Lovely...

A little picture of my fiancée, Jemma.

She's pretty and wears nice dresses.

♥

Vegetable Dreams

We had a lovely sunny, weekend here which allowed us to get on with some nice Spring things. We did some gardening- tidying up the winter mess in our titchy little courtyard and getting all of our pots and planters ready to plant lots of vegetables.

I feel like I need some sort of badge or certificate as I managed to put together a massive new wooden planter which is a huge achievement for me as I was so rubbish at Design Tech at school. It was also a huge achievement that I didn't hurt myself/anyone else in the process.

( The Gnomes are from the Garden Centre down the road. I might have to buy one.)

We also looked at the thousands of daffodils which have suddenly sprung up all around the old city walls. This photo shows quite a sparse patch. In other areas around the place you can't see any grass at all. They seem to have all pitched up, fully formed over night when none of us were looking... makes me very suspicious...
We also had a nice cup of tea and a sit down with a big slice of cake. This is pretty much my idea of Paradise. I may have to frame this photo or at least put a mini version of it in my wallet.

But all this busying about in the fresh air has been very draining and has taken it's toll...

By Sunday night *some* of us were too tired to move and the only thing for it was to lie stretched out on a cushion, staring into the middle distance....

Illustration Friday: DIP

Click to enlarge.

Ooh! Just in by the skin of my teeth! A quick DIP in the sea!

I'm just back from a long weekend in the South of France so this is a very quick illustration.

I'll be back soon with holiday pictures and scans from my holiday sketchbook.

Now back to work. I am losing sight of my desk under the piles of paper and pens and to do lists!

Illustration Friday: Expired

Click to enlarge.

A Dead Mouse in the Classroom

Inspired by a true story!

When I was in Year 3 in Primary school, we returned from a holiday to discover a revolting smell wafting about the classroom. We searched everywhere for the source but couldn't find it anywhere. Drawers were emptied, bins were sprayed with air freshener and stinky discarded clothes were sent packing to the Lost Property Dept. It was only when one of the naughty boys had a good root round behind a set of drawers that we found a dead mouse, stinking to high heaven.

As you can imagine, this resulted in absolute mayhem and disorder as we watched it, fascinated, until the caretaker arrived and bravely removed the poor creature to loud whoops and screams from the gathered crowds. As a class we dined out on that story for weeks, eagerly recounting the story breathlessly (and with added, revolting details) to anybody who came to visit. Any supply teachers were in for a TREAT!

Alas, my teacher looked nothing at all like the one pictured above, but as this was the early 90's I'm sure she was equally stylish in , I imagine, some sort of long, floaty silk bouse and startling lipstick. The 80's lived long at my school.

She did, I remember, have the most enormous hair which was both fascinating and amazing.

Illustration Friday: Subterranean

click to enlarge.

This weeks theme is Subterranean and so I decided on Moles. Moles, Moles, Moles and their cosy underground world.

I wish I lived there....

-------------------------------------------------------

I promise I will update with something other than Illustration Friday work soon - Bologna deadlines are wafting around and it's very busy here!

Digital vs Traditional...

Click to enlarge.

I decided to use yesterdays Illustration Friday image and mix it up with a bit of digital work in a similar way I do my illustrations for the children's books I work on. I'm also trying to find the balance between hand-drawn/created and digital and this was a bit of an experiment.

I'm pleased with the look of the above image and think I might experiment further with this way of working.

In other news: I just ate an amazing salad.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: Brave

Click to enlarge.

This week's Illustration Friday picture on the theme 'BRAVE.'

Up top is the finished illustration painted in watercolour and gouache with pen and pencil crayon on Winsor & Newton Medium Surface Cartridge paper ( Heavy Weight 220gsm)*

Once again I've really enjoyed participating in IF. It's a great way to get my mind going on something other than the books I'm working on at the moment.

Why did I draw this picture?

I have no idea but it does combine a lot of my favourite things: NYC, mad old women, tiny dogs and red haired superheroes.

I wonder what next week's theme will be???

* WAY too much information here.