Dancers come in all shapes and sizes

Jim'll Fix It

Dear Jim,

 Please fix it  for me to illustrate 101 Dalmations. It has everything I would love to draw - dogs, exciting action and a wickedly stylish villan. I would set it in the late 1950s/ early sixties and would have the best time ever.*

Thank you,

Alex

Above pictures are doodles from my sketchbook for Cruella DeVille's wardrobe as well as some pictures of the pooches. In other news I am very excited to find that this sketchbook which is not my usual brand, allows me to draw with my dip pen and paint with out it bleeding all over the place or soaking through- brilliant!

* I retain the right to take this last statement back if I do ever get to illustrate this book and find drawing 99 different puppies  all the time just a little bit irritating...

BEAR SUIT.

Last night it was minus eight in York. Outside the snow lay deep and crisp and huge flakes tumbled from the sky.... AAAANNNNDDD.... our boiler stopped working!! HOORAY!

We tried everything we could to get it going but, alas, nothing worked. There was nothing for it other than to bundle up in our warm clothes, strap the chihuahua to us to stop him shivering. This morning however, we realised that the problem was that the condensation pipe outside had frozen, so we quickly defrosted it, fired up the boiler and now it works! 

The sense of accomplishment is, sadly, immense!

The above is a page from my sketchbook and my goodness that bear suit would have come in useful last night. The only problem is that if I had one, I don't think I would ever take it off...

Get your own bear suit here:

The All-in-One company

Snow! Snow! Snow!

We are under a thick, thick, thick blanket of snow here which is making me want to roll myself up in a blanket and sit by the window drinking frothy coffee and scoffing cake.

No change from normal really....

Above is a little sketch I did of Bella, our middle dog ( middle in age, but the biggest of all three) who is a gentle little sausage and finds an enormous amount of things in life of which to be scared. At the moment snow falling from the sky is bothering her immensely. Instead she is choosing to spend the day curled up like a doughnut on our bed  slowly blinking and occasionally going cross eyed as she watches the snowflakes tumble by outside. I don't blame her.

I've started a brand new sketchbook for the new year and will be uploading images from it most days ( along with other things) at my new flickr page. Go here to have a nosey!

Happy New Year!!!

Resolutions so far:

1. Update blog more often.

2. Finish my website and get it live.

3. Stop catching revolting toddler viruses from Small Nephew.

4. Add to  my collection of red shoes.

5. Embrace the concept of NOT having to drink my morning coffee out of my 'I ♥ NY' mug everyday ( the world will not end if I chose the kitten mug instead!)

6. Paint more ( see above)

7. Stop sending as much time looking at small dogs and kittens on the internet.

8. Stop getting as cross with the people who phone The Jeremy Vine Show

9. Stop being afraid of making pastry.

10. Write more letters and actually put said letters in the post.

 

Interesting hat...

Words and Gorillas

Gosh! 

It's busy around here! The studio is a tip and the dogs have gone doolally and are being incredibly naughty (again) ...

Today I've been doing some hand-lettering for a nice fiction job I'm doing - chapter headings for a very exciting story. Hopefully I can tell you a bit more about it soon. In the meantime: 

Things I've been excited about this week:

• creating my own font (above) using this amazing site - www.fontcapture.com. It's brilliant and I'm planning on making a whole range of exciting fonts to use on everything! YES PLEASE!
• I've also been obsessed with Gorillas. They are just lovely aren't they . I remember spending my 20th birthday at Edinburgh Zoo and I just loved watching the big gorilla there lounging about in his den - picking his teeth and scratching his head. I'd just quite like to hug one I think...
• I've been chair-dancing to the Flight of the Conchords album. My main love on it is the song Robots.
• tonight I am going to make some cupcakes iced with orange icing and dotted with white chocolate drops. Yum!

P.s The final image above is a little, silly present for my girlfriend Jem. She really is quite lovely. Especially when I accidently make some soup too spicy for her and she has to sit fanning her mouth as she eats it. :-)