May 2020 – Keep On Keeping On

May 27, 2020

A lockdown sure makes writing a monthly blog post daunting, I am quite focused on living in the present and taking each day as it comes, but when I come to actually sit down and write a post, I’m very aware that another month has slipped by and not a lot has happened. Still, so far people I know seem to be safe and healthy, I hope anyone reading this is safe and healthy too. With all this in mind I have tried to cobble together anything that has happened during May.

Without wanting to sound like a broken record, I’m still drawing Little Mouse for Inktober 52, however I’m getting really bad at remembering to share on Instagram. I was in a nice routine where I posted every Sunday, but my routine has changed and Sunday has now turned into a lie-in day (after getting up super early on Saturday), where I make time to either read, or as has happened over the last three weeks, watch the current play being streamed by The National Theatre on YouTube, then I spend and hour or two having a video chat with my family.

The National Theatre plays have felt like a real treat. I missed the start of their showings, but I’ve managed to see Frankenstein, Barber Shop Chronicles and A Streetcar Named Desire. They have all been fantastic, I particularly loved Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature in Frankenstein, his physical acting before the creature begins to communicate with words, the use of light and sound, it was utterly mesmerising, I would highly recommend any future showings if you can catch them.

As a little distraction from mice, I also took part in a “Draw This In Your Style” contest, to celebrate The Bright Agency UK reaching 50,000 followers on Instagram. The challenge was to draw your own version of the grumpy crocodile from “Open Very Carefully” by Nicola O’Byrne. I didn’t win, I didn’t even make the shortlist, but as I’ve never had any inclination to draw a crocodile before it was something new to try (and something new is always nice when your days are blending into one), and it was good to draw something that wasn’t a mouse – for a bit – but I’ve been happy to return to the mouse…

…That was until last week, actually it had very little to do with the mouse, I just found that I was struggling to draw. I’m going to blame it on some kind of lockdown drudgery and fatigue, but whatever I touched turned out to be abysmal and it was incredibly frustrating. It was four days until I picked up a pencil to draw again, but in that time I did pick up a pen instead, and I actually jotted some stories down on paper, so maybe one creative block released another. I think it is nearly always best to just keep-on-keeping-on, create something, even if it isn’t what you were expecting.

This month we tried “mochi” for the first time. Curiosity insisted that I buy some after spotting it online, and I’m not sure what I was expecting, it was definitely more gelatinous than I thought it would be, although to be fair the description described it as “…a cross between marshmallow and bubblegum” and that is pretty accurate. I enjoyed the sesame with red bean paste filling, and the green tea with green tea paste filling was pleasant, but the shredded coconut with sesame paste filling had to be given to my husband to finish, I didn’t enjoy it at all, (although my husband preferred that one to the green tea). It was new, it was interesting, but I don’t think I’ll order more.

We also had our first two lockdown Zoom quizzes with our friends. It is so good to have a little catch up with everyone and a bit of fun. We have come last in the quiz both times so far, but maybe we will have more luck in June.

*(Excuse the wrinkles, I’m not a big fan of ironing at the best of times, even more so when I’m not actually seeing anyone).*

I’ve been trying not to make too many spontaneous purchases in May, I’ve successfully refrained from buying books, but I did buy two t-shirts which I have coveted for a while. They are from Rosie Johnson’s Teemill store, because I think we can all agree, we all love naps and Jessica Fletcher – what an icon! They are also made from organic cotton, and once they are old and worn out and you don’t want them anymore, they can be sent back to Teemill for recycling, amazing!

So there isn’t much else to report. Lockdown in the U.K. is currently starting to ease, although no one I know is in any great hurry to go back to how things were just yet, I think a lot of us are preparing to move forward with caution. Having said that, I think my June will be a little busier so hopefully I’ll be back in around four weeks to share anything of interest.

April 2020 – Another month gone ... but where?!?

April 30, 2020

You would think that lockdown would result in the days dragging, but April seems to have gone by in a blur of sameness, so it was a bit of a surprise when I realised that it was the last day of the month and it hadn’t occurred to me to start a blog post.

