October 3rd 2013

Children are funny aren't they?
They change your life to the point where you can't actually remember what life was like before.
What I do remember, is that it definitely used to include some lie ins until noon at the weekend and a love of minimalist home decor - but hey, those days are long gone.

Above all, being a parent means you have to learn to be exceptionally good at multi-tasking.
There are just so many things to be taken care....most of them mundane and all seemingly essential.
Seriously, if making breakfast, signing log books, writing cheques for school trips, feeding the cat and answering in depth scientific questions about interstellar planetary relations, whilst loading the washing machine ever becomes an Olympic sport, I'm in with a chance at the gold medal.

I'm not complaining though - I signed up to this with eyes wide open when I decided to have a family - it's just funny and slightly mind boggling.

I thought I'd share a couple of the recent questions from my 8 year son William. These questions usually happen whilst I'm trying to get ready in the morning, or sometimes on the walk to school. I have to hand it to him - they're all great questions and I love the fact that he has an inquiring mind....but it's all a bit much at 8 o'clock in the morning.

"How many cm's do you grow in a year?"

"Mum, ......the speed of sound .......(long pause....), I don't get it....can you explain?    !!!!!!

"Mum, how long, in comparison to dinosaurs have humans been around?"

"Is Pluto blue?"

"Mum, what's it like on Saturn?" (of course, I was there just the other day...so I'd know)

"How many miles away from the sun do you have to be before you don't burn?"


and finally the one which nearly tipped me over the edge.........

"Mum, how fast does space grow?"


Life is never dull.:)

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A new illustration which I also thought I'd share today ...

Meeting the Bear

"Hello Cookie"

October 1st 2013

"Cookie" 

A new range of card designs featuring the lovely "Cookie". She hopes you're having a good week.
These designs are available for licensing.

A Fresh Start

September 2013

It's all been happening recently.
I gave up working in a primary school in July which was a difficult decision because it was a job I loved. I did this to concentrate on my art career. Ive given myself a year to see where I end up. Yes, it's scary and exciting all rolled into one.

Now the summer holidays are over and my children are back in school..and so my fresh start has begun.

I can now be in my studio full time surrounded by other artists....wow..its amazing to be part of such a talented group of people. Jeweller, surface designers, costume makers illustrators and a photographer. Its so exciting and I feel really lucky to be doing something I love surrounded by lots of fabulous creative people. I get to draw all day!!. Have I mentioned I love drawing? Thought so.

So this is my year to try to find a way to make money from what i love doing...that's drawing by the way.

What have I done in the last few weeks?

I was lucky enough to go to the Nosy Crow Conference in London "Everything You Always Wanted to know About Children's Book Publishing(but were afraid to ask)

It was a fantastic day, packed with information. Kate Wilson the Director of Nosy Crow introduced many interesting speakers including Lucy Mangan from the Guardian who talked about why books are important.   Tracey Corderoy, childrens author, gave an inspirational talk about school visits and presenting your book to your audience. There were question and answer sessions delivered by authors and editors. John Reed spoke about branding and media tools. Melissa Cox, New Title Buyer at Waterstones, spoke about what she looks for in a new book.

This day was a light bulb moment for me. I could see  that the choices Id made in my life have been for a reason. The time spent working in primary school, staying at home with my children in their pre-school years, reading with my kids from 3 months, all the silly crazy stories ive made up for them and all the years of drawing, painting doodling and making....it all made sense. Illustrating childrens book is what I want to do.

Ive been thinking a lot recently about using photoshop to get pattern and found objects into my work. So this is what Ive been working on over the past few weeks. I want to combine my love of line drawing line with my love of pattern. I been seriously getting to grips with Photoshop.
So over the last 2 weeks Ive created 6 new card designs...(nearly finished) and a book illustration with my new photoshop techniques.
The path has been a bumpy one, Ive made lots of mistakes and on occasion the air may have looked slightly blue...but Ive learnt such a lot...about my work and..about myself.

