

Maybe the BBC thought as someone who also supports Palestine - I had nothing to say?

Let's keep growing: join.greenparty.org.uk
October 5, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
These blue and white delft tiles are more than decoration: they’re snapshots of 17th- and 18th-century taste, trade, and storytelling. Imported from the Netherlands, delftware tiles were popular for their gleaming tin-glazed surfaces and crisp cobalt designs.
October 6, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
If you want to see Michelle Mone kicked out of the House of Lords and arrested until she pays the £232,000,000 she owes give this a RT.

If you want Rishi Sunak's involvement in the £14,900,000,000 PPE Fraud he covered up investigated, LIKE.
October 1, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
every good scholar needs: a desk; some ink; a demon monkey hovering menacingly above, clutching his own book; and a quill
September 26, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Quote with your yellow art! 💛

The mermaid's dance, from the #HansAndersen story 'The Little Mermaid' 'Ningyohime' 人形姫 (Hyoronsha Publishing, Tokyo)
#kidlitart #kidlitUK #illustration
September 28, 2025 at 5:49 PM
What a great interview with Jeff Mills on #BBC6music with @cerysmatthews.bsky.social I met him in Tokyo back in the day in Maniac Love, such a humble genius.
September 28, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by John Shelley - Illustrator
It is a truth too often unacknowledged, that a populist in possession of the public's rage must be in perpetual want of an enemy.
September 22, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Some more recent scribbles on the train to London - clouds, pylons, people. #sketchbook #trainsketching
September 22, 2025 at 4:20 PM