Aunt Daphne's Dalmations

I don't normally enjoy drawing dogs but gave it a bash for my great aunt who loves dalmations, as a birthday thing. It was great fun and got me thinking to drawing the character of this wonderful woman. She's quite old now but the vibrant life she's had still shows through, it takes the years off her and I can imagine it translating really well into ink. It's made me think about a possible picture book. I'll need to improve my dog anatomy to get the feel for them better, and we'll see what she thinks then ...watch this space!

Creative Review and Peter Grundy, I take my hat off..

Particularily impressed by this months Creative Review Special Issue: Illustration Annual. Actually went a bit dizzy over it in WhSmiths. Seriously. These photos don't do it justice. The cover by illustrator Peter Grundy is BEAUTIFUL. Any lovers of gorgeous tactile design go and give it a stroke, you won't regret it.
We're talking slightly textured stock for the cover, with debossing and foil. Mmmmmm....

Oh, and the work inside made me wee myself, right in the middle of WHSmith.

Despicable behaviour!!

Inspired by the almost scarily sudden heavy smoking from a certain bearded flatmate of the other half ....

buxton brilliance

From the top : well dressing (this is all done with PETALS, bits of leaves etc, believe it or not!)

A scarecrow entrant from a village competition, and 'vegetable vehicle' entries in the local beer festival! (I had a Brown Cow, it was gorgeous. lemony, creamy and just a little bit bitter)

Weekend Collage Funs

After a visual and image-making starved week spent house moving, I woke up on Friday desperate to do something about it. For a direct 'straight to the vein' type colour hit, collage seemed like a good idea. One of the thrown away cut-outs had a great outline to it, so this got played with too, resulting into some ghostly characters.
Fancy a bit more play like this making more head-dresses and playing with shape further.

Marion Deuchars RSC stamps for Royal Mail

I'm not a stamp collector but these make me drool!