So what has happened in April? Well I finished the week-long instagram illustration challenge “Dream Week”, you can find all of the illustrations posted on my instagram grid. It was good fun, I’d been desperate to include one of my Caran D’ache fluorescent dry highlighters in a palette, and the colours I chose for these drawings were such fun and a bit of a change for me. I do tend to choose bright colours, but there is still usually something quite traditional about the colours I select as a whole. Dream Week saw me using lots of pinks, reds and purples, with some neon yellow thrown in. The highlighter pencil obviously wasn’t ideal for illustration, its a little too waxy, but I’m a big believer in using any medium you have at hand to make art.

I’m also continuing to create ‘Little Mouse’ illustrations for the Inktober52 art prompt challenge. I lost a little inspiration this month, and actually considered missing a week, as all the prompts were colours. Colour prompts are great if you are a traditional Inktober participant using black ink, as a pop of colour can be really effective, but if you are already using colour the prompt feels a bit vague. However, I’ve managed to create three illustrations prompted by a colour (well, almost - I should be finishing one now), and I think there will be a final colour prompt later today, so I’m feeling pretty pleased that I didn’t let myself get too despondent or give up.

The other thing that happened in April was mini-Gish. I’ve mentioned Gish in this blog before, it is a week long, global scavenger hunt that takes place every summer. However, since lots of people are stuck at home, the organisers thought it would be fun to create a 24 hour version, to help raise money for charity and to give people something fun to look forward to. It was a lot of fun and it also taught me that the things I create really don’t have to be perfect. I tell myself this every time I play Gish, but I always find myself trying my very best, and sometimes restarting projects, and giving myself several attempts to ‘get it right’. If you have the luxury of a week, you can do that, but I found in 24 hours the first thing I created stuck, it didn’t matter if it was wonky, imperfect or laughable, because ultimately it didn’t matter, it was just a bit of fun, (I always tell myself this, but this was the first time I truly practised it)

*Tim MInchin (supposedly) in pencil shavings*

I completed 5 tasks – in the last week-long hunt I achieved 9 tasks – so it just goes to show how my approach to tasks has altered, it has left me wondering just how many I can finish in the summer hunt.

*Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes in toothpaste, on a bathroom mirror.*

For those wondering I created:
• A haiku about hand washing to be put above the sink.

• A portrait of a favourite famous person created using some kind of household waste (I chose Tim Minchin in pencil shavings, he is pretty wonky but it was 3 am).

• A miniature portrait of someone famous who makes you smile, on a mirror, in toothpaste. I chose Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster.

• A representation of your dream couch carved from a potato.

• A sun hat made from weeds.

I’ve also been trying not to spend too much money this month, I have mostly been putting it towards food parcels. I had two sent to my parents and was fortunate to be on a video chat when one of them arrived. It was really nice to see them get excited about the things they were pulling out of the box. I’m also quite weak-willed when it comes to making spontaneous Instagram purchases, I’ve really tried to resist, but my willpower failed me twice (almost three times, as I almost made another purchase yesterday but you had to pay by card and I couldn’t be bothered to go and fish it out).

I bought a Sofie Hagen ‘Self-Isolation Care Package’ bundle, which included her signed book, access to two of her shows online and a handwritten card. I love Sofie, she is smart, warm and funny, but also doesn’t take any crap! Obviously I haven’t read her book just yet, it has been added to my massive to-be-read pile.

I also bought a beautiful John Bloor print entitled ‘Thrift and Rocks’. John was having a sale on instagram so it seemed rude not to make a purchase. I’ve bought a print from him previously but it was for a gift, so it was really nice to buy a print I could keep for myself this time. You can find this print here.

That was all the excitement I experienced during April 2020, which considering how restricted we are, hasn’t been so bad. I definitely still feel very lucky. I’ll hopefully be back at the end of May for another update!

Hello 2020 – Recent Work and Christmas Book Haul – January and February Update

February 26, 2020

I’ve just had a quick read over my last blog post, and December 2019 Dawn was so looking forward to getting her teeth into the New Year! Little did she know that she would see 2020 in with some crappy throat lurgy that forced her to swallow liquid Nurofen because she couldn’t face swallowing tablets. Thankfully, after staying in bed for most of New Year’s Eve and taking children’s medicine, I managed to make it to our friend’s house in the evening, and then stayed up until 2 am. I’m not saying it was the best idea as far as my health was concerned, but I didn’t lose at Jenga, and I won at Cards Against Humanity (I’m not entirely sure what that says about me), and had a lovely time - I just slept for most of the next two days.

