I haven't blogged for a while, a lot of the work I've been doing I'm unable to share, top secret stuff ;P So here's a couple of Otters in love to pass the time...

Mini Mind

Meet Mini Mind. He's the permanent resident at the wonderful Thought Foundation in Newcastle. He's made up of lots of bits and bobs thrown away by us. He's a lovely creative, curious and thoughtful soul. He's just putting together his very own blog, so watch this space!

http://www.thoughtfoundation.co.uk

Dump Truck Duck Blog Tour

Rumble, rumble, hear that truck? At the wheel is Dump Truck Duck, and he's going on a blog tour! Here are the dates to where he'll be traveling to and when. hope to see you there!

Dump Truck Duck

Out April 30th

Dump Truck Duck, written by the wonderful, Megan E Bryant, is due to be released at the end of this month and I'm very excited about it. It tells the story of a very hardworking determined little duck, who with the help of his fellow duck workers and some seriously heavy machinery, clears a dump site and creates a beautiful park for all the little ducklings and their families to play in. You'll definitely enjoy this one if you're a fan of ducks and/or trucks! 

Where are you from?

So, Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie ‘GRIMSBY’ (titled ‘Brothers Grimsby’ in the USA) is due to be released this month. Being a Grimsby lass myself, and like most of the town, I’m both excited and apprehensive about it. Grimsby is very rarely shown in the best light. I live away from home now, and people often want to know where my accent's from. When I answer “Grimsby”, I get a lot of grief. Even people who have never heard of it before come back with the original witticism, “sounds a bit grim!”. Well to be honest, it can be. But then again, not at all. 

One thing us Grimsberians have that a lot of other UK towns don’t have is a definite sense of identity. Although we are often voted the worst town in the Uk, we are also proud to say we have the best fish and chips - according to booking.com we have, so it must be true! We’re fish and chip snobs. 

Us Grimsby folk get a lot of stick, but what we’re bloody good at doing is laughing at ourselves. Our famous football chant is a prime example. Other teams' supporters used to take great pleasure in singing “You Only Sing While You’re Fishing!” at us. What did the Town supporters do? They took the song and sang it about themselves, “We Only Sing While We’re Fishing!”

One of my proudest Grimsby moments was in 1998. The Mariners were having a cracking year, and to top things off, we were going to Wembley for the Football League Trophy Final (also known as the Auto Windscreens Shields Trophy). One week before the match, The Grimsby Evening Telegraph were asking for town supporters to go to Blundell Park, not to watch a game, but to record us singing our famous chant. My Dad and I were season ticket holders so we just had to go. On the day of the match final, as we were leaving Grimsby, there was a great big sign reading “Last one out, switch the lights off”. The whole town were heading to Wembley - it did take us 120 years to get there, it was blimin’ exciting. Thanks to Donovan’s 19th minute goal, we won! The atmosphere was electric. Then they played it, with 30,000 Grimsby Town fans singing their hearts out over the top of the recording. “We Only Sing While We’re Fishing” actual made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and put a tear in my eye. 

Whenever we drive back to Grimsby and I see our landmark, the Dock Tower, I remember moments like that. So however this movie portrays us (and I bet we’ll all know people, have family members, or know places that are pretty accurate), we can bloody laugh at this too and hold our cod-heads up high!

Grimsby - Dock Tower

Pet Shop. Heads-up illustration

This little illustration is for my agencies calendar 'Heads Up'. This year Im March 29th. This year we're planning on getting a puppy, so we have lots of pet shop visits to look forward to!

Sleepy Koala Bears

I've just returned from a wonderful trip to Australia, visiting family. Whilst we were there, we visited a Koala Sanctuary which was just wonderful. I even got to hold one! As soon as I returned, I made use of my jet lag, and got painting! Here's a bunch of sleepy Koala's that we met at the sanctuary!

The Longest Reigning Monarch

Today Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest reigning monarch. I did this illustration a few years ago, but I thought it was quite appropriate for today "WHOOPIE!" Congratulations Liz!  

Concept Art

A little concept art for a story I've been working on "Stanleys New Sleihj'. Here's Stanley in his Rabbit Hole, racing to use his new sleigh on the freshly fallen snow.

Boating Otters

Well the summer seems to be (almost) upon us, and this little family of otters have took to the waters on a little holiday. Only problem is, they don't know what to call their boat! Can you help them?

Time Lapse Art Video

I decided to do a time laps video, so people could see the different stages of my painting, so here it is! Enjoy :)

Week 3 #drawingaweek2015

The Recycled Village

Here the tale of Mr Squirrel and Little Mouse continues...

