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"

Poodles adventure in Rome

At the beginning of the month, myself and my husband flew to Rome for a long weekend. I took a sketch book with me, but decided not to document Rome through my eyes, but through Poodles. He spent the whole trip tucked safely in my bag with his little head popping out. This blog is dedicated to Poodle and his adventure in Rome.

"We had Pizza everyday! Some with tiny fish! The ice cream was the best I've ever eaten (and I've eaten quite a lot!) Down nearly every street there were real life nuns!"

"I went through an XRay machine at the place with lots of candles and people praying. Outside we ate a yummy panini"

"People kept trying to sell us things, especially scarves, I don't really like scarves. We saw where the Gladiators fight too!"

"I sat on a very very old rock and we saw more nuns. There was lots of people buying bags outside a big old building. I ate some more ice cream. Then a man got told off for taking a picture of a ceiling, weird!"

Patchy Poodle, Rome, 2013.

Penguins! Penguins! Penguins!

This month I have mostly been painting penguins. The top illustration is from a story I've written. The little girl is terrified. She can hear loud bangs in the kitchen. The noise is coming from the fridge. She musters the courage to open the door and see what's inside; to her surprise a waddle of penguins (a 'waddle' is now the official collective noun for penguins on land according to the international penguin conference held in Chile. The collective noun for penguins in the water is a 'raft'. Well there you go!) waddled out onto the kitchen floor. 

The bottom illustration is from this weeks illustration friday 'entangled'. I was beginning to design some christmas cards involving penguins and thought this was a perfect opportunity to capture them in sticky situation.

Creating Characters

I find one of the enjoyments about creating a new character for a story is exploring their personality through body language. Before I did my Masters, this was something a really struggled with, so I joined a life drawing class. I found when we did faster sketches, about one pose per minute, I got a much better at recreating the figure more accurately. I also spent hours in tea shops drawing the passers by. When people are unaware they are being sketched, their body language is far more natural. Practice really did help to make my characters more interesting.

Here's my latest character for a story I've written. I wanted her to be a little shy and nervous, but with a good sense of humour and a flare for fashion!

There's Another Bunny Rabbit!

Bunnies

Mother Bunny and Baby Bunnies...

                     

These little bunny illustrations I did for two of my oldest friends who have recently entered into motherhood. They've given me lots of ideas for this years set of christmas cards. Watch this space!