After that bumpy start, I spent the rest of January trying to catch up. I finally updated the work section of this site. I added a few new illustrations that I had been working on, removed a few older pieces and changed some of the sections around. I’m still not entirely happy with it, but I have a clearer idea of where I’m headed and what sort of work I’d like to add to it next.

Illustration-wise, I finally got around to drawing my final (for now) Millie illustration. You may remember from previous blogs, that Millie is a red-headed character that I started drawing at the beginning of 2019. Some of the illustrations can be seen in the ‘work’ section. I’ve quite a collection of scenes that show different things going on, but now I want to pause and consider writing a coherent story that the illustrations seem to be hinting at.

I’ve also been working on some more Ollie the Acorn illustrations. Unlike Millie, who started as a character illustration without a story, Ollie started as a story first, and I started drawing him and getting to know him afterwards. The only problem I’ve found with working like this, is that in my head I think I’ve already created more illustrations than I actually have. It was a bit of a disappointed to realise that I only had four and a half (one I’m not happy with which I’m ditching), I thought I had about twelve! Still that means I have a healthy looking “to do” list to work through.

As you may have seen in previous blog posts, I’ve been participating (successfully) in Jake Parkers Inktober for two years now, (Inktober is a drawing challenge where you are given a different prompt for every day of October), last year I created circular illustrations of a variety of child characters, and the year before the illustrations were based on a witch character called Hattie. Jake Parker has now decided to make Inktober more of an all year affair, by introducing Inktober 52. Inktober in October will still continue, but Inktober 52 will offer a weekly prompt all year. I love a drawing challenge, so I haven’t been able to resist joining in so far (even if I am a little behind on posting them on instagram). I’m working with a character again (I think it is actually easier to work with a recurring character during challenges because then you always have a starting point and aren’t having to pluck ideas from thin air – It is also great practice for character consistency), so far I’m just referring to him as Little Mouse. I think as the year progresses I’ll get to know him a little better, work out what his name is and what his story will be.

I’ve also been trying to edit some of my illustrations so they are ready for print. The idea is that I’ll open up my Folksy shop again (to begin with so I don’t have to start a new store from scratch) and offer a few wildlife cards, postcards and prints, but I’m procrastinating because that means spending money, which will seem like a waste if no one wants to buy them… I know, I know, you don’t know until you try.

In the December blog I also mentioned a Christmas book haul, so here we go, I’ll also have a January/February book haul but I think I’ll need to save that for another post, otherwise this blog will be far too long! .

When Paul Met Artie by G Neri, Illustrated by David Litchfield.
This is the illustrated story of Simon and Garfunkel, and while I know next to nothing about Simon and Garfunkel, I love everything illustrated by David Litchfield. I was so chuffed to receive this from one of my friends, and it is such a sweet story - I had no idea how young they were when they experienced initial success (even if it was followed by some ups and downs).

What Katy Did/What Katy Did At School/What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge
These books were such a lovely gift from my mum, they were some of her favourite stories when she was a little girl, but I’ve never read them. I really need to sit down one evening with a hot chocolate and some biscuits and get lost in them.

Family Don’t End With Blood by the cast and fans of Supernatural, edited by Lynn S. Zubernis
I only started watching Supernatural a couple of years ago, but it is a show with a huge, close fanbase, and once you start to fall into it you are lost - but in a good way. The Supernatural fanbase is affectionately referred to as the SPN family, because it feels like a warm, supportive, welcoming family, (and that includes the cast and crew as well as fans), and Lynn S. Zubernis has captured this by bringing together a collection of essays from both fans and actors talking about how Supernatural is more than just a TV show, and how, it can, in a fascinating way, bring people together and change lives.

Lights On Cotton Rock by David Litchfield
Did I mention how much I love David Litchfield???! All of his work is beautiful but the colours he uses in this book are more than stunning. It is the story about a young girl who meets an alien. It’s about friendship and family, and longing and home, and not realising how much you already have in life right in front of your nose.. It’s such a heartwarming story with such amazing illustrations.

Jill and Lion, Jill and Dragon by Lesley Barnes
These two books have been on my wish list for a long time, so I was thrilled to receive them from my husband for Christmas. I adore the illustrations, the use of colour, shape, pattern and texture, they are so dynamic, I love just sitting and turning through each page, absorbing the magic.