Bear's Bath

Phew! What a busy few weeks. I've been making a lot of decisions. I've handed in my resignation at work, (a job which I love btw), to really concentrate on my illustration. From September, after the children go back to school, I'll be a full time, self employed illustrator. - gulp! Big Big step, but SO exciting!!

I've been deciding which direction my work should go in - making decisions based on what I really love to do: childrens book illustration, sketching out characters, finding expressions and capturing a moment in time. I've also been using photoshop to enhance my images. 

Here's this weeks piece. 

The Bears Bath

Dragons!

I am really pleased to say that I am going to be exhibiting work at the Winchester Discovery Centre from the 26th February. I have two walls to fill - one is going to be fine art based and the other will be leaning towards children's book illustration - I have got most of the work done - but just need to complete two more paintings. 

Strange how ideas come isn't it? I have been mixing ideas around in my head for days - it's almost subconscious - what I'm hoping for is a scene to miraculously pop into my head - I think it's never going to happen and then, out of nowhere it just appears and somehow a lot the things that I've been considering appear in the picture in my head. Anyway, just thought I'd share that as it never fails to take me by surprise!

So today, the picture that emerged was that of a dragon and very little boy. The boy is holding a wooden sword and is just in the process of realising that the enormous dragon that is looming over him just might be friendly. 

I've been reading a lot of "How to Train your Dragon" recently to my 8 year old son - so I'm guessing the idea may have stemmed from the books. Fantastic read, by the way and lots of opportunity to do silly character voices  whilst reading ....or is that just me?

So I'm going to show this work in stages as it happens.

Here's todays start on the picture....

will post more tomorrow.

Stage number 1

Stage number 2
Little boy and dog get some colour. 
The boys jumper went really wrong to start with - lots of green stripes and the perspective was all wrong - argghh!!Panic mode nearly set in - why did I find painting really easy yesterday and today it seems very laboured - anyone else suffer from this? Anyway, with a bit of over painting with gouache I think it looks a lot better than it did!

Stage number 3

I have stopped painting for a few days due to a very painful back and shoulder. I hate it when I cant paint - don't you? -there's something missing - painting or drawing is definitely something I need to do to make me happy. 

Anyway, tonight I was feeling a bit better so I painted for half an hour. I managed to add more colour to the little boy and the dragon. Not finished yet but it's emerging.

The Final Stage

I thought I'd show you the final painting. I really enjoyed painting this and can feel another dragon picture coming along soon. Hope you like it!! 

xxx

Illustration Friday - Mirror

It was my youngest sons 8th birthday this weekend. Looking through his wardrobe I realised he was in need of something smart to wear to his party - he lives in tracksuit bottoms, but I thought - just this once it would be nice to see him in something smarter.  Into town I went, to search for something that  I would like - and he would tolerate!:)

I found, what I thought was, a lovely shirt and pair of trousers. 
At home, later that morning he tried them on.

I braced myself for the usual " Oh but Muuum, it's not comfy, can't I wear my tracksuit?"
But no.....he looked himself up and down  said "Oooh, these are nice" and ran to the mirror in my bedroom to have a look. 

I have never seen him express much interest in clothes (apart from tracksuits , of course) - so it was quite a surprise when  he literally started jumping  up and down and dancing about  in front of the mirror - shouting "Yay! I look cool!" 

Well, that's what gave me the idea for this proud little boy looking into the mirror at his new party clothes. Funny how inspiration sometimes just comes at the right moment.




Mirror - The New Party Clothes

Illustration Friday 

Book

I gave myself a challenge  - Illustration Friday in 15 minutes. 

I imagined a little child - with all his life in front of him and placed him in a room full of the books he might read in his lifetime. 

Here he sits,  in the corner of that room. 

I wonder what sorts of books they are? 

What will he be when he's older?

What influence will these books have on the shaping on his life?

All those things entered my head whilst I was drawing - I guess I like to see the story unfolding. Do you do this when you paint or draw? 

I find that timing myself occasionally makes a really good exercise. It helps me to sort out what really needs to be on the page. 

I had the remains of a black coffee sitting on the table so I used that for the brown wash - my sketch book smells lovely!