After working all through the night, they were excited to take the recycled house to Mr Squirrel  who must be so very cold right now!

When he opened the gift, he couldn't believe his eyes. His very own home. Mr Squirrel couldn't thank Little Mouse enough.

Mr Squirrel lit the fire and snuggled up with his favourite book, he couldn't remember the last time he felt so toasty and warm.

There was a knock at the door. Little Mouse had come to visit. He had brought a box full of lovely christmas decorations.

Together they began to decorate Mr Squirrels new home.

The house looked splendid, so very christmassy. They decided to write out christmas cards to all of their woodland friends.

They set out to deliver them all...

But when they got to their friends, they found that their homes had been chopped down too. Mr Squirrel and Little Mouse couldn't believe it; but they had an idea...

The woodland creatures were a little confused. What on earth where they going to do with all the rubbish that Mr Squirrel and Little Mouse had forraged?

But as they set to work it soon became clear...

With all the unwanted things that people had thrown away, they made their very own recycled village. Each little woodland creature who had lost their home, now had a new, very unique little recycled house of their own.

Illo_advent 'Mr Squirrel and Little Mouse'

Each day up until the 25th I've been joining in with illo_advent. I thought I'd use each day to build a story. Here's the story so far…

Mr Squirrel came home from foraging nuts one day to find a man had cut down his home.

He didn't know what to do.

Little mouse saw Mr Squirrel left out in the cold, so gave him a woolly hat and scarf to warm him up.

But Little mouse wanted to help poor Mr Squirrel some more, so off he went.

So he rummaged through bins to see if there was anything he could use

He worked through the night  

Mrs Mouse saw Little Mouse working out in the cold, so brought him a cup of hot chocolate.

She offered to help Little Mouse.

Meanwhile, poor Mr Squirrel was sleeping in the snow.

To be continued...

From pencil to paint

Dinosaurs Swinging

Sketching is so important when designing. The more you sketch, the more things change, they sometimes become what you didn't originally anticipate. Being an illustrator, a lot of time is spent indoors, by myself, with only the radio for company. The glorious part of sketching is that it's so mobile, you can do it anywhere. The world is your studio!

Daddy painter and little helper

"Daddy painter and little helper"

Sometimes it's nice to help our folks out from time to time. Learn the art of what they do so we can appreciate and learn the skills they have.  I shadowed my Mom at work when I was younger, I realised then just how hard she worked to put food on our table and a roof over our heads. My Dad would work even on his days off, and took pride in every job he did. I learnt a lot form my parents work ethic, I like to think I take pride in everything I do today because of them. I learnt that if you always do your best, you will never be unhappy with what you've done. If you are unhappy with what you've done, it's not a problem, just brush yourself down and try try again! 

Hels and the Pig

Hels and the Pig

My friend Hels claimed to be an un-creative person, but when it came to drawing pigs, hers were legendary. She would dig out her finest highlighter pens and draw a masterpiece fit for the fridge. Some would say it resembled a fox, but the twirly tail was a complete give away, it was clearly a pig! Once, this work of art mysteriously disappeared from the fridge, so Hels kindly replicated the original curio. She was a regular Andy Warhol, art for all! 

Hels and her Pig

The Pig

Little Ted's Summer Holiday Daydream

Teds holiday daydream

We've just got back home from our summer holiday in America, and I've already begun to daydream about our next adventure in the sun. Especially on a drizzly, cold and gloomy day like today. As the rain patters against the window,  I think of laying on a sun bed, drink in hand, unable to move as the sand is too hot. The sound of people splashing about and having fun in the water (sigh). Looks like Ted is daydreaming about a similar memory too!

Colour pallet

Whenever I've completed a painting, I always find the paint markings I've tested in the corner of the paper sometimes more interesting than the painting itself. A mini abstract of the original. Once I've completed my next book, I intend to put all the little tests pieces together, they tell a story of their own. They are the underlying thoughts behind the finished illustration.

Scary Walking Trees

My husband and I have just moved into a new house in beautiful Bath. It really is lovely. But being in a new home takes some getting used to. At night, as it gets closer to bed time, my imagination begins playing tricks on me. Each creak is something frightening, every shadow is something terrible. Outside, the trees come alive (no part of my brain will let me believe that it's just the wind), walking closer to the house, they're out to get me! 

Of course, in the morning, when there's little birds sitting on the branches singing away, I shake my head. What a silly billy I can be, I love trees, they're beautiful. But as night falls, it all happens again...

Walking Trees, from "The Not-So-Haunted House"