Ghost by Illustratus
Originally a successful Kickstarter campaign, Ghost: Thirteen Haunting Tales To Tell, is a selection of poems and stories written for a new generation of young readers, that has all that eerie timeless feel of traditional ghost stories with little twists at the end. This is such a lovely book, the illustrations are both beautiful and creepy, and even as an adult I found the stories a little sinister.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K.Rowling Illustrated by Jim Kay
My Husband buys me an illustrated, hardback copy of a Harry Potter book for Christmas, each year one is published. I then save it until October, so I can sit in bed at night over the autumn and winters months, taking my time to read it as we head towards Christmas (we also start watching the films again every October, sometimes we get through them by Christmas, sometimes we don’t). Needless to say I haven’t had a proper look at this yet, I’m saving it, but it is definitely a book I’m looking forward to reading (I’ve read it as a non-illustrated book, just not this version).

My Favourite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris
I can’t remember where I heard about this graphic novel, I think it was on a podcast, but thank goodness someone was talking about it, otherwise I wouldn’t have known it existed – both the graphic novel and Emil Ferris had sounded so fascinating to me that I had, had this book on my wish list ever since. Ferris contracted West Nile Fever and became paralysed from the waist down and lost the use of her right hand, so her daughter taped a pen to her hand to help her draw again while she was recovering. My Favourite Thing Is Monsters is what Ferris worked on while she was recovering. The whole novel, which is written in the form of a young girls diary, is drawn in ballpoint pen, so visually, it feels so fresh and interesting compared the usual graphic novel format, and I cant wait to read it.

That’s all my news for now, there are plenty more books (and hopefully illustrations :D ) to follow soon. I hope you have all had a great start to 2020.

(I have added links in the titles of the books mentioned to either Amazon or Wordery, I’m not affiliated with them, they are just places I personally buy books from online. At the time of writing this, the link I chose was the cheapest option – obviously price and stock are subject to change, so it always worth comparing different sites).

*Lyme Regis. If you can spot the orangey-brown bungalow with three patio doors, on the rightish of all those buildings on the left side of the image –that is where we stayed.*

November 2019

November 28, 2019

November has been a strange month, I felt a bit flat after Inktober and knew we had a few more days away booked at the start of November, so I started the month at a snails pace.

We began the month by spending four days in Lyme Regis. I haven’t been there in about ten years, but not much has changed, the little shop packed with gemstones down by The Cobb is still there, as is the bookshop, so rammed with books, that it is actually hard to get in. We stayed in a modern bungalow that overlooks The Cobb, which was the perfect location for when we arrived on the 5th of November – because that is where they set off the Lyme Regis fireworks, we had the perfect view (excuse the vertical video, you can blame the husband… and he is the first to complain about vertical video :D).

*We had some great weather for November, we only got caught in a shower once.*

The weekend seemed as busy as any of the summer months, but Monday and Tuesday were much quieter and had just the right amount of people, you didn’t get in each others way, you could always find a seat when you wanted to eat or drink, but it didn’t feel like a ghost town either.

*I loved seeing all colours and textures of coastal life.*

We spent our few days pottering in and out of shops and walking up and down the seafront, it was lovely.

When we returned I decided that I would start scanning all my illustrations, as my portfolio is long overdue an update. Scanning is one of my least favourite jobs, so I had been putting it off, so I think I ended up with at least 50 images to scan and then edit. It is nearly December and I still have some more editing to do, I wasn’t happy with some of my original edits so I’m doing them again… I do like making more work for myself :D .

*An image as uninspiring as scanning itself. Spot my little alebrije friend from Fuego in Lyme Regis, he was guarding my pile of illustrations that needed scanning.*

I’m really missing working in my sketchbook at the minute, I think I’ve spent one afternoon with it in November, and I’m starting to feel frustrated as I’ve lots of things I’d like to be working on. I did spend another afternoon experimenting on my own painted backgrounds – it was a struggle to use the coloured pencils on it, but it was good to try something a bit different and I’m sure it’ll be useful to me at some point. In the meantime, I just keep telling myself to plod on with the less exciting jobs and eventually I can start having fun and churning out some work again.

Finally, having pretty much completed my Christmas shopping by the end of October ( I panic if I leave it too late), I may have treated myself to a few new things this month. Firstly, if you have read any of my earlier blogs, you will know that I have mentioned illustrator, Dan Berry, before, but I was captivated by his “What We Do In The Shadows” Inktober illustrations. I wasn’t familiar with either the original film or the more recent series, so I immediately went to look it up on Amazon Prime. We still need to watch the series, but we absolutely loved the film. Dan released all of his inktober illustrations featuring scenes from both the film and the series in a zine called “What Dan Drew In The Shadows” , so I had to order myself a copy – I highly recommend it, it is absolutely wonderful!

*It’s me! Looking pretty pleased with myself in my new Katrina Scarf.*

The other item I’ve coveted for a while now is the Katrina Scarf by The Squirrel Collective. Tessa runs her own indie business, crocheting wonderful items to either wear or put in your home. The fact that everything is made by hand, by one person, means that not all products can be in stock in the online shop, all of the time, so it is worth following The Squirrel Collective on instagram (or subscribing to the newsletter) if you want to know when things are in stock. I was lucky enough to get one of a small collection of Katrina scarves that were available in November.

That’s all for now, hopefully I’ll post again at the end of December, with one of those reflective end of year posts… or maybe I’ll just tell you about how much cheese and wine I’ve consumed (that’s actually very unlikely as I can’t eat either, but you never know!).

September & October 2019

October 28, 2019

I am currently right in the middle of my happy place - Autumn. It may be raining all the time, but I don’t care, blankets and jumpers are coming out of the cupboards and candles are being lit, it is almost time to start talking about Christm… but first, a catch up.

*My book gifts and chocolates from Karen!*

In September I saw two of my book cover designs on actual physical books for the first time. Originally the designs were created for digital books, but author Karen Pomerantz decided to make both Trapping Honey and Bring The Thunder available for print, and she very kindly sent me a copy of each. I’ve seen lots of my design work in print before but never on a book, and I love books, so being able to hold them in my hands is both surreal and special.

The official Jake Parker Inktober prompt list was released on September 1st, and as I was going to be away in September and October, I knew that planning would be essential if I was going to make it through the whole month, so I started making scribbles in my sketchbook, noting down ideas for each prompt.

*Festival of Light sculpture at Longleat Safari Park.*

I wasn’t quite sure what to do for my birthday this year, but remembering how much I enjoyed meeting lemurs in the Lakes last year, we decided it was time to return to Longleat Safari Park, and my husband booked us both a red panda experience.

It was a pretty grey and rainy day, but not torrential. At the time they were beginning to set up the Festival of Light which starts in November, so there were a couple of sculptures already out, and we could see others being built in fenced-off areas, (we considered booking another visit for this, but as we usually head to Frome the night before visiting and stay for two nights, it seemed a bit much to go twice in three months, so maybe next year!).

Our experience wasn’t until the afternoon, so as is tradition we booked tickets on the first bus safari of the day (my husband is never going to agree to going through the monkeys in the car) and we were lucky enough to get front window seats on the top deck. We don’t usually do much on the stop at the African village, but this time I paid for a couple of twigs to feed the giraffes, which was totally worth it.

For the VIP experience, out keeper took us into the red panda enclosure to meet brothers, Kody and Lionel (named after the band Kodaline). Although the brothers were bred in captivity, our keeper told us all about where the red pandas come from, what their diet is like, what dangers they face in the wild (being hunted for their fur) and what work is being done to try and protect them, as well as how breeding programmes work throughout Europe. Fun fact, only red pandas are actual pandas, panda bears are bears.

We fed Kody and Lionel some vegetables and some panda cake – they have bamboo in their enclosure to eat too, but it is really hard for the keepers to monitor how well they are eating, or if they are getting enough to eat (especially as bamboo is so nutritionally poor) if they are just left to eat this way. The panda cake looks like dung balls, but they are made from a special bamboo substance, that is bought in, and then mixed with water so it forms a ball.

Kody and Lionel loved the panda cake! They came down to a table in front of us, we held out the food one piece at a time and they took it from us. Lionel in particular was incredibly gentle when he took food from me. They are the most beautiful animals and it was the perfect birthday gift.

After the experience we went on the Jungle Cruise. I love the Jungle Cruise! Last time we were there it was during the summer holidays so the queue was too long, but this time it was much easier to get on. It is only a short boat ride, and you have to pay for the little pot of fish, but I get so much joy from feeding the sea lions!

*Inktober Day 4: Freeze (Musical Statues)*

Once back from Frome I gave myself a little head start on Inktober. I’d already chosen the colours I wanted to use and decided that all illustrations were going to be circular, (carrying on a similar theme from my most recent wildlife illustrations). I had prepped by drawing around a plate thirty-one times, so I was ready to start on the actual illustrations straight after my birthday. I had decided not to use ink this year as I wanted to continue working with coloured pencils. I also decided to carry on my character work by drawing children for each prompt either playing, pretending, or taking part in some kind of activity.

The plan was to try and get half complete before I went away to the Lake District for a week on October 4th. I had considered taking them with me, but I prefer working in natural light if I can, and I knew by the time we’d been out adventuring every day, It would either be too dark or I would be too tired, then I wouldn’t be able to relax properly because I would have wanted to keep up with the challenge… sometimes you just need to be realistic and make a plan! I was really pleased to get sixteen completed before we left, it also gave me an extra five days breathing room when I got back before Inktober caught up with me.

Our week in the Lakes was the wettest we’d had in a while, but it didn’t matter, it never does. As is tradition, we spent Saturday pottering around Cockermouth visiting Percy House Gallery and The New Bookshop before having lunch at Shills. Sunday, was another kind of tradition, as we always end up at Grasmere. We took the walk around the lake, had lunch at Greens Cafe and Bistro (some good options if you are vegan, or trying to avoid dairy or gluten – I had a jacket potato with hummus and salad) and stopped by the Heaton Cooper Studio as I love picking up a few art supplies from there because it has a lovely atmosphere.

We then drove on to take a look at Blea Tarn, which was quite nice, but not as nice as the view of the valley (Great Langdale?) you found if you carried on walking along the pathway that went by the tarn – even on a grey day it was a lovely surprise.

On Monday we decided to visit Carlisle as we hadn’t been before. We went to the castle – I love a bit of history – then after lunch we went in search of bits of Hadrian’s Wall.

Considering everyone has heard of Hadrian’s wall, it seemed a little odd that there are only odd pieces of it left, I mean I’m not surprised so much by how much is left, considering how old it is, but surprised by the combination of how little there is and its fame.

*View from Whinlatter, looking out over Keswick and Derwentwater.*

A stay in Cockermouth just wouldn’t be the same without a visit to Whinlatter, which is what we decided to do on the Tuesday. It was lovely, it was blinkin’ windy but the sun came out for us and it was beautiful. So far, each time we have walked up Whinlatter, that same view has been completely different.

After a spot of lunch and meeting various new dog friends, we drove down to the Theatre By The Lake in Keswick, where we picked up a hot drink and then went and sat on the shores of Derwentwater.

The boating hut was closed due to a bad weather forecast, so the whole shoreline seemed strangely quiet compared to other times we have been there, but it was nice. It felt like we were tempting fate as we watched giant clouds roll in, but it is the Lake District, and you can never quite guarantee what the weather is going to do and we were able to sit for ages watching the changing light without being caught in a downpour.

On Wednesday we visited Aira Force Waterfall for the first time. It was quite good, there are plenty of paths to explore, and it gave me an opportunity to try my new walking poles, to help me (and my dodgy knee) get up (but mostly get down) the rocky pathway at the side of the waterfall. There were quite a few people there even though it was a damp day, so I don’t think it is somewhere I would like to visit during the school holidays, it must get swamped with people.

Our final day was another grey one, but we headed to Buttermere. We arrived fairly early to make sure we could get parking and because as the day goes on, the walk around the lake gets quite busy. We took my walking poles with us, as last time we were there, one part of the walk had quite a lot of rocks and boulders to clamber over… it turns out they have done a fair bit of work since our last visit, and that section of the walk is far more accessible now. I also made friends with two dogs, which always makes me happy.

Since we have been back, I’ve mostly been working on my Inktober illustrations. It was a bit of a struggle as we have had some really dark days, so I was trying to do all the sketching/outline work with the col-erase on dark days, and then working on the colour on brighter days, so rather than completing each illustration one by one, it turned into a bit of a production line.

My back also started to complain, I don’t think it appreciated how long I was sitting in my chair every day. It is a very good ergonomic chair, but that doesn’t stop me from gradually leaning forward and twisting to one side while I’m working, without realising. I finished my inktober illustrations with five days to go, which is what I had been striving for. It meant I could reward myself, and my back, by taking a few days off from sitting at the desk. The rest of this week is going to see me sitting sensibly (not lounging) on the sofa with my sketchbook muddling through some new ideas.